St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (SLR/SLQ)

Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0806 with the following:

GP40-2 3008
QGRY SD40U 6904
GP40-3 3803
RM-1 803
8 centerbeam flats
1 bulkhead flat
7 boxcars
14 hi-cube boxcars
2 tank cars
37 propane cars
1 covered hopper

That's 70 cars total,including 4 loads and 64 empties. Lots of propane empties, probably due to the early spell of coldness (spell = last two months!).
Have a great weekend,
Fritz

21 boxcars ... impressive. I will not be surprised if those car counts continue to increase.

gokeefe wrote:21 boxcars ... impressive. I will not be surprised if those car counts continue to increase.

How is this impressive? They run 4 days a week with huge swings from 30 cars to 70 cars. Remember, right now it's the busy season with LPG, otherwise pretty pathetic. The Canadian side of the RR keeps the whole operation afloat at this point.

Seems as though it's been 5 days, at least for the last two weeks.

CN9634 wrote:How is this impressive?

Relative comparison to early last year when the boxcar tally was almost 0.

gokeefe wrote:

CN9634 wrote:How is this impressive?

Relative comparison to early last year when the boxcar tally was almost 0.

That is incorrect, SLR has been hauling pulp into Mechanic Falls (NEPW) and paper out of South Paris (also NEPW) with spot loads of pulp going to IP and you guessed it, NEPW in Auburn all along now-- all in boxcars (lots of 60' plate F from CN, TTX and 60' plate C from NS). Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it hasn't been happening, and they tend to come in waves as the sighting here (IE no boxcars for a few trains, then 20 or more all at once) due to how the shipments are setup.

My conclusion-- To make a determination such as this you need a larger data set, not just a few data points.

It is a busy period for the SLR no doubt (due to LPG), but as of yet I haven't seen any routings of export pulp over SLR (to my point above, doesn't mean it isn't happening, all I've seen recording however are going to NJ via ST-PAS-CSXT).

Is NJ the final destination before it heads to China? I fail to see how pulp that they're paying for would be routed heading in the opposite direction.

NHV 669 wrote:Is NJ the final destination before it heads to China? I fail to see how pulp that they're paying for would be routed heading in the opposite direction.

Port for export. NJ has a lot of them and Balterm (Baltimore) as well is a large pulp specialized port. In year's past, Portland, Searsport and Canadian ports have handled this but their either uninterested or unable at present time.

How was it going out via Searsport? Container transload somewhere?

Over the past month or so I've noticed occasional excavation/construction activity at the former precast
concrete plant site at the tail of the wye at Lewiston Jct. Today I saw that two large gas type storage tanks
have been installed. Is another bulk gas distributor in the process of setting up shop?

Hello,
Today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0818 with the following:

QG GP40 3105
QG GP40-2W 3014
GP40-3 3803
RM-1 803
3 centerbeam flats
12 cement hoppers
1 covered hopper
37 propane cars
9 tank cars
5 hi-cube boxcars
1 boxcar

That's 68 cars total, including 4 loads and 64 empties. Lots of empty propane cars; no doubt due to the unseasonably cold fall we had.
Have a great weekend,
Fritz

Hello,
In a biting cold wind, today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0836 with the following:

GP40-2 3004
GP40-2 3008
GP40-3 3803
RM-1 803
13 centerbeam flats
13 hi-cube boxcars
5 boxcars
2 NaClO3 hoppers
26 propane cars
4 tank cars

That's 63 cars total, including 16 loads and 47 empties.
Have a great day,
Fritz

Hello,
Under bright sun, today's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0859 and reached the U.S. Canada border at 0947 with the following:

GP40-2 3047
GP40-3 3804
RM-1 804
QG GP40-2W 3014
11 centerbeam flats
2 bulkhead flats
18 propane cars
7 tank cars
2 hi-cube boxcars

That's 40 cars total, all empties.
Have a great day,
Fritz

CWR train went west through Berlin last night around 5, apparently just returned east.

Good to see that project continuing. How much do they have left?