nomisd Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 I am posting this as a result of posting some of these photos in a thread on the Photography section where It was suggested that there maybe an audience for the rest of them. Its a bit long and image heavy. Hope its of interest. First some background. Between 2010 and 2013 my wife's then employer asked her to go to the US to sort out their business there. We ended up living in an apartment in the former Nashua Manufacturing Co building downtown. Our apartment was on the to floor facing the river and if you strained hard enough, you could just about see the railroad crossing at the end of Main Street. I have to admit the first time I saw it I thought that it must be abandoned as there was no way a train could run over the track in that state. Imagine my surprise about a month after we moved I heard the unmistakable sound of a loco horn and bell about one o'clock one morning. Every time I heard the train it was always at night until one morning in May 2011 when I heard it cross Main Street at 1030 in the morning. As my wife was away on business I had the car so decided that I was going to go to Milford and take some photos. These are what follows. I found the train at Hendrix Wire & Cable exchanging cars After it had finished this, the train carries on to Wilton in order to run round. When it had done this, it started its painfully slow journey back to Nashua. I have seen some slow trains, I spent six months travelling around India by train so I have travelled on some slow trains but this train redefined slow. Four hours to travel 15 miles (although in fairness I did work out it crossed 28 roads including 8 main highways). It did give me time to pick some decent spots for photographs. Crossing the Souhegan river between Wilton and Milford Passing the Granite State Concrete plant at Milford Running alongside Route 101a just outside Milford I sat here for ages waiting for the train, next to Dairy Queen on Broad Street. This photo shows the questionable state of the track. Before the train reached Broad Street, I decided to move and I'm glad that I did as I found somewhere where I took possibly the best railway photo I have ever taken, from a bridge on Baldwin Street The one place I definitely was going to wait for as long as it took for teh train to turn up was the Main Street crossing. By the train eventually arrived here it was right in the middle of of the rush hour (as much as downtown Nashua gets a rush hour!) I parked at Dunkin Donuts and stood and waited The last location I waited was the crossing at Temple Street, just before the yard. Before it got there, it for some reason left the train somewhere else and worked in light engine. I have some photos of the railway at Granite State Concrete and the consequences of poor track maintenance that I will post later. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Great stuff, thanks for posting!! We like rough track looking forward to the next installment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Scottish Modeller Posted October 12, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 12, 2015 Hi nomisd, Great set of photos - much appreciated! Especially as you have shots of TWO of my future New England layout elements! Hendrix Wire and Cable and Granite State Concrete and Quarry Thanks for posting them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Scottish Modeller Posted October 13, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 13, 2015 Hi all, Nashua is a very interesting location - especially if you like complicated but compact trackwork. Link to Google maps https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Nashua,+NH,+USA/@42.7612176,-71.4509776,240m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e3b0e42dfabf85:0xb6660811428bea55!6m1!1e1 It has an overlapped wye track right in the middle of town! Follow any of the tracks from the wye to find lots of other modellable places.... Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelawareAndHudson Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Here's a link to a USGS topo from 1935 showing Nashua. Helps to get an idea of the town and how the various routes came and went in the city. http://docs.unh.edu/NH/mnch53sw.jpg Here's the link for the all the online topos at the University of New Hampshire. This has been a very valuable resource when researching lines and reconciling what you see on Bing or Google maps today with what used to be there. http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/nhtopos.htm Jason Cook Indiana Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 What a great collection of photos. Thanks for posting this! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Phil - if you haven't seen this it may interest you http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/14628 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Kieran Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 I love the shot of the Milford-Bennington SW900, #901 in the background of the Granite State Concrete plant. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomisd Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 As can be seen from the original photos, you do wonder how the track manages to support a train. We had some friends visiting us and as he whilst not a railway enthusiast, he is very engineering minded. As we driving back to our apartment we were driving over the crossing on Main Street,, I said to him "look on the left and look at the awful state of this railway track". We saw this, a perfect demonstration of the state of the track (the maroon car left centre of the photo is crossing Main Street). I assume the tank car was full of propane.... Whoops. This was lunchtime so there was no-one around to find out what happened. But then again they probably won't have been that keen for me to be taking photos anyway. I assume that they were at lunch as the vehicle that they had arrived in was there Finally, a couple of "ooh, isn't New England nice in the fall" shots Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Scottish Modeller Posted October 13, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 13, 2015 Phil - if you haven't seen this it may interest you http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/14628 Hello Jack, Yes - I am aware and have even spoken to him about some of the techniques used. Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1 Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Thanks for posting. Shows not all modern US railroading is Class 1 mile-long freights! steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TravisM Posted October 13, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 13, 2015 The freight house at Wilton looks like it came straight out a Heljan box lol. Great pics by the way and thanks for sharing. Julian Sprott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 I assume the tank car was full of propane Placard number says 1824, googling that will tell you its loaded with Sodium Hydroxide solution, which I suspect (can't quite read it) is also what is written on the tank above the placard and below the yellow emergency contact number sticker. Propane tanks tend to be longer ones too from experience. Nice set of images. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Also showing we who model dodgy track shouldn't get too hung up about derailments - they're entirely prototypical..!!! / coat on, sprinting for exit.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomisd Posted October 14, 2015 Author Share Posted October 14, 2015 Placard number says 1824, googling that will tell you its loaded with Sodium Hydroxide solution, which I suspect (can't quite read it) is also what is written on the tank above the placard and below the yellow emergency contact number sticker. Propane tanks tend to be longer ones too from experience. Nice set of images. Thanks for that. I always assumed that as there is a propane depot at Milford, all the tank cars were destined for there. Does anyone know where they are going? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Description and Use Sodium Hydroxide is an odorless, white solid that absorbs moisture from the air. It is used to make textiles, cellophane, and pulp and paper, in soaps and detergents, and for etching and electroplating. Does that fit with any industries in the area? Is electroplating something that Hendrix Wire & Cable do? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
garethashenden Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Thanks for that. I always assumed that as there is a propane depot at Milford, all the tank cars were destined for there. Does anyone know where they are going? I don't think they've received tank cars in the past few years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor quinn Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Does that fit with any industries in the area? Is electroplating something that Hendrix Wire & Cable do? It's possible -the conductors in telephone cables are sometimes bright-coated. Nick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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