Oil Trains (RJMA / MARJ, OI-x, etc)

[690]

Just pulling past 113 now. Not sure if they'll keep going, or can it at Waterville for a while, nothing on the scanner so far.

[KSmitty]

They made NMJ around sunset. They recrewed at Waterville but carried on otherwise. I was surprised they didn't fuel 'em up. They should have, 989 ran out around 77.

[690]

I'm more surprised they made it to NMJ, the speed they were going. I take it they did ~5 the entire way?

[newpylong]

Message I got:
Loaded oil train that was at Rott Jct on 2/13 stalled at MP70 tonight. Rear unit out of fuel, lead unit says 'E'. Ooops! So we took 2 engines out to drag it to NMJ now we're doing a fuel transfer. I don't know if her water dumped yet. No water here anymore."

Incompetence comes to mind.

[MEC407]

Someone needs to update this bumper sticker with the new corporate identity...

[jbvb]

A perspective on the volatility of Bakken crude that I hadn't heard before:

http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/12/11/no ... ns-rolling" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair-use quote: "What this new regulation implies is that the North Dakota Industrial Commission is aware that Bakken producers have not only been shipping dangerous oil that has high levels of natural gas liquids (NGLs), such as butane, that are part of the crude oil mixture as it comes out of the ground but that they have been actively adding such explosive NGLs to the oil prior to shipping it by rail." The NDIC appears to want to prevent adding NGLs to crude before shipment.

[MEC407]

Diluted bitumen (a.k.a. tar sands oil) is apparently problematic too — that's what the CN oil train that crashed and burned over the weekend was carrying.

[KSmitty]

Train was formally delivered to CM&Q today late in the afternoon. Its been 4-5 hours and is already to Derby. 989 needed not only fuel, but water too. Don't know if it got cool enough to dump or if it was just in need of some water, but anyway, another delay.

[MEC407]

Video by MaineRailFanner:

http://youtu.be/RLygFh12Y2c?t=19s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MEC407]

From the Bangor Daily News:

Oil trains are once again rolling through Maine after slowing to a near halt following the deadly train accident almost two years ago in Lac-Megantic, a small town just across the border in Quebec, according to state records.

Pan Am Railways reported carrying 37,128 barrels through the state in February, the first train-borne oil shipments since March of 2014, according to the most recent figures from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
. . .
Shipments of oil by rail through Maine dropped off from a peak of 5.2 million barrels in 2012, the year before the Quebec crash, to just 15,545 barrels in 2014.

Read the rest of the article at: http://bangordailynews.com/2015/04/16/b ... ng-hiatus/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bml54]

if there going from watterville-nmj that bull crap all ive seen is a few mis matched oil cars in a short freight train every so often but no oil trains.

[bml54]

and they might go through at night so if thats the case pan am might be running them but i go by nmj 2 to 3 times a week last oil train i saw there was a 45 car oil train that had been sitiing for a year there.

[bml54]

if they run at night i dont see them and i do regret not taking videos of the bnsf loco's that would pass my house daily and make it feel like it was going to fall apart, or par doing track upgrades, and finnaly the train with 2 sd40's, 1 dash 8 from ns, and 3 bnsf dash 9's hopefully par will do some track work this summer and these trains will be back on track.

[newpylong]

Easy on all the posts. People here make an effort to post factual and well thought out items, not rants.

37,000 barrels is only around 45 tank cars. Do you count every DOT111 tank that goes by?

[bml54]

honestly ive only seen the clay slurry cars and propane cars go by and maybe 1 or 2 dot 111 cars