Norton Abrasives

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I’m looking for any onformation about the railroad operations at the Norton Abrasives plant in Worcester Ma

thanks

mark

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Mark.

Do you have Google Earth? It is a free download. If so search for St. Gobain abrasives in Wocester Ma. You can still see the track layout through the different buildings. When I lived there 20 years ago just about all the products were truck freight. Hundreds of trailer dumps a week would be bringing in aggregate material and scores of dry vans would be coming and going all day long. I imagine the output from the complex is just a shadow of its former self nowadays. Most of the Norton/ St.Gobain products I use at work now say made in China or Indonesia. I have been to the complex many times to fix broke down trucks. There was always a security gate and a sign in / sign out check list. You were only to go to and from the job and no where else. There was only one occasion that I had seen an old CR GP something moving some UP and SF box cars on the complex grounds.

Pete

3

Norton company had its own locomotive I remember a 44 tonner that was around until at least the 1980s.They may have had 2 back in the 1960s and before .They had a large fleet of 70 to 80 boxcars that were castoffs from New England railroads most were wood outside braced cars and a few steel cars. They had a few covered hoppers maybe home grown or one of a kind type castoff from railroads. I think I remember a flat car but am not sure. The paint scheme in the 1970s was a pale yellow with blue lettering herald similar to the Norton signs at that time.

These were all used for in plant switching of material not for interchange. A large maze of tracks went all over the plant… There was a yard at the west end of New Bond street this where the B&M shoved all the interchange cars but the plant switcher moved them from there. There was a siding on the south side of the Gardner line where the B&M switched covered hoppers. There were also a couple of sidings at Barbers Junction also switched by the B&M lots of B&M box cars and B&M piggyback trailers there in the 1960s ,shipping department I guess. Norton is the big reason for piggyback on the B&M in Worcester I am told this lasted in to the 1970s. On Google Earth you can see the small yard some of the sidings and intraplant trackage. There was much more up to the 1970s.

Currently there very infrequent service a couple of cars a couple of times a year .Back in the 1990s they converted their power plant to burn coal or oil, for a few years perhaps a dozen hoppers at a time were brought down by Guilford. Have not seen any of that for a number of years.

Ron High

4

Norton was bought out some years ago. Below is a link to one loco.

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=134120

I searched with Norton Abrasives locomotives worcester ma and Norton Abrasives railroad operations Worcester ma.

I did find a couple flicker photos of two different size hoppers and boxcars.

Rich

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[quote user=“ChooChooGal”]

h2w

I’m looking for any onformation about the railroad operations at the Norton Abrasives plant in Worcester Ma

thanks

mark

do you know anything about the positions at norton. like what a “mixer” job would entail?

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Frank

7

It seems like there is zero railroading operations at the Saint Gobain nowadays since likely the mid 2000s looking at google maps in that timeline. Some of the newly paved road crossing had the tracks ripped out leaving some box cars probably being used for storage stranded for eternity. And the track(s) leading to the intraplant trackage overgrown by trees. I live close by Saint gobain and sometimes see Providence & Worcester trains passing behind the factory from W Boylston St. I actually found a video of the Norton locomotive running from 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFFaEVbvIN4&ab_channel=Railmover.com

8

You are in luck, The Shoreliner Magazine had a group of articles with more than you ever wanted to know about the industries served by rail in Worcester during this past year or so. You can get the back issues from

https://www.nhrhta.org/shoreliner

Volume 41, Issue 1 (2019) - $10.00

  • “Yellow Dogs – The Potato Extras” – The story of how the New Haven and railroads of Maine moved the annual Aroostook County potato crop. Much of this traffic was routed through Worcester, MA.

  • “The Norton Railroad” – Rick Hurst shares details about the industrial plant railroad of Worcester’s Norton Abrasives Company.

  • “American Steel & Wire” – The story of the Worcester plants of the American Steel & Wire Co., including its plant railroads.

  • “‘Scrap Train for Worcester’&r