Trains on CSX St. Lawrence Sub (CR's Montreal Secondary)

New Press Release from CSX on old news, but still:
CSX Corp. on Monday ceremoniously marked the construction of a new intermodal terminal in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec. Construction began in March and is slated for completion in 2015.

The $107 million facility will expand the railroad's presence in the market, and connect the greater Montreal region and Quebec with the Class I's U.S. rail network, CSX officials said in a press release. Trains serving the terminal will connect through CSX's Northwest Ohio intermodal hub in North Baltimore.

"We believe the intermodal terminal … will quickly become a positive asset for Quebec and the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield community for years to come," said Wilby Whitt, president of CSX Intermodal Terminals Inc.

Roxboro Excavating Inc. is the lead contractor for the terminal, which is designed to handle up to 100,000 containers annually.

CSX also is relocating a portion of its track from a residential area in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield to an area east of Autoroute 530 alongside the new terminal. After the track is relocated, the right of way will be sold to the city of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield for recreational use.

Maybe, if traffic volume grows to the extent of "congestion", the CSX people could
go and study some history from WWII days. I refer to a passage from the excellent
book by the late Don Ball Jr. and Rogers E.M. Whitaker, "Decade Of The Trains, The
1940s", specifically, page 149. In this passage, it speaks of a New York Central man -
an Assistant Division Superintendent at Albany, through which the Central ran a four
track mainline. He is now a "traffic expediter" for the Office of Defense Transportation.
He is visiting a Division Superintendent on the Cotton Belt to see how they handle the
growing traffic of WWII. He is going to be shown how the Cotton Belt can move, on
SINGLE track, from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to Dallas, Texas, 23 northbound freights,
23 southbound freights, 2 passenger trains each way, and three troop trains
each way - a total of 56 trains - all in ONE DAY. All by the use of strategically placed
sidings and rolling, non-stop meets. I have read elsewhere that the Cotton Belt did this
feat just about everyday during the war years! Dare say that we might see such railroading
again?!

Bigt wrote:Maybe, if traffic volume grows to the extent of "congestion", the CSX people could
go and study some history from WWII days. I refer to a passage from the excellent
book by the late Don Ball Jr. and Rogers E.M. Whitaker, "Decade Of The Trains,
again?!

If you have an understanding of the topography of that particular region, the amount of land that was given to the railroads to encourage them to build in the mid 1800's and the traffic patterns during the pre war days, and the local dependency of rail service you would see that it probably was not that monumental of a task.

Agreed UP4141 and just want to point out that the number of people required to make that happen back then don't exist today, and will never exist again. And I'll say it once again, how it was done 70 years ago is not relevant today.

I think Bigt is trying to make a case that RR's were more productive back then they are now, purely based on the number of trains. In which case he is of course, wrong.

I was not trying to make any point. I was simply bringing forth something of interest
that I thought was relevant to the current discussion. Your implication that I do not
know what I am talking about aside, I will simply say that I am sorry for offending
your knowledge of todays' modern railroading by comparing it to that of 70 years ago.....
it won't happen again. By the way, I AM familiar with the area of the "old" Cotton Belt
that was referenced in the piece.

[quote="Bigt"]I was not trying to make any point. I was simply bringing forth something of interest
that I thought was relevant to the current discussion.

I apologize Bigt if I offended you in any way, I have a bad habit of making a point using as few words as necessary and then leaving the impression that I am a condescending, disrespectful authority when I post my opinion's, I take pleasure in what you, Bigt, and all the other posters bring to this forum.

anyone know how busy the massena terminal railroad is? and ive been hearing alot of trains in the afternoon early evening hours and all through the night. anyone have info on this?

"Kasey",

I can't really speak for the Massena Terminal nowadays, but, when I worked in
the Plant Protection Dept. in the 80's, it was very busy. They were, and I assume still are,
a five day a week operation - all days shifts. Every morning they would bring their train
over to the plant and enter their own small yard (three or four tracks as I recall?) Do their
blocking, then, take off for one of the three plant areas. I don't recall much traffic into
Area One (Wire, Rod and Bar area). They did considerable work in Area Two (the Hill)
where the Re-melt and Extrusion areas are located. Boxcars of scrap coming in, boxcars
loaded with finish stock going out, along with gondolas of the same. Their busiest area
was in Area Three (the Smelting area, ie., Potrooms and Carbon Plant areas). They would
bring in loaded hoppers of alumina ore, take out the empties. Also, hoppers of carbon black
and tankers of coal tar pitch in. There was a Trackmobile that did the hour by hour - as needed -
switching of the ore cars at the ore building. There was (still is?) a short but pretty good grade
coming up out of Area Three to the "the Hill" and that was always a good show when they were
pulling from there! In those days, and probably still today, the usual motive power was an EMD
MP15. I do recall one summer when they had one of their old Alcos (an S2 I believe) parked in
one of the bays in Building 140 (W,R & B). I was working nights then, so, I'm not sure if they were
actually using it during the day, or, if it was just being "stored". It only stayed about a week or
so. Although this is outdated, I hope it helps you some........

CN unit came down leading about 11:00 today.

There must be a slow order somewhere near Liverpool, he was crawling past Heid's and I've noticed some others coming in going slow as well.

Which, the light is messed up at the corner by Heid's - it's tied into the crossing signals and apparently keeps getting the message to hold traffic eastbound/southbound to Old Liverpool Road. So maybe that crossing is why the slow order, wouldn't be the first time.

lvrr325 wrote:CN unit came down leading about 11:00 today.

There must be a slow order somewhere near Liverpool, he was crawling past Heid's and I've noticed some others coming in going slow as well.

Which, the light is messed up at the corner by Heid's - it's tied into the crossing signals and apparently keeps getting the message to hold traffic eastbound/southbound to Old Liverpool Road. So maybe that crossing is why the slow order, wouldn't be the first time.

I was able to catch this train in the Pulaski area. It had some kind of brake trouble in the Lacona and Pulaski area tying up both towns for an hour or so. CN cab # 2305 looked almost brand new.

A nice Q152 headed north out of watertown with what looks like a Pre-Fab turnout on the rear. CSX leader #4

Bigt wrote:"Kasey",

I can't really speak for the Massena Terminal nowadays, but, when I worked in
the Plant Protection Dept. in the 80's, it was very busy. They were, and I assume still are,
a five day a week operation - all days shifts. Every morning they would bring their train
over to the plant and enter their own small yard (three or four tracks as I recall?) Do their
blocking, then, take off for one of the three plant areas. I don't recall much traffic into
Area One (Wire, Rod and Bar area). They did considerable work in Area Two (the Hill)
where the Re-melt and Extrusion areas are located. Boxcars of scrap coming in, boxcars
loaded with finish stock going out, along with gondolas of the same. Their busiest area
was in Area Three (the Smelting area, ie., Potrooms and Carbon Plant areas). They would
bring in loaded hoppers of alumina ore, take out the empties. Also, hoppers of carbon black
and tankers of coal tar pitch in. There was a Trackmobile that did the hour by hour - as needed -
switching of the ore cars at the ore building. There was (still is?) a short but pretty good grade
coming up out of Area Three to the "the Hill" and that was always a good show when they were
pulling from there! In those days, and probably still today, the usual motive power was an EMD
MP15. I do recall one summer when they had one of their old Alcos (an S2 I believe) parked in
one of the bays in Building 140 (W,R & B). I was working nights then, so, I'm not sure if they were
actually using it during the day, or, if it was just being "stored". It only stayed about a week or
so. Although this is outdated, I hope it helps you some........

this does hepl quite a bit! i have taken an interest in this line, as to why id ont know, i live in norwood new york and mostly i dont go to massena much( visit potsdam much more often) and when i do go to massena i never see the terminal working. and they till have the two mp15s for power

I saw a rail train in Helena on Wednesday. Waited around for a bit, but they didn't go anywhere. Saw a huge pile of tie plates as well.

Quite a few cars in the old GM plant last Wed. / Thurs. Mostly flats with box
type containers....most likely for moving out the waste soil material. I think
I saw in the paper that it was destined for somewhere in the Mid-west? Also,
a few boxcars up the lead further.

Bigt wrote:Quite a few cars in the old GM plant last Wed. / Thurs. Mostly flats with box
type containers....most likely for moving out the waste soil material. I think
I saw in the paper that it was destined for somewhere in the Mid-west? Also,
a few boxcars up the lead further.

Speaking of these cars there are quite a few on the Q621 that is watertown now. 7pm