When passing through last weekend, I noticed a boxcar on Athenia Mason Supply’s spur in Clifton. New/resumed customer? Or some sort of one off move?
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When passing through last weekend, I noticed a boxcar on Athenia Mason Supply’s spur in Clifton. New/resumed customer? Or some sort of one off move?
It used to be that railroads would build smaller, simpler intermodal terminals to serve local markets (more) directly than they could through regional hubs. Somerville, for example, had a TOFC ramp into the Conrail era. With some exceptions, though, the trend has overwhelmingly been towards large an...
One other thing I'll add here rel declining local carload volumes: in many cases, NJ stores/warehouses/factories still use or handle goods that have touched carload rail somewhere along their journey, but are received and trucked remotely. Corollary to the interest in inventory control among shipper...
Just to add my own two cents to this -- deindustrialization is absolutely one of the stories here, but so are changes in the industrial building market and in distribution strategies. That industrial park is actually a great case study. The first two things that jump out at me from an aerial are the...
Thanks for the update. What's the traffic breakdown on these? They putting the manifest stuff on 222/223, or are they trying to separate out intermodal flows by terminal?
Sounds like you're describing the Lower Boonton Line. Pre-Montclair Connection, NJT used it for their Boonton Line trains which now run via ex-DL&W thru Newark. NS kept using the portion of the Boonton line through the meadows to access a freight customer (Spartech in Kearny) on the east end of ...
I have no particular insight into what the Framingham yard complex's current practical capacity is, but it would seem one other reason to pursue this would be to shift some traffic from it to yards on the B&M side.
In tangentially H70-related news: looks like NS has landed a new customer out of Croxton -- Revere Paper. This would be the first new consignee on NS's former Erie lines in NJ in...10+ years?
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7723799 ... a=!3m1!1e3
FWIW: I think there definitely were many mistakes made in implementing PSR on CSX and elsewhere, but its fundamental diagnosis of the issues with railroad service is spot on. Ever since the 1920s, carriers have been haltingly trying to reduce the amount of time trains spend in yards and terminals wi...
Thank you, all, for these responses! Really helpful. MEC407 -- any chance you could give an approximate date on those links?
CR used Stiles to stage chemical traffic until sometime around the recession. Was used as a convenient parking spot for engines and BO cars when the unit oil trains were still running to Phillips, but now whatever oil traffic Phillips is still getting moves in the manifest network. Am curious to see...
This is really helpful, thank you! Just sent you a DM with a couple of other questions.
Hi all, I'm currently doing some research on current/former rail customers in New England, focusing on the Boston region in 1975-95. There are good records online at multimodalways.org for Conrail routes, but I've struggled to find equivalent info for the B&M/Guilford system. Does anyone here kn...
I'll be curious to see what happens to SLR volumes once CSX starts really making changes. Will the single line interchange to US markets drive traffic growth? Will they attempt to attract customers looking for more short line-y service in PAR's former svc region?
Also, in recent times Conrail was bringing the stone trains to Winslow. 38G brought it to Camden and Conrail took it onwards. 62X, the direct train, was abolished years ago. For sure, but that alas does not change NS’s calculus that the added cost/crew-hours of serving this traffic is something the...