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

charlie6017 wrote:
The Bullsheet's locomotive roster hasn't been updated, but the highest number (3278) of the new GE units is listed
as "ET44AH", so I'll guess that's what these are. I can't keep up with all the different designations, I'll assume it's
a 4400 hp GE!

http://www.bullsheet.com/roster-numeric.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Charlie

I checked rrpicturearchives.net as well, nothing there either, and nothing turned up on a quick google search. Guess they must be truly fresh-off-the-line. I think you found the "best guess", so I'll go with that. Thanks!

They look like ET44AC's to me. For the uninitiated, that's the Tier 4 compliant revision of the ES44AC.

Edit: Actually, they're probably classified as ET44AH's as I see was already said. CSX has stuck with the extra ballast option for several years now. All their ES44AC's have been ballasted to 432,000 pounds for instance, making them ES44AH's (432,000 pounds versus the stock 412,000).

3200 series are new Tier 4 Gevo...

Sounds like what everyone long suspected ever since these promises were made to secure their low-cost power, is coming to pass in Massena.

http://northcountrynow.com/business/alc ... tate-01566" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And besides whatever's left to haul out from the remediation project at the former GM site and perhaps debris from Alcoa East as it's knocked down and the site cleaned up, this basically is the death warrant for one of the last remnants of the New York & Ottawa Railway. With no GM or Alcoa East, the Rooseveltown to Helena industrial spur has no industry left to serve (although I'd expect it to stay in place for a few years in the hope of locating something here to create a few jobs in place of the many that are lost).

While hopefully the more viable West plant will be fully reactivated one of these days, how does closing its smelter affect CSX's St. Lawrence line and the Massena Terminal Railway? Will there still be rail traffic coming into the West plant?

This will end the ALCOA unit train of hoppers carrying alumina ore. No need for the ore
as there will be no operating potline. Also true for any carbon black and coal tar pitch to
make carbon anodes for use in the pots. This of course was a rather large part of the daily
routine for the Massena Terminal Railroad. There always has been other hauling and switching
duties for them within the plant, but, I would imagine this closure will hurt them, maybe even
put them out of business.

As for CSX and "the Terminal", they may pickup some of the traffic that will bring the raw
aluminum product into the Massena plant. ALCOA states that the casthouse and the wire, rod, and
bar divisions will remain, so, aluminum (in the form of pigs / ingots?) will have to be brought to
Massena once the potline will no longer be producing their needs. I have seen in the past, gondolas
leaving the plant with huge billets of aluminum.....way more / bigger than would, or could, be moved
by truck. ALCOA also says the East Plant (the old Reynolds Aluminum smelter) will now be permanently
closed and dismantled. That process might generate some short term rail business, as did the closure of
the GM foundry.

Traffic hung for a while by the big fire in Watertown. Q621 was being held short of the scene.

tree68 wrote:Traffic hung for a while by the big fire in Watertown. Q621 was being held short of the scene.

Speaking of that fire, here's the report on it from WWNY. Sounds ahem.....convenient! I'll keep this railroad-related as I'm assuming
CSX might not be able to run their traffic. I'm not sure how far from the tracks these warehouses are.

http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/Massiv ... 15372.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Charlie

Adjacent would be a good word.

Plug these coordinates into your favorite map program: N 43 59' 8" W 75 55' 19"

At one point I heard that there were hoses over the tracks...

tree68 wrote:Adjacent would be a good word.

Plug these coordinates into your favorite map program: N 43 59' 8" W 75 55' 19"

At one point I heard that there were hoses over the tracks...

Perfect.......thank you, Mr. Tree!!

Charlie

Northbound manifest currently stopped in Potsdam, blocking two crossings. Drove up to the head end, no debris or anything, looks like a broken knuckle.

Looks like Cuomo and Alcoa managed to work something out in regards to the closures of the smelter at Alcoa's Massena West plant.

http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/Deal-W ... 66371.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/news/new ... sYear=2015" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Short summary: Cuomo/NY and Alcoa agreed on a deal to make the smelting at the West plant facility more competitive through various subsidies. The deal would save 600 jobs, many of which were going to be lost due to the closure of the West plant.

Hopefully this will keep the unit ore trains going.

I would think that it should keep the unit trains rolling. No other feasible way to
get the alumina ore to Massena. Trucks certainly cannot do it. From what I have
heard, they will be producing the same amount of molten aluminum now as they
were prior to the Nov. 2 closure announcement. Hope this helps both CSX and the
Massena Terminal RR.

Makes one wonder if they were ever serious about closing it. They've sure been doing a lot of wrangling in recent years to keep their low cost hydro power for a facility that supposedly was doomed.

Not only does this get them off the hook for failing to live up to their promise to modernize the East plant and maintain those jobs, this secures their low cost power for the West plant that they would've lost for failing to live up to that agreement, while significantly sweetening the deal on top of everything else.

I was right before that that the East plant was doomed and that Alcoa had no intentions to modernize it, hopefully I'm right this time as well and the West plant will live on past this 3-5 year period that they're saying.

I saw a train go by this morning, 9:40ish. Mixed, first half was containers, second half was tanks, then spine and boxcars. There were a LOT of empty container cars, and only a few were double-stacked. I'd say probably 30% of the space was used. Presumably that means that Montreal, or further down the line, is a source of containers. Like what kind? Anybody know?

I think there's an intermodal facility in Montreal that is a relatively more recent source of
traffic for CSX. Others can expand further, but I believe a couple of the symbols are Q152 and
Q153.

Charlie