Official New England Southern Thread (NEGS)

thebigham wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 6:35 pm ...the approximately 73-mile long line of railroad that runs between Milepost P 21.30 at Lincoln, New Hampshire to Milepost C 0.58 at Concord, New Hampshire...

I guess someone thought it would be too cliche to name it Lincoln & Concord Railroad or Concord & Lincoln Railroad...

Merrimack & Grafton is not that far out in left field.. Concord, the southern terminus in in Merrimack Country.. Lincoln, the northern terminus where NEGS has freight rights to, is in Grafton Country.. IMHO Sounds better than rattling off Merrimack and Belknap, plus there is already an "MB" railroad in NH with Milford Bennington.

Concord, Laconia & Lincoln Railroad could've had a nice ring to it as well but if I had to guess, I'd say they probably stayed away from "Lincoln" in the name, out of respect for the Plymouth & Lincoln Railroad, so Merrimack and Grafton Railroad it is. I'm glad they didn't decide to call it the Merrimack, Belknap & Grafton Railroad, that would've been awful.

b&m 1566 wrote: ↑Fri May 22, 2020 12:12 pm ... I'm glad they didn't decide to call it the Merrimack, Belknap & Grafton Railroad, that would've been awful.

Sort of rolls off your tongue and bruises your chin.

STB granted both Tri Rail Holdings request to own the Merrimack and Grafton Railroad Company and that company's request to become a Class 3 common carrier on June 2nd--with an effective date of June 5th. Interested parties had until June 12th to object to and/or comment on the decisions--which nobody did. The transfer of the NEGS lease of state-owned track to Merrimack and Grafton can't happen until June 20th--which is required by STB regulations that require a 30-day waiting period from the original STB filing on May 21st. Also, the transfer of the trackage lease from NEGS to the new company must be approved by NHDOT--which hasn't been publically announced, yet. It's interesting to note that the STB decision creating the Merrimack and Grafton states the new railroad expects annual revenue "not in excess of $5 million"; that's that quite an increase over what NEGS was getting from moving a handful of slurry loads to 3M in recent years! STB decision also notes all shippers on the line have been notified of the new company; would be interesting to know who ALL those shippers are.

June has come and gone. Anyone know if the Merrimack & Grafton has officially taken over NEGS?

Yes. They ran to 3M sometime last week.

I guess that makes New England Southern a Fallen Flag now.

b&m 1566 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 7:29 am I guess that makes New England Southern a Fallen Flag now.

No, we will still use the name.

Are there other freight prospects?

b&m 1566 wrote: ↑Fri May 22, 2020 7:07 am BandA - If I'm understanding the wording correctly, NEGS will become a defunct class III railroad and exist only on paper. I understand why they want the name to reflect the region they are serving but I'm not sure why they wouldn't just change the name of NEGS to MGRC.

My (completely uneducated) guess is there may be some sort of legal obligations-- equipment leases, say, or pending litigation-- that need to stay segregated in the old entity.

Rumor I heard is they want to run sand south. Possibly to Lowell Junction? Don't know where they would load it.

atholrail wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:57 pm Rumor I heard is they want to run sand south. Possibly to Lowell Junction? Don't know where they would load it.

Tilton, by 3M

A you tube video by Stephen Demboske caught the 2555 headed west toward East Deerfield this am: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsN7AA7Mh34. I understand that it is headed to Burlington, VT for maintenance

A shout out to Stephen Demboske for some great effort to capture the action.

Steve

2555 made it to Bellows Falls last night, the new Hobo unit should be on NEGS territory soon.