Railroad Forums 

  • Uplifting Rochester News?

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #740604  by scharnhorst
 
can't say that I've seen any wineries, breweries, or ethanol plants placing any orders for pumps in the last 2 months I would have heard about that from the guys on assembly or the shipping floor at work.
 #745067  by Matt Langworthy
 
scharnhorst wrote:can't say that I've seen any wineries, breweries, or ethanol plants placing any orders for pumps in the last 2 months I would have heard about that from the guys on assembly or the shipping floor at work.
No winery or brewery has grown large enough to warrant those pumps... yet. Most of them are still small at this point, but alcohol is a growth industry in the Finger Lakes. From a news report on November 6th:

Sour economy aside, New York’s wine industry — centered in the Finger Lakes — continues to sweeten. New wineries are are sprouting up around the state, investments are growing and visits by tourists and wine lovers have increased by more than 20 percent since 2003.

A survey of 169 wineries conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, found that the state wine industry not only has weathered the recession but has exploded in size.

More wineries have opened around the state since 2000 than in the previous 170 years, the survey determined.

And the expansion is unabated. “In the seven months since the surveys were mailed in March, 33 new wineries have been licensed, bringing the state total to 273, and of course those new wineries weren’t included,” said Jim Trezise, president of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation. The foundation commissioned the government survey.

<snipped>

In 2008, 20 percent of New York wineries were commercial and 80 percent farm-based but commercial wineries accounted for 95 percent of the production. A separate wine economic impact study using 2008 data may be released this winter.


Most of these wineries will remain small and never ship by rail. That said, I figure at least a few of them will eventually grow into larger operations that will ship by rail. History bears this out- Canandaigua Winery (now part of Constellation Brands) started out small before it became the juggernaut it is today. Great Western and Taylor both started small and eventually became large enough to warrant rail service. Will it happen tomorrow or next month? No... but it seems reasonable to assume that a couple of the current smaller wineries will become very large operations in the next decade or two. In the meantime, the wine indsutry is doing well in upstate NY... even though little of it ships by rail. IMO, that is a bright spot.
 #745096  by scharnhorst
 
Matt Langworthy wrote:
scharnhorst wrote:can't say that I've seen any wineries, breweries, or ethanol plants placing any orders for pumps in the last 2 months I would have heard about that from the guys on assembly or the shipping floor at work.
No winery or brewery has grown large enough to warrant those pumps... yet. Most of them are still small at this point, but alcohol is a growth industry in the Finger Lakes. From a news report on November 6th:

Sour economy aside, New York’s wine industry — centered in the Finger Lakes — continues to sweeten. New wineries are are sprouting up around the state, investments are growing and visits by tourists and wine lovers have increased by more than 20 percent since 2003.

A survey of 169 wineries conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, found that the state wine industry not only has weathered the recession but has exploded in size.

More wineries have opened around the state since 2000 than in the previous 170 years, the survey determined.

And the expansion is unabated. “In the seven months since the surveys were mailed in March, 33 new wineries have been licensed, bringing the state total to 273, and of course those new wineries weren’t included,” said Jim Trezise, president of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation. The foundation commissioned the government survey.

<snipped>

In 2008, 20 percent of New York wineries were commercial and 80 percent farm-based but commercial wineries accounted for 95 percent of the production. A separate wine economic impact study using 2008 data may be released this winter.


Most of these wineries will remain small and never ship by rail. That said, I figure at least a few of them will eventually grow into larger operations that will ship by rail. History bears this out- Canandaigua Winery (now part of Constellation Brands) started out small before it became the juggernaut it is today. Great Western and Taylor both started small and eventually became large enough to warrant rail service. Will it happen tomorrow or next month? No... but it seems reasonable to assume that a couple of the current smaller wineries will become very large operations in the next decade or two. In the meantime, the wine indsutry is doing well in upstate NY... even though little of it ships by rail. IMO, that is a bright spot.
Constellation Brands closed a winery that they bought in the Naples, NY area and moved only the packing operations to Canandaigua, NY becouse there was more room in there building in Canandaigua. The paper did not say anything about the fields so I would assume that they were keeping them. I rember seeing this in the Finger Lakes Times a few months ago I want to say early Augest or September.
 #745103  by nessman
 
The Naples winery was once served by rail years ago - which was since long torn up. Forgot who the carrier was (LV?).
 #745138  by poppyl
 
The winery is/was Widmer's and the rail service was the LV.

In terms of vineyards, most of the acreage is either owned by relatively small estate wineries, mid-sized commercial wineries like Glenora Cellars, or independent grape growers. The big boys like Consolidated actually own a relatively small percentage of the acreage under vine and instead pay a price per ton delivered to them. Not sure specifically what is going on with the growers around Naples since historically they were focused on table wine grapes versus hybrids and varietals now dominating the wine scene in the Finger Lakes.
 #765035  by tenthousandhobbies
 
We strayed away from Rochester and are now in the Finger Lakes. LiDiestri Foods' relocation to Kodak Park should help the waning rail traffic to this complex http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?aID=182083, but one has to wonder how long Kodak itself will be around. Kodak is building up big in China, though. Will Kodak keep the power plants open or will the coal contracts go the way of the Do-Do bird? I am fascinated by what companies are able to survive in the harsh economic climate of NY. i moved my one NYS employee out of NY after they fined us heavily for an innocent mistake that was actually Paychex's fault. Yet, some businesses find a way, just don't expect a lot of growth from anything other than large corporations that know the ropes and can absorb the high costs.

Did Klein Steel ever start taking significant rail deliveries?

Also, I think some of the abandonments that Conrail perpetrated have stifled competition in the post-Conrail Rochester market and this is going to be to the detriment of certain areas of Rochester's decaying insdustrial complex. JMHO
 #765092  by driftinmark
 
kodak dosent run the powerplants anymore, that goes to trigen power.....and as far as kodak park, its now eastman business park, there are a lot of businesses in there besides kodak...........and kodak isnt that big in china anymore, they spent 1.2 billion there and sold most of it for 40 million, what a write off.........seems like lucky film wasnt playing fair with some licensing agreements........
 #765125  by scharnhorst
 
driftinmark wrote:kodak dosent run the powerplants anymore, that goes to trigen power.....and as far as kodak park, its now eastman business park, there are a lot of businesses in there besides kodak...........and kodak isnt that big in china anymore, they spent 1.2 billion there and sold most of it for 40 million, what a write off.........seems like lucky film wasnt playing fair with some licensing agreements........

I thought Trigen was baught up by some Spansh operation and renamed it to "Saue or Suev" or something like that? or was just the plant in Solvay, NY Sold??
  • 1
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8