Connecticut Southern (CSOR) Discussion

QB 52.32 wrote:Keep in mind a couple of things: CSOR is CSX's contractor, established by the interchange paper barriers to create this contracting role, as they were for Conrail and CSX Intermodal containers are not competing with CSOR. Carload traffic like what CSOR handles is for the heavier types of freight while intermodal is for the lighter freight which otherwise would have moved via truck, and what is seen follows this rule of thumb and not anything not/done by either railroad. CSOR is to CSX like one would see a regional or small airline providing (exclusively) contracted regional service for a large airline. CSOR and CSX's fortunes rise and fall together.

Does CSOR have their own marketing department? It would seem that they have let a lot of business slip by over the last few years on the East Hartford/Manchester line. Hartford Distributors comes to mind as they have greatly enlarged their area of beer distribution buying out the largest distributor in Litchfield county. The siding looks like it is still there and I would think that shipments from mi-western/western breweries would be an ideal competitive rail haul.

J.D. Lang

https://www.gwrr.com/operations/railroa ... nformation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They do but the business may not be profitable enough for them to want it. And they still show the HDI spur as being active on their map.

BWParker:
Thanks for the information and link. I wonder if G&W ever tried to approach them or others after the buyout of Railamerica.
J.D. Lang

About 3 years ago, a management source at HDI told me that they hadn't used the spur in "15 or 20 years" and that it was last used for outbound glass and aluminum.

CSOR was in Manchester yesterday at 1:50 PM. They were pulling one covered hopper from the Central CT Coop, and there was 1 box car in the "yard".

I was out in Manchester today and all I see is empty track. CSO and all that was before has let this line go to nothing. It is still in decent shape and I watch the crew that runs the truck over the rails just the other day so it is in decent shape. But there are no customers and CSO doesn't seem to be trying to get any new ones. The Co-Op used to get about 4-6 cars, now it is down to one or two. Sandford and Haley get nothing that I can see of but may get a rare car every now then then but doubtful. Brick company in yard does get a few cars which is good. HDI, there has not been a car on that track for over 20 years. Vandals used to break into cars while they were in Hartford yard so HDI gave up on them. Plus I hear Beer companies don't ship by rail much these days because of break ins all over the system. East Hartford yard does have a few customers but the yard is used mostly for storage of C&D cars not in use. There is potential but again not sure CSO goes after it. I also got gas today at BJ's in Manchester and saw the truck that brings it up from New Haven dropping another load. One rail car could solve the multiple trucks but then again, CSO has to sell the idea. Agway also could use rail as it did in the past but I believe their goods do come in by rail in West Springfield nd are then trucked down to the various stores. I bet BJ's could also use a train car of tires for their store as they do a decent business with that product. CSO needs to get out there and sell itself or this line is a goner and will become another Busway if we don't watch out.

A day after a real Co-op delivery and pickup of the empties + 1 momentary drive-by = "THE LINE HAS GONE TO NOTHING!"

Boy, tough room.


Let's please remember that CSOR is not an indie shortline operating in their own vacuum like their next-door neighbors CNZR. They are part of the multi-billion dollar Gennesee & Wyoming borg. Darien, CT headquarters of G&W doesn't make snap judgements or rash decisions on any of their holdings. They play all their reporting marks as strategic chess pieces pan-region. They are horse-traders at swapping lines in and out of the company when they see tactical advantage, or see a lost cause they have to cut ties with. But if one of their reporting marks holds a line that they see deep long-term potential in, they don't panic about dry spells. It's all about the long game.

It's been 3-1/2 years since G&W bought RailAmerica. They've had ample time to plot how SLR, NECR, and CSOR fit their Northeast strategy. They've made no fundamental operational changes to CSOR other than tightening the logistical sharing with NECR. And have loosened the purse-strings for expanding Hartford Yard, plus twisting arms with the state and Amtrak for those freight passing sidings that are being installed with the Springfield Line upgrades and the repairs to the CT River bridge so the weight restrictions to East Hartford got lifted. They've actually let NECR expand by acquiring Claremont & Concord. They've match-funded TIGER grants to get SLR's main up to contiguous 286K. Those are not the actions of a company that's freaking out because a single day's site visit to an irregular customer's siding spots no cars. Long view...everything Darien cares about is about the long view.

What's the long view for the Manchester Secondary? I-84 in downtown Hartford is going to get the living crap torn out of it for a decade-plus when the Aetna Viaduct goes under the knife. It is going to create great--but unfortunately necessary--pain and suffering for movement of goods across the state because of how ill-equipped I-91 is to spread all that load. The state is going to need to triage with every partner it can find for every little thing that helps take an edge off that traffic and helps prop up the shipping economy for the duration of that chaotic disruption. CSOR has lots of options it can mobilize with its east-of-river holdings to grab some business during that disruption and try to keep it. They have CSX increasing its presence in Massachusetts. They have PAS increasing its presence on the Highland. Why wouldn't G&W keep the Manchester Sec. as a key active hold when the planning and prognosis for I-84 are still years out and a very fluid situation?

Moreover, why wouldn't they keep the Manchester Sec. as a key active hold when NEC FUTURE is right now studying that inland bypass for Amtrak on their track, and said bypass just got bumped up in priority by the Shoreline towns thumbs-downing the destruction the I-95 spine would've caused to their towns? Why wouldn't they be thinking "unless there's a full-on collapse in fortunes, we need to see where this goes in case that Willimantic re-connection to NECR gets a recommended rating"? The 84mageddon project gives them 10 years to schlep some business from the compromised shipping access across Greater Hartford; maybe the decade-plus of passenger studies actually reach a recommended alternative by that point that spikes the value of CSOR's line ownership?


CSOR isn't going to be making those long-view decisions by its lonesome in a vacuum. The home office at G&W will be steering that as it works its whole map. This is a much larger and more integrated conglomerate that CSOR belongs to now vs. when they were with RailAmerica and RailTex. The chess board is larger, and the focus on the chess game dwarfs the ebb and flow of the individual marks' business cycles. Looking at an empty Co-op siding on one drive-by misses the whole big picture. G&W didn't keep CSOR and its branchlines in the family and push hard for that bridge repair because the Co-op siding was make-or-break. It's barely a zit; it means nothing to them. The only thing that matters is what potential G&W sees in the long view. We don't know precisely what they're thinking, but the beef-up in Hartford and holding steady on-course elsewhere in Year 4 after the acquisition sure doesn't seem to be telegraphing current or recent anxiety about CSOR's system. That's the only thing that matters.

I know there is a bigger picture for CSO and the whole G&W but the line is never been so slow with customers then it is right now. I see every day the building of the Hartford AMTRAK line and they are finally connecting CSO back to the main grid so the junction to East Hartford and Manchester is almost done. That is great news but if they want more customers they should get out there before and try and drum up something on the line. There has been no new customers on that line in 30 years. My family used to work that line, The McAuliffe's with their father being the hear engine man in the good ol days and Jay and Billy working as hogger's right up to Conrail days so I know how this line can operate. It is just sad to see very little on this line. The South Windsor line when I grew up was almost forgotten compared to the Manchester line. Total opposite as it stands today. I am hoping they finally get their act together and connect Manchester to Willimantic but every year that goes by I see nothing on the long term plans. Yes AMTRAK has maybe the chance of going that way but to me and what I see, it will never happen unless major buyouts of property are taken as there is no way the line can go through Manchester and out through Vernon like it did before. To many NIMBY's will kill it.

CSOR 2011 was delivered to Hartford today on CSO-4. This is a GP38-2 painted in the G&W orange, and was formerly NECR 3843.

CSO-3 made a run into Manchester today around 12:30pm. 3855 arrived light, picked up that boxcar in the siding near the Main St crossing, than departed back to the Hartford yard, never even going up to the CO-OP which had no cars. Also seems they installed an e-bell on the 1st crossing "curve" on Tolland Turnpike (the one just before the crossing by the bridge) recently, everything else still has mechanical bells.

Any cars at the co-op?

I took a drive over there a few hours ago and there are no cars. I haven't seen anything in a few months, but that's not to say they haven't been over there. I think they might be receiving one car which is dropped off than picked up once it's emptied/filled as that's what they did a few months ago. I'm thinking about stopping in there one of these days and asking.

The early-afternoon runs on the Manchester Sec. make them easy to slip under the radar, since they happen time of day when the highest % of local residents are holed up at work or school and not out on the roads. I bet more often than not trips to Manchester go un-spotted. Downtown East Hartford has the most eyeballs on them by far, but observers without a scanner wouldn't be able to tell a co-op run apart from the much more frequent daily churn of yard-to-yard moves and light equipment moves crossing the river. If CSOR isn't overly chatty on the radio, you probably would have to ask a crew or yardmaster for the real skinny on how often they run to Manchester and how variable the schedule slots are when they do.

Recently they have been doing just one car in, one car out on each trip. It doesn't seem to be very busy.

I caught up with them last Tuesday along US 5 in South Windsor. They were going north with two large high cube cars (probably from East Hartford) and 2 JAMX high side gondola cars which I'm guessing were along for the ride. They picked up one empty from CNZR in South Windsor.

It's pretty sad to see the Manchester Co-op so quiet. Back in the 1970s and 80s they were probably the largest railroad freight customer in Central CT.