I can report that the re-signaling of the New Englande Centrale's main line that hosts Amtrak's Vermonter north of the Massachusetts border has been completed. While I had previously reported on the state of this project, I can confirm that all legacy signaling has now been replaced. While the diamond at Bellows Falls was perhaps the most visible of the final round of changes, the north end of the Putney siding was also re-signaled.
As always there are a few interesting details I should point out. The previously reported signaling anomaly at Bellows Falls resulting from a old double to single track conversion, has been eliminated. Trains at Bellows Falls now get a Clear signal indication for a straight route at Wapole siding as opposed to the previous Approach Medium to Medium Clear.
The holdout signal at SOUTH BELLOWS FALLS has been retained, evidently to allow interchange with the Green Mountain Railroad without needing to seize the main line all the way to Putney.
The entire NECR portion of the line has done away with the Boston and Maine / Guilford practice of ultra-long ABS blocks. Now signal blocks will be a more uniform 2-4 miles which limits the impact of track circuit failures and increases capacity.
Having been re-signaled just prior to the start of the most recent project, the South Putney interlocking will be the only non-standard signal location on the line with a poor man's bracket mast for southbound trains and the use of Safetran scallop shell modules as opposed to Progress Rail square modules.
Although an honorable mention goes to the old northbound searchlight signal on the Bellows Falls platform that was so popular as a photo backdrop. That has been moved to the adjacent park around the Bellows Falls Chamber of Commerce.
It will be interesting to see if this affects on time performance or the schedule at all. In theory replacing the TWC with CTC for the 10 or so miles south of Brattleboro could allow a speed increase.
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