Railroad Forums 

  • Irving to reopen Ashland mill and ship wood to Boston

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

 #1251080  by bostontrainguy
 
“This will be Maine wood sawed in a Maine facility and shipped on Maine rail to Boston and beyond,” Pineo said. “This will be wood from [Irving’s] land or from any other private woodland owners. That’s the beauty of this location — with maybe five phone calls I can wrap my arms around a million acres of timber.”

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 #1251196  by F-line to Dudley via Park
 
hh660 wrote:Any idea as to best route the cars to Boston?
S
Pan Am, definitely. The NH Main is their clearance route into Boston, so they can definitely get it there efficiently. But there's nowhere at Boston to offload because of lack of yard space, so that's probably going to be a job for Ayer. Sounds promising, though.
 #1251212  by bostontrainguy
 
This is new business and it will somehow have to make it's way through Boston to Home Depot's Westwood transload facility.

Could we possibly see freight actually traveling through Boston again on the Grand Junction, through the wye at South Station and out the Midland?
 #1251222  by fogg1703
 
bostontrainguy wrote:This is new business and it will somehow have to make it's way through Boston to Home Depot's Westwood transload facility.
As Mr CN9634 stated, currently Irving studs destined for northeast Home Depot's are currently transloaded at Ayer at Catalano Brothers from two the giant Irving Mills in NB, Kedgwick and St Leonard. The lumber was trucked from the mills to the LMS Fort Kent transload during the BAR/MMA days, however not sure if they now load it directly on centerbeams at the mill, which is CN served and send it over the International Bridge now that MMA is completely out of the picture up there. Unless something has changed recently the lumber is then truckled to the Norwood D/C as the cost was too great to rail it via CSX from Ayer. Before Catalano Brothers moved to Devens, they had a transload op in Westwood down the street which did the same thing. Prior to 2008 MMA served the Ashland mill however the housing bust and ineffecitent equipment (Pinkham built the mill in the late 60's-early 70's) made it marginal compared to the larger mills in NB. IMHO Irving is touting their upgraded Maine mill in the press to deflect the questionable means of procuring the OBF program for its vast timber stands.
 #1251253  by GP40MC1118
 
I highly doubt this would come into Boston since where would, without great difficulty,
PAR hand it over to CSX? Duh...Why would you want to do something that torturous when it
would be easier to go to Ayer/Worcester?

PAR freight service in Somerville is about to face very trying times due to GLX construction
and a lack of understanding by proponents that freight operations actually exist. What
was heard last week was shocking in its ignorance. And some it actually extends into
ignorance of commuter rail. Hopefully PAR is going to put up some sort of fight.
We know commuter rail, being the odd-ball out at the T, will get bowled over. We'll see.

d
 #1251728  by F-line to Dudley via Park
 
BandA wrote:We're talking about Home Depot's warehouse on University Ave in Westwood? (Former Star Market warehouse) Isn't that rail served off of the NEC?
Yes. Out of Readville ~3 days a week, occasionally continuing to Stoughton if the lone customer on that branch has a delivery.

Of course all of that lumber originally starts its day in Worcester, so it doesn't make a whole lot of difference if it originates from CSX in Selkirk or PAR in Ayer. Origin is all transparent to the local jobs that ultimately take it to Framingham then Readville. If Home Depot is ordering from Irving, Ayer + CSX handoff is going to be the only plausible means of getting it there.
 #1251750  by fogg1703
 
BandA wrote:We're talking about Home Depot's warehouse on University Ave in Westwood? (Former Star Market warehouse) Isn't that rail served off of the NEC?
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Rail loads into the DC are from West Coast/Canada (mostly 2X8's and larger from Canfor, West Fraser, Tembec, Hampton and Weyerhauser) while Irving's lumber (anything under 2x10)is trucked from Ayer. Notice in the article that Ashland is specifically set up for 2x4 and 2x6 KD. Smaller trees here in the east compared to the Doug Fir from the West. Seems unlikely that rail loadings will be increased from Irving, just a different source of the lumber when Ashland comes back online.
 #1252322  by boatsmate
 
CSX and Pan Am while they inter change in AYER via the Worcester main, they do not inter change with Worcester or Framingham. all loads coming from PAS would have to go to Selkirk first and then reclassified and sent back to Framingham on Q 4?? (Old SEFR)which has Framingham's and Reedville's. there is no General freight that comes into Worcester. it all goes to Framingham or the P&W.