Tracking Change On Grafton & Upton Railroad
EILEEN KENNEDY
Jon Delli Priscoli is hoping to rejuvenate the Grafton & Upton Railroad.
Jon Delli Priscoli made his money in commercial and industrial development, but his passion is the railroad business.
As the owner of Marlborough-based First Colony Development Co. Inc., Delli Priscoli has developed office buildings in Marlborough, including buildings at 250 and 260 Locke Drive.
But his latest venture, the purchase of the 136-year-old, 16-mile Grafton & Upton Railroad, is a little closer to his heart. He bought half of the railroad in 2008 and the other half this year from Cornelius and Miriam Lucey. They had operated portions of the railroads since 1979.
"I find it fascinating," Delli Priscoli said. "It's not a sexy business. It's not biomedical or windmills or solar panels, but it brings everyone good, basic things we all need."
Signs Of Transformation
Under Delli Priscoli's ownership, survey markers now line new rail layouts in the Upton and Hopedale train yards, diesel engines are being restored and repainted in the Grafton yard and weeds are being yanked from the entire line.
"This railroad represents an awful lot of opportunity," Delli Priscoli said. "It's in everybody's interest to see this railroad prosper."
The line connects with freight behemoth CSX Corp. at the Grafton and Milford yards, making it easy for Grafton & Upton's customers to get their supplies in and their products out.
The hope is that the rejuvenated rail line will create as many as 45 jobs this year and attract businesses that want to locate near a railroad, according to Delli Priscoli. A perfect example is a 100,000-square-foot building on the railroad's Hopedale property, which has drawn the interest of a national locomotive assembly company, which Delli Priscoli declined to identify.
"The town clearly wants to see the rail line through the town," said Eugene Phillips, Hopedale's town coordinator. "Those would be incredible jobs."
The railroad has had some of the same customers for years. Iowa wheat rolls into its Upton yard, where trucks take it the rest of the way to the Wheetabix Food Co. cereal factory in Clinton. Plastic pellets, peanuts and other supplies also arrive in the Upton yard and are taken by truck to area destinations.
"One of the great things about the Upton yard, even thought you'd never know it when you're there, is that it's so close to the I-495 area," said Delli Priscoli said. "The interchange of I-495 and the Mass Pike is the epicenter for transportation and businesses, and Upton is only five miles from there."
Fifty to 55 percent of all railroad freight in the United States is carried on short line railroads like the Grafton and Upton, so they serve an important part in transporting goods, he said.
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