St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (SLR/SLQ)

Plow has been sitting on one of the stub tracks behind the shop at Lewiston Jct for the past week or so.

Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0809 with the following:

GP40-2 3047
QG GP40 3105
GP40-2 3007
8 centerbeam flats
10 tank cars
28 propane cars
1 covered hopper
6 hi-cube boxcars
3 boxcars

That's 56 cars total, including 2 loads and 54 empties.
Have a great day,
Fritz

Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0800 with the following:

QG SD40U 6904
GP40-2 3007
GP40-2 3047
6 centerbeam flats
20 hi-cube boxcars
5 boxcars
19 propane cars
3 tank cars
10 covered hoppers
1 flat car

That's 64 cars total, including 13 loads and 51 empties. Lots of loaded (n=13) and empty (n=12) boxcars and, of course, lots of propane empties.
Have a great weekend,
Fritz

Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0750 with the following:

GP40-3 3806
QG GP40 3105
GP40-3 3803
RM-1 803
8 centerbeam flats
3 boxcars
1 hi-cube boxcar
11 tank cars
23 propane cars

That's 46 cars total, including 4 loads and 42 empties.
Have a great weekend,
Fritz

Hello,
On this colder morning, the SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0816 with the following:

GP40 3004
GP40-3 3805
RM-1 804
4 centerbeam flats
5 boxcars
2 hi-cube boxcars
2 covered hoppers
8 tank cars
12 propane cars

That's 33 cars total, including 4 loads and 29 empties. Short train for a Tuesday, but, of course, yesterday was a holiday in the U.S.
Have a great day,
Fritz

Hello,
Another cold morning (-16oF) and today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0916 with the following:

GP40 3004
QG GP40-2W 3014
RM-1 805
GP40-3 3803
11 centerbeam flats
3 hi-cube boxcars
7 boxcars
15 propane cars

That's 36 cars total, all empties. Of interest were the 8 SLR boxcars and 2 SLR hi-cubes that went west this morning. Not sure if they are coming out of storage for us or for scrap?
Best,
Fritz

3804 and the plow went west to the border at Norton yesterday, passing through Gorham about 12:30 pm.

Hello,
Apparently, yesterday's plow special never made it as far west as Island Pond or Norton. The tracks were clearly not plowed, and the 3804 was the middle - and much needed - unit on last night's 393. My guess is that they turned back to Lewiston Junction somewhere between Gorham and Island Pond, rather than continuing west all the way to Norton.

Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0826 and reached the border at Norton at 0916 with the following:

RM-1 803
GP40-3 3804
GP40-2 3008
5 centerbeam flats
2 bulkhead flats
3 AIMX hi-sided gondolas
3 covered hoppers
11 tank cars
33 propane cars
4 boxcars
20 hi-cube boxcars

That's 81 cars total, including 11 loads and 70 empties. 16 cars were interchanged from ST. Of interest were the two empty BNSF bulkhead flats and the 20 hi-cube boxcars.
Have a great weekend,
Fritz

Starting to wonder if the inbound loads on SLR are raw material for IP's container board facility in Auburn ... That would certainly explain the outbound empties ...

gokeefe wrote:Starting to wonder if the inbound loads on SLR are raw material for IP's container board facility in Auburn ... That would certainly explain the outbound empties ...

Inbound pulp has been a staple of SLR traffic since they started operations 30 years ago.... think buying power of US dollar over Canadian. Not all pulp users are paper mills.

Curious what some other examples of pulp uses would be ...

Due to heavy snowfall up on the QC portions of the line, this morning's 394 didn't pass through Gorham until 06:35, with 393 having passed through at 02:30

Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0842 with the following:

RM-1 805
GP40-3 3803
QG GP40-2W 3014
7 centerbeam flats
15 propane cars
4 boxcars
9 hi-cube boxcars

That's only 34 cars total, including 5 loads and 29 empties. No cars from the Lewiston Branch and only 2 from ST.

Lots of snow here in the North Country!
Best,
Fritz

Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0800 with the following:

QG SD40U 6904
RM-1 805
GP40-3 3803
QG GP40-2W 3014 (offline)
4 centerbeam flats
6 boxcars
3 hi-cube boxcars
4 tank cars
7 propane cars

That's 24 cars total, including 3 loads and 21 empties. Short train, probably because they apparently ran extra 393/394s Wednesday night.

Also of note: They plowed and flanged the tracks again sometime Wednesday or Thursday.
Have a great weekend,
Fritz

Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond early and crested the summit at Summit at 0819 with the following:

GP40-3 3805
RM-1 804
GP40-3 3804
10 centerbeam flats
5 boxcars
4 hi-cube boxcars
1 covered hopper
8 tank cars
28 propane cars

That's 56 cars total, including 1 load and 55 empties.
Have a great weekend,
Fritz