Massachusetts Coastal Railroad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Massachusetts Coastal Railroad

Reporting marks	MC
Locale	Massachusetts
Dates of operation	2007–
Predecessor line	Bay Colony Railroad
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Hyannis, Massachusetts

Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is the successor operator of portions of Bay Colony Railroad.

On December 31, 2007 the contract to operate the freight railroad lines owned by the State of Massachusetts administered by the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) expired. These railroad lines included the Cape Cod main, as well as several shorter lines. The new contract was awarded to a new company, the Massachusetts Coastal Railroad, which will took over on January 1, 2008. At that time the Bay Colony ceased operation on those lines, but continues in other areas of the state. ^[1]

Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is a subsidiary of Cape Rail Inc., which also operates the Cape Cod Central Railroad. ^[2]

Massachusetts Coastal Railroad also operates under the abbreviated name Mass Coastal Railroad. This shortened version is the variation currently used on all of Massachusetts Coastal's locomotives and rolling stock. Mass Coastal operates with three engines; the 2006, 2007, and 2008. The 2006 is an ex-ATSF GP7u, the 2007 is a similar ex-ATSF GP9u and the 2008 is an ex-Canadian National GP9RM. The railroad has started running the trash train from Yarmouth and Falmouth, MA to SEMASS, a waste-to-energy plant in Rochester, Massachusetts. However, the train will operate under the new name, "Energy Train" using 20 former Canadian Pacific bath tub coal hopper rebuilt into "Energy" cars.