Silver Line to Chelsea

[The EGE]

Not at all! I'm very grateful for the frequency you provide. I'm only able to get out there about every six months.

 

[bigeman312]

I love your monthly updates. I always spend a lot of time poring through them, comparing the updates to the original plans and/or previous updates, looking at the timeline of the project. They are great! As long as you don't mind doing them, I'm never going to not enjoy them.

 

[cybah]

I love your monthly updates. I always spend a lot of time poring through them, comparing the updates to the original plans and/or previous updates, looking at the timeline of the project. They are great! As long as you don't mind doing them, I'm never going to not enjoy them.

I don't! Was just curious if I am wasting my time or not

Not at all! I'm very grateful for the frequency you provide. I'm only able to get out there about every six months.

You got it. I figured it would be OK. AB folks like this stuff. so I'll keep it up.

Just so folks know.. I take the pictures about the same time every time I go. Usually a Saturday between 9:30a and Noon (I usually leave around 9:45), which ever is closest to the 15th of the month.

It takes me about an hour and a half to take all the photos. I actually have it down to an exact science now. I even stand in the same spot month after month for each shot. The goal is eventually.. to make some sort of video/gif/animation of one or two of the same locations... and string all the photos together to show progress (Any aninimators here in AB wanna help me with that?)

I even did a little map so people can see where the vantage points are when I take the photos. I start in the lower right near MassPort garage and follow that yellow line. Each balloon is a vantage point where I stop and take photos.

A zoomable map can be seen here:

http://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/Silver_Line_Gateway_Walk_Map/m4NG3wLaGp

So I try to do it at the same time each month. I am about to go on sabbatical for the summer, so I *may* switch to during the week. But I am hesitant because I don't wanna be that weirdo taking photos of construction people.

I'm in talks with MassDOT to try to get a tour of the entire project .. it's just slow as molasses getting replies out of these people. I swear they want as little publicity about this project as possible.. I am working to change that. I hope I can get a tour late summer/early fall when the meat and potatoes of the work is being done (the real noticeable stuff like fare boxes and wiring and lighting..). But we'll see...

Edit: Other things to note about these pictures

1. All photos are still taken with my old cell phone, A Samsung Galaxy S5.. because my new iPhone 6S takes crappy photos by comparison. (At least in my opinion it does, so why change?)
2. Typically I take between 160 and 200 photos
3. Many are duplicates or photos I cannot use (finger in photo, blurry, bad angle)
4. Out of the ~180 photos, 60-90 of them get watermarked and uploaded to Flickr
5. It takes me about 2 hours to select, edit, watermark, upload, tag, write title/description the photos (I just cut and paste titles/descriptions from previous albums) (So yeah, these photos can tie up my Saturday afternoon/evening for a full 4-5 hour event from start to finish)
6. 8-10 Key photos are selected for AB. Post is written directly after I upload to flickr, however not posted until I go "public"
7. 6 Social Media posts written with a selection of TWO key photos
8. Even though I take the photos on a Saturday, upload on Saturday evening, the media blitz and post here does not happen until Monday or Tuesday. More for traffic/retweets/shares than anything else (I find Sundays to be SLOW on social media, and Monday mornings to be too busy and posts get lost, so I wait until Monday afternoon or Tuesday.. whenever I am not too busy at work to reply to people after I post)
9. Three separate Facebook Posts (to my own group(s), my account, and a Chelsea specific community group), and three separate tweets will go out (more because I can only tag up to 10 people per tweet)
10. Want to see these BEFORE I post them on here? Follow me on Flickr and you'll get them as soon as I click "upload" on Saturday.

 

[cybah]

Hey Guys-

I was off today and had to swing by Market Basket. So I pulled over near the Spruce street crossing to see what work they were doing last weekend during the commuter rail shut down.

Here's some pictures I took. Looks like they were moving the rails a bit, installing a new crossing at Spruce, and getting ready to move the signal.

Enjoy!

PS - Sorry about the lower quality photos, I was coming from the Basket so I only had my iPhone on me (and not my Galaxy) so I had to use it. iPhone really does take crappy photos by comparison.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Check out the 19th century "whistle post" stone marker in shots #4 and 5 next to the new crossing equipment. Those things signify a thickly-settled area where the engineer has to lay on the horn nonstop when passing through. Spruce must've been an extremely busy crossing back in the day before Route 1 nuked that block into a desiccated moonscape.

 

[CSTH]

That's a cool artifact

Was it route 1, or the Chelsea conflagration? (Or both, naturally?)

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

That's a cool artifact

Was it route 1, or the Chelsea conflagration? (Or both, naturally?)

All Route 1...in tragic fashion. Historic Aerials shows that block about as densely-settled as what's on the other side of 6th. The transition from residential to industrial was less abrupt before the great wall of highway was erected. Street grid was absolutely destroyed; 3rd thru 6th used to be contiguous, as were Walnut, Maple, and Carter. You can see also the traces today where same street names are separated by multiple blocks, and where parts of parking lots clearly were repurposed out of old thru street pavement. That whole slab of Mall was where the grid used to complete itself. Compare all the chess moves you could do in 1955 for getting diagonally across that grid vs. what streets you have to go on today and it'll be plainly obvious why Everett Ave. is as choked as it is; that's the street that disproportionately absorbed all of the cut movements when the grid was dismembered.


RE: the stone marker...those are real historical artifacts so they're required to inventory and preserve them. Damn near every rail line still has dozens of those stone things (usually mile markers) remaining from their original construction. They're full of rebar, driven about a million miles into the ground, and virtually indestructible to anything except a direct hit from a derailing locomotive. It's actually a real pain in the ass to permit for construction projects around them because of all the preservation paperwork they have to do to be able to relocate one out of the way or dig near it. Every time you read a DEIS for a rail project you'll usually see an inventory of those historical artifacts. SL Gateway certainly had to file one; so did GLX.

 

[cybah]

Check out the 19th century "whistle post" stone marker in shots #4 and 5 next to the new crossing equipment. Those things signify a thickly-settled area where the engineer has to lay on the horn nonstop when passing through. Spruce must've been an extremely busy crossing back in the day before Route 1 nuked that block into a desiccated moonscape.

Route 1 is pretty far away from that crossing. I'm more guessing it's because prior to the Great Chelsea Fires of 1908 and 1973, respectively, that area was very thickly settled. After the 1908 fire, it was redeveloped as mixed residential and light industrial. But after the 1973 fire, which 100% destroyed that area, it was redeveloped as industrial and commercial only. The Mystic Mall and Harbor Pointe/Patriot Park office parks are apart of the redevelopment in the 70s and 80s of that area, post '73 fire. Much of that area near the crossing was parking lots (with the exception of the MGH) on both sides of the track until recently when the hotels and FBI building went up.

Actually that's what is great about this project. This is a large, vast area that is really under developed. Having the busway there with stations should spur some development in the area. I know there's plans for a large housing development behind Stop & Shop on 16 (Across from Chelsea HS on Everett Ave.) And rumor is Demoulas isn't done developing the shopping center either so there may be something there. And if I read a website correctly, looks like Harbor Pointe is for sale and one of the selling points is the SLG project being completed soon. So lots of changes. Hopefully for the good.

 

[cybah]

RE: the stone marker...those are real historical artifacts so they're required to inventory and preserve them.

There's another one along the project too. This one is near the busway and the CR line will meet (near the Broadway bridge)

Here's a pic from last year

And it's still there last month:

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Yep. They'll probably move that thing a few feet to the side but keep it in the same spot. Doesn't serve any function as a waymarker anymore, but at a likely 130-140 years old it's covered by all the pertinent historical regs for Very Old Things™ of that ilk. Can't remove those artifacts without justifying it in writing as having no alternative. And somebody's ass is gonna get shitcanned by the project manager if they run over it accidentally with a backhoe (though it'll probably break the backhoe first).


EDIT: If you want to know what the letters mean. . .

"X" means multiple crossings ahead, and "C" is the Morse code letter for the sequence of horn blasts the engineer is required to make: long-short-long-short.

These things are still used present-day to signify high-priority advance warnings that need an earlier or more prominent horn blow. They're just now marked with regular modern reflective sheet metal signs and no longer require the crew to memorize Morse code. Probably none whatsoever anywhere on the T because the entire system has gate-protected crossings where the regular-timed horn/bells through non-quiet crossings fully suffice. But there'd definitely be some real present-day whistle posts on some of the backwater freight-only lines in MA.

 

[CSTH]

That's a cool artifact

Was it route 1, or the Chelsea conflagration? (Or both, naturally?)

Chelsea Fire, Chelsea, MA by Boston Public Library, on Flickr

Chelsea Fire, Chelsea, MA by Boston Public Library, on Flickr

Chelsea Fire, Chelsea, MA by Boston Public Library, on Flickr

Chelsea Fire, Chelsea, MA by Boston Public Library, on Flickr

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Damn! When was that?

 

[cybah]

Damn! When was that?

Those pictures are from the 1973 fire...

 

[Jahvon09]

While they are over there doing all this sprucing up & getting the Silver Line running through Chelsea, when are there going to repave Everett Street?

Feels almost like a roller coaster driving on that street! Ridiculous!

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

While they are over there doing all this sprucing up & getting the Silver Line running through Chelsea, when are there going to repave Everett Street?

Feels almost like a roller coaster driving on that street! Ridiculous!

Yeah...it's time to pour some asphalt when the 80-year-old trolley tracks are starting to poke through. The cobblestones will be next to start wrecking mufflers. It's weird...they completely and nicely re-did the road from 4th St. to the grade crossing on the Mall side 4 years ago with turn-lane medians, ADA crosswalks, and state-of-art rumble strips around the grade crossing. Real high-quality job all around.

Then they completely said to hell with it on the entire Wyndham Hotel + new Chelsea High School side. Where exactly do they think the higher Mall traffic volumes are coming from???

 

[scorpio02150]

While they are over there doing all this sprucing up & getting the Silver Line running through Chelsea, when are there going to repave Everett Street?

Feels almost like a roller coaster driving on that street! Ridiculous!

This was an email from earlier this year from the city manager:

"Traffic & Road Works.
A lot of traffic and roadway work is in the pipeline for this upcoming construction season:


* We will complete the roadwork funded by the City Council in the Fall, including Williams from Chestnut to Pearl and lower Broadway.

* The MassWorks 4 project, which includes the work on Blossom, Bryson, Maple, and Heard will be completed with final roadway paving this Spring. The lighting is being installed now.

* Roadway work on Garfield Avenue, Locke Street, Lynn Street Extension, and Suffolk Street is being proposed in the FY '17 Capital Improvement Plan, and some of that work will start this season.

* Everett Avenue from the RR tracks to Carter Street will be completed this summer. Design work will also begin on the final section of Everett Avenue from Carter Street to Route 16, although construction of that area will not occur until FY '18 at the earliest.

* And, the City is undertaking a study of the Beacham/Williams corridor, with funds provided by the MA Gaming Commission, to analyze traffic data, assess physical conditions and provide design recommendations and cost estimates for the potential reconstruction of Beacham and Williams."

Yeah...it's time to pour some asphalt when the 80-year-old trolley tracks are starting to poke through. The cobblestones will be next to start wrecking mufflers. It's weird...they completely and nicely re-did the road from 4th St. to the grade crossing on the Mall side 4 years ago with turn-lane medians, ADA crosswalks, and state-of-art rumble strips around the grade crossing. Real high-quality job all around.

Then they completely said to hell with it on the entire Wyndham Hotel + new Chelsea High School side. Where exactly do they think the higher Mall traffic volumes are coming from???

Fixing the tracks and the immediate road next to the tracks is the responsibility of MassDot/T.

I dont know this for a fact, but I believe the reason they stopped work on the remaining part of street to the train tracks was because of ongoing work to the water/sewer systems for the FBI building/New Condos/New Hotel; same story for the Everett Ave section from carter st to rt 16-- road improvement project will be affected by the new Chelsea Clock Development.

 

[whighlander]

Yep. They'll probably move that thing a few feet to the side but keep it in the same spot. Doesn't serve any function as a waymarker anymore, but at a likely 130-140 years old it's covered by all the pertinent historical regs for Very Old Things™ of that ilk. Can't remove those artifacts without justifying it in writing as having no alternative. And somebody's ass is gonna get shitcanned by the project manager if they run over it accidentally with a backhoe (though it'll probably break the backhoe first).


EDIT: If you want to know what the letters mean. . .

"X" means multiple crossings ahead, and "C" is the Morse code letter for the sequence of horn blasts the engineer is required to make: long-short-long-short.

These things are still used present-day to signify high-priority advance warnings that need an earlier or more prominent horn blow. They're just now marked with regular modern reflective sheet metal signs and no longer require the crew to memorize Morse code. Probably none whatsoever anywhere on the T because the entire system has gate-protected crossings where the regular-timed horn/bells through non-quiet crossings fully suffice. But there'd definitely be some real present-day whistle posts on some of the backwater freight-only lines in MA.

F-Line -- Great RR history lesson

I would quibble about the age of the marker

Looking at a blow-up of the image -- the marker looks to be steel reinforced concrete -- that didn't become a common building material until about 1890 -- if its precast in a factory the age is even younger

So the age is more likely about 80 to 120 years old

 

[scorpio02150]

Some other Capital Improvement projects for FY17-FY21

http://www.chelseama.gov/sites/chelseama/files/uploads/capitalimprovementplanfy2017.pdf

 

[BostonUrbEx]

"X" means multiple crossings ahead, and "C" is the Morse code letter for the sequence of horn blasts the engineer is required to make: long-short-long-short.

Are you sure about this? I'm under the impression that they standing for "Crossing Circuit" -- as in the point where a crossing will activate or reactivate until clear. I may be getting it mixed up with something else, but I've never heard of this multiple crossings thing...

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Are you sure about this? I'm under the impression that they standing for "Crossing Circuit" -- as in the point where a crossing will activate or reactivate until clear. I may be getting it mixed up with something else, but I've never heard of this multiple crossings thing...

Yes, absolutely certain. It's an indicator for a horn blow. That signage is still used today, with a generic "W" in place of the morse code letter and the "X" suffix still indicating multiple crossings ahead.

Current FRA regs require a horn 15 seconds out from any crossing that isn't in a designated quiet zone, with the blows for crossings always done as a Morse "Q": long-long-short-long. The signage is required when the horn has to start further out than the generic 15-second rule for whatever special-needs safety reason...in which case the sign marks the spot where the horn sequence starts.


Nothing whatsoever to do with crossing equipment or circuitry. That stone artifact in the pics is so old it pre-dates electricity, so the only crossing protection Spruce would've had back in the late- 19th century would be the human crossing guard directing traffic during peak hours. Nights and Sundays they were all unprotected, and it was either heed the horn or see if Darwin is feeling lucky today.