St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (SLR/SLQ)

I wouldn't be surprised if PAR was in fact running more via CMQ. What makes me really wonder though is whether or not this is an indicator that SLR was previously handling a lot of Bucksport's traffic. Hard to believe that mill really is gone.

How many paper mills are on the SLR now? Zero. However, they still have paper 'on-line'... NEPW operates 3 crossdocks on the SLR and Safe Handling also has one (Although not sure if it is paper that they handle). In any regard, A lot of stuff trucks into NEPW and then goes out Rail beyond our borders. Just because you don't see it interchange on rail doesn't mean they are taking 'em out!

Also, the routing depends on where it is going.... if you read a few Trains magazines ago, they had a great article on the paper industry. Quad Sussex, which is one of the larger receivers of coated paper, handles inbound rail via CN.... so a lot of the time the routing goes ST-SLR-CN, or CMQ-SLR-CN.... but you won't see the CMQ-SLR bit because it is in Canada where the interchange happens.

I have been spending some time lately around Coaticook, Quebec. What kind of schedule dose SLR/SLQ have. How often dose a south bound leave Sherbrooke or one come up from the states.

They operate east/west (north/south) five days a week, excluding weekends, although personally I'd still need clarification as to whether that means a train doesn't run Saturday or Monday mornings (I'm assuming the latter). The trains meet at the former Isaacson Steel plant in Berlin, NH roughly around midnight (give or take a few hours). Word over the summer was that 394's (eastbound) were running earlier, although the westbounds still recrew at Island Pond, Vt. before crossing the border, given Fritz's morning sightings of 393 up there.

townshipfarmer,
The SLQ westbound 393 leaves Island Pond around 0700-0830 on Tuesday through Saturday, so they should be through Coaticook around 0830-1030 (i.e. mid-morning).

the SLQ eastbound 394 leaves Richmond in the afternoon and usually arrives in Island Pond in late afternoon or evening, so I'd look for them through Coaticook in late afternoon. They run Monday through Friday.

The don't always run every day that they are scheduled.
I hope this helps.
Best,
Fritz

Thank you very much. This is the info I was looking for.

Caught SLR 394 in Lennoxville, QC this evening (rather, this afternoon - it gets dark so early!) and chased it to the foot of the Waterville grade at about 5:30 PM. It had:

SLR 3803
SLR 803
QGRY 3102
SLR 3008
50 mixed freight

SLR 3008 was not running but had the yellow strobe light near the rear of the hood flashing the whole time I saw it (autostart?). The remaining units were in run-8 as I passed them exiting Lennoxville and remained in full throttle to the Waterville grade. The cars were a real mish-mash of loaded centerbeam flats, a few paper boxcars, many tank cars of all sorts (including CO2 cars with full-length sills), salt hoppers, an empty bulkhead flat, two empty depressed-center flats and two full-height gondolas (which appeared to be loaded with scrap).

Hello,
On this rainy - almost icy - morning, I caught the SLQ westbound 393 leaving Island Pond at 0840 with another relatively short train:

QG GP40 3102
GP40-2 3008
RM-1 803
GP40-3 3803
5 empty centerbeam flats (4 from RCP in Island Pond)
15 empty propane cars
6 empty tank cars
2 empty NaClO3 hoppers
6 empty hi-cube boxcars
6 empty boxcars
2 loaded hi-cube boxcars

That's 42 cars total, including only 2 loads and 40 empties. Again noticeably absent in this train - as the few others I have seen in the last month or so - are any paper loads coming off the PAR (some with boxcars labeled SAPPI).
Have a great day,
Fritz

Hi all. I've been reading here for a while and figured it was time to join. I live just off the tracks about 2 miles east of Island Pond, VT. I thought it might be useful for some of the members here if I occasionally posted when the trains come though. So I will start it off by letting you know that the eastbound train left Island Pond at 9:25PM tonight.

Thanks, NEK..that will be useful as I often hang my hat in Locke's Mills. I am trying to plan for a photo op.

eustis22 wrote:Thanks, NEK..that will be useful as I often hang my hat in Locke's Mills. I am trying to plan for a photo op.

Glad to help. I'll try to stay on top of it for you.

East bound train is now leaving Island Pond, VT at 8:50PM.

NEK,
Thanks for the evening reports from Island Pond. They are much appreciated.
Best,
Fritz

Fritz wrote:NEK,
Thanks for the evening reports from Island Pond. They are much appreciated.
Best,
Fritz

You're welcome, Fritz.

Train is eastbound from Island Pond at 10:05PM tonight.

Train is headed east from Island Pond at 9:25PM