Railroad Forums 

  • Allied Extruders

  • Discussion related to NYAR operations on Long Island. Official web site can be found here: www.anacostia.com/nyar/nyar.html. Also includes discussion related to NYNJ Rail, the carfloat operation successor to New York Cross Harbor that connects with NYAR.
Discussion related to NYAR operations on Long Island. Official web site can be found here: www.anacostia.com/nyar/nyar.html. Also includes discussion related to NYNJ Rail, the carfloat operation successor to New York Cross Harbor that connects with NYAR.
 #1300343  by LilcoGuy
 
Good day to all.
I have passed Allied Extruders twice in the past 2 weeks. Both times there were no covered hoppers being off loaded in the back. I believe they’re still in business because there seems to be a few autos parked in front and the roll up door was slightly open to reveal lights and machinery sounds.
I was hoping someone had knowledge on what’s going on there.

Thanks.

Mike
 #1300590  by freightguy
 
I have heard recently that they were struggling and might close from somebody at NYA. Struggles with less demand for plastic bags. Favorite plastics on the Bayridge I heard was struggling also. That may leave Eastern Fence off the Calverton spur as the only receiver of plastic resin hopper cars.
 #1300596  by DogBert
 
I didn't want to say anything until the facts are in, though what I can tell you is they have had no freight cars for at least 2-3 months now. The rumor I heard is that they are in the process of moving south, though their website doesn't mention this. (http://www.alliedextruders.com/about.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). They're not exclusively in the plastic bag business, though with NYC gov talking a lot these days about putting a 10 cent per bag tax / fee on bags, one could say this area has become a hostile business environment.

The parking areas out front were always full of workers cars, 24/4/365. When I've passed by on weekends lately it's just 4 or 5 cars. Seems like there's a skeleton crew on staff.

I don't know if they own the property or rent the buildings, but if they are renters they will more than likely move once the lease is up (because the owner will want at least triple the current rent, if not more). Costs here are out of control. If they are indeed moving south, they'll get cheaper labor and overall costs.
 #1300663  by LilcoGuy
 
Thanks for the replies.
It seems like they’ve been there forever, always a line of hoppers out back.
Seems like that area is losing a lot of customers. How long have they been there?
Was that plant part of the hide company?
Thanks again.

Mike
 #1300770  by DogBert
 
Allied is in Queens. Favorite plastics in Brooklyn is likely in a similar boat with the city gov looking at ways to reduce the amount of plastic bags ending up in the trash. If the city gov gets their way, consumers will be charged a nickel or a dime or something every time a store has to provide them with a plastic bag (for groceries, etc). It's basically a new tax on citizens that will entice the public to use re-usable canvas bags, which will then cut demand for plastic bags significantly - likely to a point where allied or favorite can no longer survive as businesses in NYC.

If the city gets its way with the bag tax, it's just going to force people to pay for the bags in one way or another, as nearly everyone puts their trash into bags that then go into the bin for DSNY collection. It's not feasible to not use bags, as filthy trash cans will just attract bugs into homes, and be a public health nightmare.

What would make more sense is if the city rolled out expanded recycling, where food waste is separated and resold to power companies fueling their plants off organic waste. (CURES loves to talk about this, believing all organic waste can be barged out - they don't seem to get that barges might not go where these new power plants will be located - next to rail).

But we're talking about government here. They don't want what makes sense, they just want every nickel they can get out of us.

Regardless of trash, if Allied isn't closing, moving out of NYC will certainly cut their labor costs significantly. If they're renting that building, it'll save them a huge amount of money to operate out of nearly any other space in the country. Real estate prices here are simply not sustainable for any person or company without incredibly deep pockets.

If the reason for their move / closing is higher rents though, the owner of that property is out of his mind thinking that it's worth anything to anyone with half a brain. WM will soon be moving their shuttle train of trash from their sidings over to blissville, 6 days a week. Not the type of neighbor anyone sane wants to be near. If Allied owns the building, you can't blame them for not wanting that smell blowing through their back doors all day.

Edited by an Admin, 10-30 (comments redacted after post deleted)
 #1300844  by freightguy
 
Before the huge fleet of garbage/C&D cars, Allied and Favorite Plastics had rolling warehouses in 65st and the west yard at Fresh Pond. For awhile allied stored cars at Yard A also. Crews would drill the cars they ordered to be spotted that day. In the early 00's Allied and Favorite would have a bunch of cars in 65st that the RS 100 would drill out to be spotted. I'm sure marketing and the crews don't miss Manny from Allied's "demands!"

Amco has closed it does also recently in Farmingdale. They didn't do the volume of the other two in the city, but would take a switch of plastic maybe once a week on the Central Branch.
 #1300850  by DogBert
 
freightguy wrote:Before the huge fleet of garbage/C&D cars, Allied and Favorite Plastics had rolling warehouses in 65st and the west yard at Fresh Pond. For awhile allied stored cars at Yard A also. Crews would drill the cars they ordered to be spotted that day. In the early 00's Allied and Favorite would have a bunch of cars in 65st that the RS 100 would drill out to be spotted. I'm sure marketing and the crews don't miss Manny from Allied's "demands!"

Amco has closed it does also recently in Farmingdale. They didn't do the volume of the other two in the city, but would take a switch of plastic maybe once a week on the Central Branch.

I remember those cars being some of the last to be kept at Yard A. Was there a big drop off in how often they were switched at some point, or was it a slow decline?
 #1300854  by DogBert
 
LilcoGuy wrote:Thanks for the replies.
It seems like they’ve been there forever, always a line of hoppers out back.
Seems like that area is losing a lot of customers. How long have they been there?
Was that plant part of the hide company?
Thanks again.

Mike
Not sure how long they were there, at least the 1970s?

The area just has more transient customers - lots of transload. Though with WM coming online soon and the aggregates at maspeth, one could say freight in the area is the healthiest it has been since the water tunnel project wrapped up.
 #1300984  by jayrmli
 
I remember those cars being some of the last to be kept at Yard A.
Back in the early days of NYA, the RS-100 reported for work at Yard A. There were only a few yard tracks that were in service at the time - most were in decrepit shape by that point. Lots of Allied's cars were stored there, as well as some Case Paper cars. Quite a few times the customers were switched together with the engine sandwiched in the middle.

The crew had a 4AM report, as that work needed to be completed before the morning rush during the Summer months, as there was a concrete tie program on the Main Line and a lot of diesel runs were substituted on the Lower Montauk. The 100 needed to get to Maspeth to drill out ore jennies the rest of the day before returning to Yard A for the night.
 #1301613  by NYCS
 
Allied Extruders is, indeed, gone forever. They closed up shop and moved production to a facility in the south. The building was severely outmoded, decayed, too expensive to remodel, and covered in graffiti. This same thing happened with Wonder Bread in Jamaica a few years ago - New York's aging building stock makes it extremely difficult to perform manufacturing functions, building renovation is cost prohibitive, industrial taxes are too high, and the reduced Quality of Life coupled with the hassles of performing manufacturing in such a decayed and crowded region just aren't worth dealing with.

City money needs to get involved. We have all sorts of "high tech incubator zones", or "medical science research incubator zones", the same needs to be done for New York's struggling industries and outmoded building stock. Problem is, it's not sexy, especially in an era of gentrification, loft conversions, and hipsters. Tear down and rebuild the industrial building stock, offer tax incentives for business specializing in rail-based Warehousing & Distribution for Long Island, and start to create a master transportation plan for geographic Long Island. But all everyone cares about is the low-hanging fruit and the sexy buzzwords of "retail and commercial redevelopment", tossing away and burying New York's industrial sector as if it were an antiquated relic of the past that can no longer serve any useful purpose. Indeed, it is the most critical asset we have; wait until the VZ and GWB can no longer handle the convoys of trucks coming over from Jersey.
 #1301639  by DogBert
 
I really doubt that will ever happen. No one running this city cares about industrial jobs. They had a chance to get a new car factory in sunset park to crank out 'the taxi of tomorrow' but went with nissan instead (who's product sucks). Real estate owners are the main campaign contributor around here, and with everyone wanting to live in NYC, they are willing to buy up old buildings and pay off officials for rezoning so they can slap high rises in there. LIC is looking more and more like midtown manhattan every year now. Some clown just bought a building near fresh direct and is already trying to get that area zoned residential so he can throw another ugly glass tower down there. Assuming LIRR still owns the fresh direct land, they could make a whole lot of money off rezone/demo/sell to a developer (not that riders will ever see a dime of it). I suspect that's what they're going to do with the soon to be empty freight terminal at arch street in the coming years.

The allied location though is in the middle of nowhere. Its neighbors are a trash transfer station and a superfund site that was just in the news as still being full of dangerous methane levels. The creek itself is a superfund site, and the other side of the creek is a sewage plant.

I'm going to bet a nickel the buildings will be flattened within a year and the land used for truck parking until enough real estate interests pay to have the area rezoned for high rise apartments. Haddad's TV production crews are using the space at the old getty terminal to park their production trucks and prop cars...
 #1307719  by DaveBarraza
 
Dang another one bites the dust.

Allied will live on in HO scale I guess. My pike is slowly moving from contemporary to historical!
 #1362837  by DogBert
 
Scaffold company seems to have rented the building - with no need for freight service.