Guilford Freight in Peabody Square, Peabody, MA

Last Friday, my brother and I were blessed with a rare and possibly fleeting opportunity to film Pan Am Railways' Maine Central EMD GP40 #319 in Peabody, Massachusetts. Sadly, aside from the MBTA's Newburyport/Rockport Line, virtually all of the train tracks in the North Shore area have been abandoned for at least fifteen years. The tracks you see in this video are the remnants of the Salem and Lowell, Essex, and South Reading Branch Railroads, and, as you can see, they're barely a step above being abandoned themselves. These tracks see an average of one locomotive every one to two weeks, as the only local customers are Eastman Gelatine Corporation and Univar USA. There is so little activity on this stretch of track that even some of the locals assume they're abandoned or exempt: there have been several recent incidents where things like trucks and dumpsters have been left on the track.
Unfortunately, abandonment may lie in this branch line's future, as the Eastman Gelatine compound is changing hands sometime in January, and it's been speculated that the entire operation will be consolidated and moved to upstate New York, leaving PAR with a even further diminished branch line that they're already not too enthusiastic about maintaining. I hope that doesn't end up being the case, but we'll just have to see what happens.
On a positive note, the MBTA is considering an extension of their Newburyport/Rockport Line that would utilize this right of way.
Thanks for watching, and please subscribe! Shot with an Apple iPhone 4.

[@hootinouts]

Heck, if that building is a store they could have installed a drive up window for the train crews to order meals.

[@Guy_de_Loimbard]

"Go play in the yard."

[@iaintdoingit8199]

My daughter bought a house built during the Railroad Era in Maryland and remodeled it back to the original. They do have all the necessities and yet, it is 'simply' beautiful. The front door is 20 feet from the tracks.

[@Largo1845]

My brother also live close to the railway and I find it quite cozy to hear the trains come and go ❤

[@77Keith]

Could get quite a surprise putting out the garbage!

[@buixrule]

I was just thinking how awesome it would be in that first 17 seconds if that train came blazing by the house at 40mph.

[@dazoomcat]

Man when does the train have to look both ways before crossing.

[@tibbers3755]

Imagine running out the house, late to work and you run smack into the side of this. In fact, forget that, stick your hand out and grab on to the handle. Express commute!

[@FastCarsNoRules220]

Candace: "Mom! Phineas and Ferb built an active railroad in the backyard!"

[@GROUPGALAXYEntertainment]

Looks like a restaurant first thought it was a house until I notice the trays and chairs and I think that is the first time I seen a train so close to a building

[@bultacowally]

when I was growing up in upstate NY east of Rochester there was a single track RR running through the dairy farm and front yard of the farm i lived on. the tracks were about 70-80 ft. from the house. We use to have to wait for trains to get out of the driveway sometimes. Part of the NY Central West Shore line. Well what a thrill for a youngster. The black, grey and white F7's (i would guess) and the bright turquoise green cabooses are tattooed in my brain. In the summer evenings the family would eat dinner outside on the front terrace and if a train would roll through me and my 2 sisters would run down track side to wait for the caboose as the conductor would throw candy...usually Lifesavers...out the window to us. And at night time the trains would shake us out of bed...but that was a sign all is well in the world. Then one summer evening in 1961 i think, a lone diesel pulling a very old steam locomotive stopped at our house. They were pulling that locomotive to the Smithsonian Institute. Must have had some significance but I was too young to know or care. the family got to climb on to both engines for a small "tour". It turns out that that particular 2 engine train was to be the last on that railroad. A few days later some heavy equipment came through and ripped out all the track and ties and in a matter of hours that particular railroad was gone off the face of the earth. I still live here and still find traces of that great part of my life in the form of railroad rail plates and spikes and occasionally a blue green glass insulator from the telephone poles that followed that line. Some of them are dated from the 1880's and I have one from 1830's. God I miss those days...such a simpler happier time.....

[@luckyfanisaac2638]

Reminds me of a Thomas and friends episode where a fan sends a letter to ask the engines to come to his house.

[@SignalHillProds]

My pleasure, I'm glad you liked it!

[@83rcp]

I googled mapped Peabody, MA and I saw a lot of tracks that ended at factories. I still haven't located the interchange. I also saw Peabody as a nice city.

[@Tyman291486]

Nice video. I too wish I was in a back yard with train tracks and watch trains go on by every so often.

[@wesolint]

I wish a train ran thru my backyard even once a month!

[@trucking604]

The jerk in the dark Chevy Tahoe, enters the tracks as the train is approaching and pulls right out in front of the train. It's hard to tell, but it looks like the flagman made The Tahoe backup. Then after the train passes the Tahoe pulls onto the tracks again, where it's obvious traffic is not clear in front of him and sits right on the tracks. Looks like he's trying to be a statistic!

[@journeystarr]

As a former Peabody resident I love seeing this!

[@SignalHillProds]

Very true!! The tracks were probably here for almost 100 years before the building was.