CSX Charlotte Runner

scottychaos wrote:I was laid off from Kodak a few weeks ago, so I will no longer have the ability the drive past the engine house on a daily basis, which I enjoyed for many years..

Sorry to hear that, Scotty. Best of luck finding new employment.

Yes Scotty, Good luck with your future endeavors!

Roadster, thanks for the terminology. Fixed the captions.

Does anybody know if the ties were dropped off by a train or did they used flat bed trucks?

Yesterday the wind was just right that the horns coming from Charlotte (River St) sounded like they were on the same block as Rock Beach and Norcrest area and were faint as the train headed up the hill.
When I do hear the horns, it has generally been around 11ish to 1 ish.

Chris

From what I have seen with CSX MoW in recent years, is the stack of ties and a couple short segments of rail would be dropped next to the crossing by a large truck with boom. As time permits, an MoW crew will assemble these into a panel track. On a selected date, the crossing will be closed, the old track ripped out, the new panel track installed, and concrete highway crossing panels installed. Usually takes about 12 hrs for each crossing. As far as the coal traffic to Kodak Park. The power plants there are owned by someone other than Kodak. RG&E has been purchasing electricity from them for sometime, replacing Russel's output since it's closing. I recall RG&E a few years ago making a media statement that they wanted to become a power broker, selling off their generation plants, getting out of the generation part of the business.

Thank you for your input, roadster. On-site assembly makes sense. I'm looking forward to smoother crossings. I just wish Rochester Southern would do their part.

I guess the regulators want the utility companies to handle the delivery of electricity, and other companies to handle the generation (supply) - and sell the supply on the open market to foster competition to benefit the consumer. So now what you got is coal vs natural gas vs oil vs nuclear vs hydro vs "renewables" (i.e., solar, wind, etc...), basically competing against each other. One of the reasons why coal generation is down these days is due to the price of natural gas going down, and coal going up (not to mention the EPA stuff making coal harder to fire). So basically, the cheapest fuel commodity is where most of your power generation is coming from.

As a result, NYSEG sold Somerset to AES, RG&E sold Ginna to Constellation, etc... etc... and the utilities buy from whoever is cheaper - a process that goes on 24/7.

If NYS gets it's act together and allows fracking for natural gas - expect the coal plants to be mothballed indefinitely or decommissioned altogether... and unit coal trains in NY to become more of a rarity... but frack sand trains to increase as they already have in the Southern Tier.

As for Koda... er... Eastman Business Park, their coal plant's days are numbered if they can't find the $40 million to retrofit it to EPA standards soon. As it is, NYS has a 20% surplus in generation right now - even with the coal plants idled... and that's due largely to a number of gas generators coming online, and a decrease in manufacturing that used to gobble lots of power. So if Kodak's goes offline, it won't have that large of an effect on the "grid"... and RG&E has invested a ton in upgrading their delivery system to handle the load from suppliers outside of their service territory.

Nice photo of the Charlotte Runner with the lighthouse next to a train: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dangler/6841043492/

Yep, King Coal has fallen from grace. CSX's coal business has reportedly fallen by over 20%. Being CSX's primary revenue source, they're are somewhat concerned and are pursuing changes to their revenue plans. They had a huge contract with China, but the contract has ended and China's economy is in a slump so no new orders. I'd say closing the Eastman plant would seriously curtail train traffic on the Branch. But as long as the Box shop continues to ship by rail, I'm sure, CSX will continue running down to Charlotte.

How much business does the box shop give CSX in a typical week? If it's not much, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a way found to "lose" it... it wouldn't be the first time a shipper at the end of a branch is actively encouraged to seek other methods of transportation.

If the yard at the end of the Runner (near Greenleaf Road) still has some value, maybe the box shop will keep getting service, but all by itself, I'm not so sure.

umtrr-author wrote:How much business does the box shop give CSX in a typical week? If it's not much, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a way found to "lose" it... it wouldn't be the first time a shipper at the end of a branch is actively encouraged to seek other methods of transportation.

If the yard at the end of the Runner (near Greenleaf Road) still has some value, maybe the box shop will keep getting service, but all by itself, I'm not so sure.

I suppose the line could also be sold to a shortline operator...

What for?

Like I said before, CSX kept the Bladwinnsville sub in service, all the way to Fulton for Birdseye. Which was 2 or 3 cars a week, for 11 miles of tracks. As soon as Birdseye shut down this past Nov., CSX took the Track OoS North of Raddison Yard wye. I don't know what their critiria is but from what I've seen, it's fairly low.

roadster wrote:Bladwinnsville

That's an awesome typo, roadster, even for you!! Here's where I have it marked as OOS (just north of the power lines): http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/node/212715126 -- does that look just about right?

North of Birds Eye is the trackage now owned by whoever owns the power plant in Oswego for the tank farm... but that plant has been largely idle for years due largely to the price of oil and EPA stuff. That plant gets it's oil via ship. Tank-trains is just a back-up and haven't been run in years. Wouldn't be too shocked to see the track north of Radisson up for abandonment in a couple of years if things don't pick up in B'ville.

As for the Charlotte Runner... so long as they're able to find rail customers for Kodak Park, it'll stay running... and as said here before, the West Yard up in Charlotte has proven it's usefulness with the Kodak trains... and will likely have some value to cart out the remains of Russell Station when they start knocking that down. But in 2014 - we'll see what happens with Kodak's coal power plant, and if they close that plant down - the Runner will probably be knocked down to a lesser status.

Also of concern is the R&S running up to Matthews & Fields lumber... that hasn't received a car in years, and would it make sense for both RR's to have tracks up to Kodak if coal traffic to Kodak is cut off?

nessman wrote:Also of concern is the R&S running up to Matthews & Fields lumber... that hasn't received a car in years, and would it make sense for both RR's to have tracks up to Kodak if coal traffic to Kodak is cut off?

Uh, yeah. Looking at it, I get the impression that if you asked them about their railroad siding, they would say "what siding??"

As long as the Box shop is there, they will run a train down to it. Even if it's only a couple cars a week. It may not make sense. But see this in any number of locations. the end of the Eastman Park Power plant, and the final removal of Russel's remains, may well strike the end for the West yard. As you mentioned the R&S customer hasn't seen a car in years, yet the track remains.