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Re: Portland Waterfront Rail Ops (Yard 8, Intermodal, etc)

 by Cowford ¦  Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:18 pm ¦  Forum: Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford Rail System) ¦  Topic: Portland Waterfront Rail Ops (Yard 8, Intermodal, etc) ¦  Replies: 1657 ¦  Views: 380055

I can't imagine what container line would consider calling at both Halifax and Portland on the same voyage; containerships are so expensive to operate that the emphasis is to make as few port calls as possible to keep the ships moving. It's been frequently commented that no vessel earns money while...

Grand Trunk - Island Pond article in Classic Trains

 by Cowford ¦  Mon Aug 28, 2023 8:28 pm ¦  Forum: New England Railfan ¦  Topic: Grand Trunk - Island Pond article in Classic Trains ¦  Replies: 0 ¦  Views: 342

It was nice to see a GT article in the Fall '23 edition. However, the pic on pgs 20-21 has me stumped. There is an isolated, ballasted narrow gauge track ~400-ft in length running between two yard tracks. Any idea as to what that was for?

Derailment at Brassau, ME

 by Cowford ¦  Sat Apr 15, 2023 5:39 pm ¦  Forum: Canadian Pacific Railway ¦  Topic: Derailment at Brassau, ME ¦  Replies: 24 ¦  Views: 2232

A WB CP train reportedly hit a washout this am at Brassua, ME (about 18 miles west of Jackman). Three locomotives and it appears four centerbeams and a couple of wells derailed. Three-man crew is reportedly ok, but fuel ignited. I can't imagine it will be an easy job to get firefighting equipment to...

Re: Railroads on Television

 by Cowford ¦  Wed Apr 12, 2023 12:44 pm ¦  Forum: Books, Magazines, Music, TV, and Movies, and other Media ¦  Topic: Railroads on Television ¦  Replies: 116 ¦  Views: 66671

And now for something completely random: One of the two main characters in the first episode of the Netflix series, "Beef" is wearing a vest that has a C&NW patch sewn on in one of the scenes.

Re: Potato freight RR’s

 by Cowford ¦  Tue Mar 28, 2023 1:25 pm ¦  Forum: New England Railfan ¦  Topic: Potato originating railroads in New England ¦  Replies: 27 ¦  Views: 3392

I'm sure the MEC had some potato houses, and Lilliput WW&F handled spuds as well. Not quite New England, but Long Island Railroad handled thousands of originating potato loads probably into the 50s. Years ago, I met a retired Long Island engineer that had stories of firing many a potato extra.

If you've not seen this video on Youtube, it may provide some help... Waterville area shots (including the station) start at 22:00. Filmed in part by Lawrence "Larry" Brown who was in a carpenter in MEC's B&B department.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWwDCyCL3KY

...Back in the train was GTW 623529 with a load from Hancock Lumber. For those of you unfamiliar, Hancock has three mills in in Maine at Casco, Bethel and Pittsfield and claims to be the largest producer of Eastern White Pine lumber. I wonder if this is just a one-off, an experiment or being shippe...

Re: Graffiti Overload

 by Cowford ¦  Sun Jul 17, 2022 12:38 pm ¦  Forum: General Class I and II Discussion ¦  Topic: Graffiti Overload ¦  Replies: 14 ¦  Views: 1514

With no practical solution to fight tagging or clean affected equipment, car owners are resorting to adapting a damage mitigation measure in the form of moving marks and numbers higher to avoid most taggers.
Image

Re: CSX laying off entire IT department

 by Cowford ¦  Sat Jul 09, 2022 8:20 am ¦  Forum: CSX Transportation including Pan Am ¦  Topic: CSX laying off 137 IT department jobs ¦  Replies: 9 ¦  Views: 1708

The first line in the JAX SUN article:

CSX Corp. is partnering with an India-based company to outsource some of its information technology services, affecting 137 jobs.

Eolesen, I suggest you edit your post subject header

Re: CSX to acquire Pan Am Railways

 by Cowford ¦  Fri Jul 01, 2022 10:22 am ¦  Forum: Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford Rail System) ¦  Topic: CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways ¦  Replies: 4515 ¦  Views: 832885

Coors does it with beer. More accurately, Coors DID it with WORT. Coors opened a finishing and bottling plant in Elkton WV and shipped wort (think of it as beer concentrate) from Golden in stainless steel tank cars. They eventually added brewing capabilities in WV and the tank car moves ended. The ...

Re: CSX to acquire Pan Am Railways

 by Cowford ¦  Thu Jun 30, 2022 7:39 am ¦  Forum: Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford Rail System) ¦  Topic: CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways ¦  Replies: 4515 ¦  Views: 832885

I still say short haul tankers from Maine to Poland Springs bulk facility in Framingham. The water would have to be transloaded from truck to rail in Maine, as no Poland Spring facility is rail-served. Transloading adds expense, complexity and product damage risk (in this case, read contamination)....

Re: "Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

 by Cowford ¦  Wed Jun 15, 2022 1:37 pm ¦  Forum: Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford Rail System) ¦  Topic: "Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings) ¦  Replies: 2553 ¦  Views: 529609

Holtrachem only used water and salt as its’ 2 raw materials


You missed the third ingredient: Electricity. Lots of electricity.

Re: Outside outside diameter

 by Cowford ¦  Sun May 01, 2022 7:05 pm ¦  Forum: Steam Locomotives ¦  Topic: Outside outside diameter ¦  Replies: 4 ¦  Views: 612

The lagging and jacket does not add significantly to the girth of a boiler : ~3" of insulation (which I believe was typically a magnesia-asbestos blend) covered with a 1/32" (+/-) jacket. I believe the PRR decapods had so-called "extended wagon top" boilers, not conical.

Re: Rereg, Here We Come?

 by Cowford ¦  Sat Apr 30, 2022 7:11 pm ¦  Forum: General Class I and II Discussion ¦  Topic: Staggers Act - A Revisit ¦  Replies: 64 ¦  Views: 9388

...The rub is the fact that the crew shortage has been manufactured... Leaving aside the PSR contribution to the current situation, the genesis of the current shortage is the tried and true practice of railroads furloughing crafts to weather business turn-downs and delaying hiring until it is too l...

Re: CSX to acquire Pan Am Railways

 by Cowford ¦  Sun Apr 17, 2022 10:06 am ¦  Forum: Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford Rail System) ¦  Topic: CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways ¦  Replies: 4515 ¦  Views: 832885

I don't have an ORER handy... how many serviceable freight cars remain with PAR/predecessor marks?

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