Last Sunday I paddled on the Nashua River in Harvard, MA in hopes of seeing the inaugural run of Norfolk Southern RR's double-stack container train between Chicago, IL and Ayer, MA. Unbeknownst to me, the inaugural run had been delayed for two days. Last night I saw mention on railroad.net's message board of today being the day the first train of double-stacks would arrive at Ayer. This morning I headed out to try my luck again, and was rewarded at 10:20 am with a sighting of the train as it crossed over the Nashua River about four miles south of its destination, the freight yard in Ayer. In honor of the occasion the train was powered by two "heritage" locomotives each decked out in the colors of predecessor railroads. The lead unit 8098 is in Conrail blue and the trailing unit 1080 in Delaware and Hudson colors...
The double-stacked containers...
Numerous structures, including this bridge, needed to be modified for greater clearance before double -stacks could fit through. By being double-stacked the train was able to transport the same number of shipping containers with half as many railcars as would have been needed via the previously used single-stack Hoosac Tunnel route.
The day was a beauty for mid-January as our "thaw" continues...
Before and after the train's passage some trash was rounded up (which included 40 "nip" bottles)...
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