Portsmouth Branch Activity

Funny how we've gone from talking about Sea3 expansion and daily trains of gas coming into town on the tracking wave to demand that can't be met and foreign ships docking in the river.

While on the subject of NH propane supplies, the NH Northcoast RR had
29 loads of LPG going north this AM. Over the last three weeks or so,
they have had a number of trains with between 15 and 23 cars of LPG.

In addition to the 29 LPG this AM, the northbound also had two loads of
steel and 22 empty gravel cars, making it one of the longest northbound
trains in recent memory.

Long train, short railroad, mixed cargo ... Definitely sounds viable for a long time to come ...

Am interested in shooting some drone footage of the trains on the Portsmouth branch. Does anyone n ow the best way to get notification of movement on the Branch? I have my scanner programmed but don’t really know what I am listening for! Got lucky the other day and saw one crossing 33. I live near Rockingham Junction and work in Portsmouth so hoping to keep my drone ready to go at short notice.

For interest here are a few of my recent train videos:

Friday Freight on Rockingham - https://youtu.be/yQWdbdp3y7o" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Downeaster in the fall - https://youtu.be/JdkPCFe86E8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hampton disused trestles - https://youtu.be/-UWjmkurMsA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Any idea who was getting steel?

Harris Corporation in Fryeburg Maine is the business that gets the steel.
The steel is unloaded in the area of the NHN engine house in Ossipee and
trucked to Fryeburg. The rail shipments are somewhat seasonal, with
many more cars arriving in Ossipee during the construction season,
with a downturn during the winter. More on the Harris Corp. here.
http://ahharris.com/our-products/fabric ... and-steel/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jonathan603 wrote: Hampton disused trestles - https://youtu.be/-UWjmkurMsA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That marsh video is great, shared! I've always wondered what's left out there-

Jonathan the Portsmouth job is DO-1 so listen for the dispatcher talking to them. They usually come in from Rockingham between 10 am and 2 pm layover and go out the next day in the afternoon, hope this helps.

Great thanks for the info!

mokanpy wrote:

Jonathan603 wrote: Hampton disused trestles - https://youtu.be/-UWjmkurMsA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That marsh video is great, shared! I've always wondered what's left out there-

Yes it was interesting to see. There is a ton of parking at the end of Depot Road (42.911798, -70.851778). There are often dog walkers there.

DO-1 510 crossed RTE-33 around 4:00 this afternoon headed into town with 3 Boise and 5 propane. Should be laying over tonight, not sure if they canned at Highliner or up to Gosling road.
Also around noontime there was a surveyor working on the north side of the tracks along the edge of the cemetery where the road goes into the salt pile building hmmm condo project relalted???

DO-1 510 backed in on the pads at Rockingham as of 17:00 with 8 Boise 3 centerbeams and 5 box and 2 propane. Should be inbound tomorrow.

"This project will reconstruct the railroad crossings at Green Street, Barberry Lane, Michael Succi Drive and Gosling Road. The project will also install utility sleeves at Green Street and Barberry Lane."

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/2018 ... in-april-2

Well that's good news. I thought I read sometime back that they were going to do Maplewood also. Will they put crossing protection at Green Street so the crew doesn't have to stop and protect, really screws up traffic at Maplewood and Market street when the train is long enough to fowl those two roads. I'm guessing no!!

That would make sense. So probably not.