Moving road salt to N.J.

[CLamb]

Here in the NYC area the TV stations are all abuzz with the news that road salt which is badly needed by New Jersey is stuck in Searsport because there are no U.S. flag ships available to take it to N.J.. Could it be shipped by rail?

[KSmitty]

It could, but, you would need a train of salt hoppers (covered 2 or 3 bay). Searsport should be set up to load it. Then you need to deal with MM&A which is basically in limp mode, just hobling along at skeleton waiting for Fortress to come in. Try getting a switch crew more than twice a week at Searsport...Then you need Pan Am to take it as far as Worcester, 2 days from NMJ anyway. CSX will move it right along, couple days handling. Then of course NJ needs a way to unload it. Rinse and repeat a couple times anyway, its a big salt pile.

Possible but impractical.

[fogg1703]

Unfortunately the infrastructure for salt loading to railcars in Searsport was removed when the old BAR pier was rebuilt. Shurtleff and International used to load covered hoppers with the old coal conveyor there. BAR used to load its own repurposed beet hoppers with road salt for local distribution in the county and protected it with heavy tarps. Not sure if they still do it but ANR&P used to have a great breakdown of salt unloading locations and the origin of the salt. In general, coastal locations import salt from South America and landlocked states get the salt from New York by rail.