Berkshire Scenic Rail Cars Arrive in North Adams
 Jay Green, left, of Berkshire Scenic Railway, Mayor Richard Alcombright and state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi tour three cars that arrived Sunday night. See photos and videos of the cars' roundabout trip from their home base in Lenox here. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The vanguard of the Hoosac Valley Service arrived in the middle of the night Sunday after a trip through the historic Hoosac Tunnel.
The three train cars — a caboose, stripped-down passenger car and an engine are the beginnings of what will be weekend scenic rail excursions between North Adams and Adams next year.
Efforts to bring the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum to North Berkshire were announced in January 2013.
"This is the first visible step ... this is probably most meaningful to the community because it's the icon of the whole project to have railroad equipment up here," said Jay Green, the museum's government affairs director. "So this should be reassurance to anybody with doubt this project is going to happen."
The timeline has shifted as the state Department of Transportation placed the acquisition of the six-mile freight spur that will host the service into negotiations over rail lines in the eastern part of the state with PanAm and CSX.
Mayor Richard Alcombright was confident the state was closing in on the deal. Green said part of the negotiation was the leasing of the spot behind the Brien Center for storing the cars until the operating agreement can be signed.
The museum expects to have operating rights on the line from late Friday afternoon until Sunday at midnight. The freight line that serves both Holland Chemical Co. and Specialty Minerals runs about twice a week during weekdays.
Work has already started along the line; MassDOT engineers have been assessing its condition, the siding behind the City Yard on Ashland Street is being cleaned out and Holland Chemical is renovating its siding and storage area thanks to a $351,300 state Industrial Rail Access Program grant.
"Everything being done for this project will simultaneously assist freight," Green said.
The museum received a $200,000 state grant to help it move and refurbish cars for the line.
The 70-year-old caboose — saved from the scrapyard by a rail enthusiast and donated to the museum — will host the administrative offices. The 70-foot long passenger car will be transformed into a small museum, gift shop, waiting area and theater. The car had hosted the museum's Gilded Age exhibit in Lenox so some of the work — lights, theater blackroom, etc. — is already installed.
A 1955 Budd car has been making its way since last week from Maine to North Adams; the 90-seat car is currently at Fitchburg. Two more passenger cars, a portable restroom and a baggage car-turned-maintenance office that's been sitting in Boston for four decades are also on the way.
CSX was getting rid of the baggage car but told Berkshire Scenic, "if we got it on live rails and it rolled, it was ours," Green said. MassDOT got it on the rails and it did, indeed, roll, but will require some repairs before it completely rolls out of Boston.
The maintenance car isn't as exciting as engines or cabooses, but it's a critical component in the operation.
"This type of an attraction, it looks all smooth and everything, but the amount of labor and work and materials needed to keep these things going is tremendous," Green said. "It's going to be a perfect little operation here."
The museum hasn't been able to offer rides for three years since it was pushed off the Housatonic Rail Line in South County. The rides are a significant revenue generator for the nonprofit, volunteer museum.
"We need to start offering train rides again and get people on the trains," Green said.
The Hoosac Valley line will eventually run to Hoosac Street in Adams as part of a redesign of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail being undertaken by the state. Adams is in the process of renovating a former carwash into a rail station boarding and exhibition area; North Adams will use the welcome car and a boarding deck. Long-range plans call for a new museum at the former Sons of Italy site and a pedestrian tunnel under the PanAm rails to the scenic rail boarding area.
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The line will explain some of the industrial history of the region, such as Apkins scrap yard that once was the site of the Hoosac Tunnel's electrification project.
"The scrap yard speaks to postindustrial America," the mayor said. "Just the fact of what's been there for years ... that's probably a story about our industrial past if you paint it the right way.
"We're running between towns that show off our history."
Green calculates that the rail would be successful if picked up about 10 percent of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art traffic, or about 12,000. The museum attracted about 16,000 on the Lenox-Stockbridge line.
"We assume it's going to be 50/50. Most people will already be here for MoCA and the other attractions, the other 50 percent we think will be here just for the train ride ... what we want to do is be the bridge between those two."
Berkshire Scenic has a lot of ideas of what it would like to do, but Green said those plans won't be made public until the operating agreement is signed to ensure they don't interfere with the freight customers.
"We have a vision, we have a proven operator in Berkshire Scenic Railway and both communities have embraced it."
Tags: Hoosac Valley, scenic rail, tourism, trains,
