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  • Old Town news

  • 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

 #1352712  by F-line to Dudley via Park
 
Cowford wrote:There was no such refusal in that post. What he DID say was that criticism has been overly harsh and opportunities have been overstated.
Without provoking this any further...recommend some light reading of said poster's history of PAR forum comments and themes therein via the member profile post search function. Then draw your own conclusions, whatever they may be.

At any rate, one post taken in isolation on 1 page of 1 thread isn't enough of a snapshot to capture the contentious history behind it.
 #1352716  by KSmitty
 
#Blocklist...

Seriously though, the "Foe" list built into the forums software does wonders at eliminating unpleasant reading. Cannot reccomend the option highly enough.
 #1352734  by CN9634
 
Soooo.... paper industry stuff right?

I have hope for both Old Town and Lincoln, especially since they had a bit of a small bidding war for the stalking horse. Pulp isn't dead and the research facilities in Old Town might have some value yet. This just may not have been the right fit...
 #1352751  by KSmitty
 
Lincoln with its tissue capacity would seem a likely survivor, even though the stalking horse is interested in the machines for resale. Maybe with some deeper pockets backing...

The two mills combined under one ownership could be interesting, too. Pulp in Old Town, tissue in Lincoln, though its probably cheaper for Lincoln to rebuild it's pulp production facilities than to buy another mill 35 miles away.
 #1353149  by NHV 669
 
WN&P wrote:Is it unfeasible for northeast paper mills to switch to producing the 'brown paper' that goes into cardboard boxes etc? Is the paper type at maine mills just due to the close proximity to huge softwood forests?

While opening one of many [brown] boxes at work the other day, the stamp caught my eye: International Paper, Auburn, ME. However I noticed they have a very short siding according to GMaps. I assume thats raw material only via PAR, and all outbound is via truck?
 #1353198  by S1f3432
 
IP plant in Auburn was originally Allied Container Corp. until purchased by IP a few years ago. IP has a number of these
plants scattered around the country to produce custom packaging for mostly local delivery. Haven't paid much attention
lately but a lot of the roll paper used to arrive in Southern Ry. boxcars. Competition was provided by the now-gone
Weyerhouser plant in Westbrook and Bird Packaging in Mass- I think they're owned by someone else now.
If you were to walk around the shipping department of a paper mill looking at the labels on the rolls you would discover
most mills deliver a custom product for long term customers- specific grades and weights of paper with specific coatings
wound on rolls with specified cores, diameters and widths. Converting a mill to produce a different product not only
involves changing/replacing equipment but also dumping existing customers and finding new ones- at significant risk.
Great Northern Paper converted machines at East Millinocket to produce newsprint, just in time for some new production
to come on line in Canada and the price of newsprint plummet. The mills that produced glossy printing paper put out a
premium product at a premium price until the public stopped buying magazines and books in faver of the online world.
Converting a mill to brown kraft paper would probably just dilute the market and the price.
 #1353272  by QB 52.32
 
CN9634 wrote:
QB 52.32 wrote:Reviewing past suggestions of PAR traffic opportunities neglected we have had light-loading paper, fiber for either domestic consumption or export, french fries, potatos, eastern Canada/US intermodal, bottled or bulk water, crude oil, particular propane moves beyond what is already being pursued, and international container traffic via a Maine port. None possible, practical or without challenges given rail's competitive (dis)advantages, PAR's position or leverage within the rail network, truck or rail competition, limited size, low financial contribution, existing industry or individual company logistics, or limited market opportunities and large capital investment requirements joined hand-in-hand. The notion that PAR is neglecting opportunities and failing to diversify is overly critical of PAR and overly optimistic about PAR traffic opportunities. The notion that they failed to make capital infrastructure investments that would have had to be justified over 25/30 years, especially now evidenced by what is going on with their paper market, is also overly critical, though the past lack of attracting public investment for certain needs, common practice amongst New England's regional and shortline railroads, might be debated.
So to your point, why is it that railroads even exist at all is they are at a disadvantage competitively? Or that intermodal keeps growing even though truckload is at a huge advantage right now?
My point is specifically about Maine, as I wrote because that's what's being discussed, not in general for North America. Though certainly paying attention to the industry surely tells you that even in the best of places for railroads, which Maine is not one of, there are challenges. Railroads exist overwhelmingly for the for-profit movement of freight with the attributes of higher cubic density/moving longer distances/in large volumes in some combination at this particular point in time, driven by economics and with network characteristics affecting each particular individual carrier: this is the prism through which I judge Pan Am's opportunities and challenges.
 #1488633  by piker
 
heres more
Two days after announcing a two-year $111 million investment at its Rumford paper mill, ND Paper LLC said Wednesday it has reached an agreement to purchase the Old Town pulp and paper mill, which has been idled since previous owners ended operations there in 2015.
ND Paper, a wholly owned Illinois-based subsidiary of Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd. of China, said in a news release that it has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum of cash to OTM Holdings LLC to purchase the shuttered bleached kraft pulp mill and approximately 100 acres.
full article http://www.mainebiz.biz/article/2018101 ... g-100-jobs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1488634  by 690
 
newpylong wrote:That is awesome news. Be nice to see the Rumford and FML east of Waterville to OT get some love now.
Crews have been hitting the Rumford Branch all summer, dropping rock and tamping. It's still 10, but it's a good 10 now, instead of the sketchy cars rocking every direction 10 it was before.
 #1488658  by gokeefe
 
Project in Peru at crossing for Route 108 is almost complete ...

News out of Old Town nothing short of amazing frankly.
 #1488659  by CN9634
 
gokeefe wrote:Project in Peru at crossing for Route 108 is almost complete ...

News out of Old Town nothing short of amazing frankly.
Unless the forests in Maine has drastically changed over the last 2 years, no big surprise a near turn-key pulp mill is back in operation. Maine's best natural resource is the woodbasket, don't ever forget that. There is a reason ALL CASH transactions are coming over from China into this state in that sector. The mismanagement of investment companies, failure to adapt to the times and inefficient operations that didn't survive the purge a few years ago just served to strengthen the position of the rest. Growth is now back at the mills