Maine Northern Railway (ex-MMA lines operated by EMR/NBSR)

Want to see all the work done so far? Check this out

http://www.jdirving.com/uploadedFiles/N ... Update.pdf

I think it is pretty well documented that the BAR never made a killing off of fiber movements, however they over came with volume, using their own equipment, frequent equipment turns and just simply good service. Daily trains meant other customers were apt to ship via rail which kept the operation afloat post potato shipment era. MMA lacked a lot of these principles and throw in the economic downturn, plant closures and selling off of rolling stock to lease it back for quick cash, it put the nail in the coffin of low profit rail moves of fiber out of The County. That is until Irving stepped in and began shipping to St John and now with Woodland really ramping up, no interchange bewtween MMA and EMR/NBSR and crucial infrastructure repair north, the fiber is once again moving.

So the question remains, did Irving find profit in this or are they running these trains at a loss and covering costs with other profitable traffic? We may never know, and thats not a bad thing as long as the lines are safe and trains are running.

A nice write-up on Maine Northern. I make no judgement as to benefits, etc.

http://davidfarmer.bangordailynews.com/ ... logswidget

...

In 2011, the Maine Northern Railway was resurrected from the ashes of the almost-abandoned Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway.

With a $10.5 million investment from the federal government for upgrades, along with the purchase of the line by the state, and a strong private investment by J.D. Irving out of New Brunswick, the rail line is meeting with success.

New jobs are being created, rail traffic is up, and the jobs that were once at risk are now more secure.

Speaking in Presque Isle last week, Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt said that traffic on the line had tripled and that Irving was making investments that the line hadn’t seen in the past.

And the efficiency of the line has increased. “What took seven weeks now takes about 36 hours,” Bernhardt said.

...

Irving is a vertically oriented company. If they have to purchase a lot of hammers, then they go buy the hammer manufacturing company. When they bought the roughly 2 million acres of woodlands from Great Northern one would have to think that someday they would need to access the fiber. So they bought the railroad in northern Maine and voila, they start to move the fiber to their mills in Saint John. When the housing market someday, who knows when) recovers, expect a lot of lumber to also move on these lines. Irving might not make a lot of money railing the fiber but somewhere along the line, from the forest to the end user of their products, Irving will justify whatever investment they made in long term profits. They always do.

Not sure what forum to post this find in, so we'll start here. Just found this video from 10/25 showing an east bound into Rigby yard with several open wood chip hopper cars (29 to be exact) that could be headed to NBSR for Woodland service. Any ideas who the recipient is? Thanks to Chuck, here's the video and be patient, it takes a few minutes into the tape before the CSX power pulling the cars appears. http://www.youtube.com/user/chuckusa1957?feature=watch

Any updates on NBSR/EMR/MNRR would be appreciated. Looking at an interview this coming Monday and hoping to get a little info on current operations.opportunities.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Another 28 miles of MMA trackage has been sold to J.D. Irving Ltd. (d.b.a. EMR/NBSR/MNR).

From the Bangor Daily News:

Bangor Daily News wrote:The stretch of track is between Madawaska and Van Buren and includes the international bridge that crosses from Van Buren into St. Leonard, New Brunswick, according to Mary Keith, a spokeswoman for J.D. Irving.
. . .
Eastern Maine Railway’s acquisition brings all of Aroostook County’s railroads under its operational control.
. . .
This 28 miles, however, has stood between Eastern Maine Railway’s operations and the Canadian National’s railroad network on the other side of the border.

Read more at: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/06/11/b ... -railroad/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not sure where to put this question so its going here. I noticed on a video on youtube on an NBSR/MNR train that the old grey woodchip gons looked like they didnt say BAR on them anymore. Does anyone know if they have been restenceled to NBSR/MNR/EMRY? It was going to fast to see clearly in the video and when i paused it, the screen was fuzzy.

They are restenciled AEX, which is The Andersens, a leasing company. I think they are all in in the 19800 series.

Tonight on the local TV News (WAGM) it was announced that the Town of Fort Fairfield has sold the Eight (8) miles of track that they owned, which was purchased from the BAR (I think) at some point in the distant past, has been sold to the State of Maine for continued operation.

Mark

Interesting. Wonder what prompted them to sell it? Maintenance costs? Fort Fairfield bought and upgraded the 8.7 miles with grant money in October 2000. They added two sidings and brought back McShae and the Boralex sidings for oat and other loadings as well as Cavendish's "new" fertilizer operation on Rt 1A. Was a technicality as MNR was designated operator of all the way to Easton and serviced the Fort Fairfield portion as needed, so now the State owns everything with MNR still providing the service and also maintaining it.

With the primary connection to the west still cut off until things get sorted out, could anyone give us a summary of how the rest of MNR/EMR/NBSR is operating recently? (and slightly off topic, but I'd be interested in Woodland too if anyone knows) And is all diverted traffic moving PAR-Keag>NBSR or does any return to MMA at NMJ>Brownville NBSR?

Thanks-

oibu wrote:With the primary connection to the west still cut off until things get sorted out, could anyone give us a summary of how the rest of MNR/EMR/NBSR is operating recently? (and slightly off topic, but I'd be interested in Woodland too if anyone knows) And is all diverted traffic moving PAR-Keag>NBSR or does any return to MMA at NMJ>Brownville NBSR?

Thanks-

Business is a boomin' on the MNR. Much of the Aroostook traffic heads east, for lumber and paper mills in Saint John and Woodland.
From reports I've seen, the MM&A/PAR interchange tracks at NMJ have been really full lately, but I've also seen usual MM&A interchange on PAR upta Keag. Not sure what distinguishes. Maybe terminal destination...

CN has also picked up some additional traffic since things like Auto's don't have a clearance routed option through the state of Maine anymore.

I think its safe to say traffic west of Keag is down a little, but NBSR is still operating mostly like it was before.

That would make sense at NMJ since I woudl imagine that is where most western MMA traffic would no be coming back onto MMA. Wouldn't anything interhcanged at Keag be NBSR traffic same as usual?

Anyone know what MNR runs when, where? And with the sale of Madawaska-VB, does MMA still serve the mill at MAdawaska and/or run anything north of Millinocket now, or is handled by MNR exlcusively?

Is most of the fiber heading to Woodland or Saint John? I wonder if a favorable rate could swing inbound raw material to Old Town Fuel and Fiber, Lincoln Paper And Tissue or even Verso to rail service?