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  • Portland Waterfront Rail Ops (Yard 8, Intermodal, etc)

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1509786  by markyk
 
Nestle is not storing any water in any intermediate storage locations for the time being...........if you want PS, you will get it straight from Maine via truck..........Swiss bean counters now involved........
 #1509816  by doublestack
 
In this video below, thanks to "Isaiahs Trains", it appears that Poland Spring may have broken their lease with Eimskip. Note the 2nd half of this 104 car train has 59 mongrel unmarked containers on a PO/AY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8WwY5V0Y5w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1509820  by pnolette
 
CN9634 wrote:
pnolette wrote:Nestle's going thru some major changes right now.So anything is possible at this point.They are getting rid of their Nestle DSD trucking.Laying off 4700 people.
The Nestle layoffs do not impact PS from what I understand, it's just for it's food brand products (pizza & ice cream) business. I was going to say I would be surprised if PS had 4700 drivers, as they contract out final mile logistics under a dedicated account to A Duie Pyle, who owns the chassis fleet and tractors for the door moves out of Ayer. On the Maine side, RC Moore has most if not all of the dray contract.

They are getting rid of all the middlemen,my company included.Everything is going Direct to warehouse now.
 #1509830  by PBMcGinnis
 
The water train to Ayer isn't ending anytime soon.
There are not enough trucks in Maine from June to September for the 100s of loads Poland Springs ships daily during their peak season. Some days as many as 600 trailers/containers are loaded between the 3 plants in Maine combined.

The block to NJ did end due to the changes in warehouse logistics.

Eimskip recalled all of their boxes as they shifted their focus back to international freight 100%.
So Poland Springs/Nestle chose to lease boxes from CAI.

But the fickle nature of these big retail shippers is another reason the railroads in general aren't going to make large investment in more intermodal containers and instead put the risk on the shipper or a third party logistics company.
 #1509833  by A215
 
doublestack wrote:Note the 2nd half of this 104 car train has 59 mongrel unmarked containers on a PO/AY.
This was the extra pig cars I was talking about, I know for a fact these were unloaded and added to 23k to go west as empty empties. Last I saw Eimskips are still in circulation.
 #1509843  by gokeefe
 
PBMcGinnis wrote:But the fickle nature of these big retail shippers is another reason the railroads in general aren't going to make large investment in more intermodal containers and instead put the risk on the shipper or a third party logistics company.
Pan Am is deeply invested in the future of bottled water by rail. It is a very significant partnership, potentially the most significant customer they have based on future development prospects.
 #1509860  by 690
 
Sure, it's a good partnership, and it's worked out so far, but I'd hesitate to call it the most significant customer they have, by a long shot. Paper mills are still more important (and generate much more revenue), and they've got a few other things in the pipeline that could shake out to be good revenue generators as well. The water, despite the effort made to move it quickly, doesn't generate a lot of revenue.
Last edited by MEC407 on Tue May 28, 2019 8:24 am, edited 1 time in total. Reason: unnecessary quoting
 #1509865  by bostontrainguy
 
gokeefe wrote:Pan Am is deeply invested in the future of bottled water by rail. It is a very significant partnership, potentially the most significant customer they have based on future development prospects.
Perhaps the upgrade and expansion of the Port of St. John may be the most significant future development for Pan AM.
 #1509870  by newpylong
 
690 wrote:Sure, it's a good partnership, and it's worked out so far, but I'd hesitate to call it the most significant customer they have, by a long shot. Paper mills are still more important (and generate much more revenue), and they've got a few other things in the pipeline that could shake out to be good revenue generators as well. The water, despite the effort made to move it quickly, doesn't generate a lot of revenue.
Spot on.

The water is steady traffic but does not pay as well as some of the other commodities.

The bulk LPG traffic is up there with the paper, obviously higher in colder months.
 #1509872  by 690
 
Now that Sea-3 is able to receive cars at full capacity, propane will be on the uptick too. 16 car spots every day adds up quick; they just need to figure out how they're going to get them from Rigby to the Portsmouth Branch.
 #1509917  by gokeefe
 
690 wrote:Sure, it's a good partnership, and it's worked out so far, but I'd hesitate to call it the most significant customer they have, by a long shot. Paper mills are still more important (and generate much more revenue), and they've got a few other things in the pipeline that could shake out to be good revenue generators as well. The water, despite the effort made to move it quickly, doesn't generate a lot of revenue.
Let's just say that "potentially" is the key word. I completely acknowledge and agree that at current traffic levels it isn't on the same level with paper and propane. There is a view from certain places that PS could become the largest customer ...

I would agree that the pipeline on paper looks very promising indeed. Notable that ND Paper confirmed in the BDN last week that they are planning for a recycled facility in Rumford. Fascinating to think how the boxcars could be loaded outbound and inbound at the mill.

Old Town is still a "work in progress". The word on that operation (mentioned in the article) is that the "round the clock effort to repair it" is doing the job right. I would not be surprised at all to see startup soon. Old Town has been previously mentioned as a high priority candidate for a recycled facility as well.
 #1509930  by 690
 
Let's use actual facts then: for Poland Springs to equal or exceed the mills in revenue, they would have to start shipping a lot more water by rail. Like, a lot more. And I'm not talking about ND, although there's some potential there, besides what they're already trying to do at Rumford and Old Town.

Also, boxcars are already loaded inbound for the mill. Talc boxcars, and occasionally inbound loads of pulp in boxcars come in.
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