With 50 days remaining until the FRA's 12/31 installation deadline, brand-new cab signals on the Lowell Line--the first ever for the northside--have now been activated at least as far as Crawford Interlocking in Woburn (a.k.a. the crossover + freight passing track switch abutting the south tip of Anderson RTC Station). Possibly further, as Wilbur Interlocking (Anderson RTC north-abutting crossover + freight passer tie-in) and Wilmington (crossovers pair + Wildcat Branch split) may also be done at this point. Roughly the halfway point in track miles to Lowell.
If traveling on the Lowell Line you will now notice that the intermediate wayside signals at
West Medford, Mystic Lakes, and
Cross Street now have their signal heads turned away from the tracks having been supplanted by the in-cab readout. So may
MA 38, Wilmington if they've made it as far as Wilmington split. Those heads will be taken down in the coming weeks just as the Worcester Line intermediates along the Pike in Newton all disappeared late this summer when that cab signal activation went live.
Interlockings (i.e. automatic-throw switch crossovers, junctions, or sidings) still retain signal heads under cab signals as a visual fail-safe for mis-thrown switches. So all the new replacement heads in the GLX construction zone, Winchester Ctr. interlocking, Crawford + Wilbur bookending Anderson, and the junction at Wilmington retain their signal lights and will be getting brand new LED replacement masts soon if they haven't already.
For 12/31, additional intermediate heads will be coming down at
Lake St., Wilmington; George Brown St., Billerica; High St., Billerica; Town Farm Lane, Billerica; and
I-495, Lowell. Interlockings with retained signals will be Pond St., Billerica and all of the Downtown Lowell ones between Concord River and the station.
The 12/31 FRA deadline is for Lowell to get set up as a "demonstration line" for northside cab signals. Making that deadline automatically clinches a 2-year extension for the other northside lines to get cabbed up. This is because the original plan for Positive Train Control interoperating
without cab signals was ruled very late in the game as inadequate protection by the FRA. Therefore the northside, which has fully operating PTC now, is forced to last-minute add the cab signal layer that all of southside has or else all PTC-equipped northside lines would've been saddled with additional speed restrictions. The Lowell demonstrator is the proof-of-concept to the feds that the T can meet a representative deadline.
Securing that means they get granted 2 years of leeway to continue running PTC-sans-cabs at full operating speed on the other lines before the new restrictions kick in...enough time for them to get Fitchburg, Haverhill/Reading/Wildcat, and Rockburyport settled up.
The longstanding blanket ban on northside cab signals imposed as a condition of Boston & Maine's 1976 asset sale to the T was voluntarily waived by Pan Am, who has now acquired 40+ hand-me-down GE locos from CSX pre-equipped with cab signal units. Signal project ends at Lowell Station on the NH Main; Westminster Interlocking on Fitchburg at the layover yard just past Wachusett; Plaistow Interlocking on the Western Route just past state line at end of double-track; and end-of-line @ Rockburyport.
Continuation of signal system on the freight-only NH Main past Lowell Station to North Chelmsford and Nashua; on the Fitchburg all points west of Wachusett to Mechanicville, NY; and on the Western throughout
Downeaster territory doesn't get touched with cabs or PTC unless/until the T extends service to Nashua or
Downeaster frequency increases clear a certain threshold trigger.
