Freight and General New England RR News

www.midcoastvillager.com

New Rockland Rail Operator Says Dragon Will Use Service on Pilot Basis

The agreement is a major boost to revitalizing the rail line.
www.midcoastvillager.com www.midcoastvillager.com

A couple significant developments out on Maine’s Rockland Branch. The German company that acquired Dragon Cement didn’t shut the plant down…to the contrary, it’s now resuming freight rail service, albeit on a pilot basis for the time being.

Maine Switching Services (which will operate the branch as the Cumberland & Knox Railroad) is also courting other smaller existing/former customers on the line to try to drum up additional traffic.

On the passenger service side, MSS/CKRR reiterated it intends to run excursion trips over the Rockland Branch and is currently evaluating the operational logistics (equipment needs, station locations, etc) to get a sense of when it can begin offering that service. It’s also open to collaboration with NNEPRA on more robust passenger service, i.e. Downeaster extension.


Meanwhile, this Trains.com article says MSS/CKRR has also submitted a separate proposal to MEDOT to operate the Lower Road from Brunswick to Augusta. From the article:

Reactivating “Lower Road” operations “recognizes the essential need to support freight and passenger operations on the Rockland Branch,” Cumberland & Knox states in a press release. Maine Switching Services president Joe Feero adds, “Limited space in the Brunswick terminal area, as well as Rock Junction, make expansion of rail support facilities limited.”
…
The release notes acquiring the line will “better position CKRR to capture the growing demand for rail tourism, expand on the success of the growing rail cycle industry, and work with business and community partners to develop freight traffic.”
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They’ve apparently been engaging the trail lobby head-on to try to move them to the compromise (presumably rail with trail) position for the future of the Lower Road corridor. I’m sure that’s an uphill battle to fight, but credit where credit is due: at least these guys are doing more than pretty much anyone else not only to preserve a corridor that could be viable for passenger service in the future, but also to go about it in a rational manner.
 
Tonight was the first time I can recall seeing a plate F freight running down the Lowell line, alongside the GLX. It looked like a couple of pairs of reefers mixed with gondolas. Is the Produce Center taking rail cars?
 
RandomWalk said:
Tonight was the first time I can recall seeing a plate F freight running down the Lowell line, alongside the GLX. It looked like a couple of pairs of reefers mixed with gondolas. Is the Produce Center taking rail cars?
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Yes. Not a lot of cars, but New England Produce Center still gets serviced on the Everett runs. And yes, it's primarily Plate F reefers.

Run times to Everett are primarily at night nowadays.
 
There's a customer down towards Ciment Quebec that got reefers from time to time. "Preferred [?] ". Also the only customer left at the old NEP site unloaded
cars direct to truck.
 
train.jpg
train2.jpg


So, I discovered this mural/homage to the New Haven railroad at the supermarket nearest to where I live, which is a solid 2.5 miles from the NEC/Amtrak corridor/Artist Formerly Known As The NY, NH & H Railroad but hey whatever works for them.

It sure looks like the P&W was trying to deliberately ape the New Haven palette as close as possible without being a flat-out rip-off... strange, and sleazy--unless they cut a deal with the vestigial remnants of the NY NH & Hartford to make it kosher? Perhaps F-Line knows...
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Yes. Not a lot of cars, but New England Produce Center still gets serviced on the Everett runs. And yes, it's primarily Plate F reefers.

Run times to Everett are primarily at night nowadays.
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The NEP?That brings back memories. The NEP and the"Auction" were major customers serviced from Beacon Park back in the day.
 
DBM said:
View attachment 64492View attachment 64493

So, I discovered this mural/homage to the New Haven railroad at the supermarket nearest to where I live, which is a solid 2.5 miles from the NEC/Amtrak corridor/Artist Formerly Known As The NY, NH & H Railroad but hey whatever works for them.

It sure looks like the P&W was trying to deliberately ape the New Haven palette as close as possible without being a flat-out rip-off... strange, and sleazy--unless they cut a deal with the vestigial remnants of the NY NH & Hartford to make it kosher? Perhaps F-Line knows...
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P&W's old colors (before they got neutered into Genessee & Wyoming's hideous corporate scheme) were actually chocolate brown, red, and white...not red/black/white like the NYNH&H, so there's no direct relation. There's still a bunch of their locos painted in that scheme that have escaped the G&W corporatization.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
P&W's old colors (before they got neutered into Genessee & Wyoming's hideous corporate scheme) were actually chocolate brown, red, and white...not red/black/white like the NYNH&H, so there's no direct relation. There's still a bunch of their locos painted in that scheme that have escaped the G&W corporatization.
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Hideous indeed--"seizure-inducing," one might even venture. Thanks as always for the explanation. FWIW, I spot about one P&W-branded freighter a month sidetracked/idle on the Providence Line (usually right outside Providence station, but also frequently by the petro farm at the Thurber's Ave curve on I-95), but I've yet to see one branded with that gawdawful G&W look...
 
We’re going to end up with a single major freight railroad at this rate. It’ll go bankrupt from mismanagement, get bailed out by the government, and renamed Amfreight. Later, some hot shot is going to propose merging it and Amtrak into a single entity and we’ll end up with a functional national passenger rail system for the first time in a century…

</sarcasm>
 
RandomWalk said:
We’re going to end up with a single major freight railroad at this rate. It’ll go bankrupt from mismanagement, get bailed out by the government, and renamed Amfreight. Later, some hot shot is going to propose merging it and Amtrak into a single entity and we’ll end up with a functional national passenger rail system for the first time in a century…

</sarcasm>
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If this goes through, there's about a 102% chance we'll see a CSXBNSF.
 
I think Norfolk Southern's look is more attractive than Union Pacific's, but apparently the NS name and image is going away entirely if the merger goes through.
960px-Union_Pacific_loco.png

960px-NS-SD60E-Ayer.jpg
 
I hope they revive the NS heritage steam program. They had an impressive line up of locomotives at one time.
 
www.progressiverailroading.com

Rail News - CSX board replaces Joe Hinrichs with Steve Angel as president, CEO. For Railroad Career Professionals

www.progressiverailroading.com www.progressiverailroading.com

CSX fires its CEO after pressure from an activist investment group to get the company to more actively seek a merger to counter the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern transcontinental merger. They were upset that the prior CEO was only seeking a cooperative intermodal agreement with BNSF instead of a full-on merger with BNSF (even though BNSF has publicly said it isn't interested in a merger). Outgoing CEO Joe Hinrichs was the one who pulled the trigger on the Pan Am acquisition and billions of reinvestment in the New England market.
 
Wasn't Foote the CEO that pulled the trigger on Pan Am?
 
Stlin said:
Today's Facebook marketplace find: an F7 Locomotive from the G&U for the price of a secondhand Toyota. *shipping and delivery not included.

Facebook

www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
View attachment 67458
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That was an odd purchase for them. They got it only 14 years ago, put a lot of refurb work into it, ran it pretty sparingly, and then it's been sitting out-of-service for like 7 years. It's sub-ideal for freight locals and almost useless for switching because the cab unit carbody offers no rear visibility for running in reverse (like the hood unit GP9's and MP15's that G&U also rosters). It's thought that G&U owner John Delli Priscoli had never-realized aims of running passenger excursions on the line, as F7's are pretty popular with tourist railroads. It was used in 2014 for a one-off holiday Santa train using borrowed MBTA coaches. That may have been the ultimate aim for it, but Priscoli had a growing freight railroad to run first and foremost so it never came to fruition.
 
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