Railroad Forums 

  • The Hill Yard

  • 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

 #1438751  by BostonUrbEx
 
atholrail wrote:Also Cains has closed up shop.
Wow, what happened? I thought that Ayer facility was just one of many Cains facilities around the country. But based on their website and some Google'ing, that was their headquarters and only facility.

EDIT: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadline ... plant-2017" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
AYER -- The owner of the Cains Foods plant on East Main Street announced this week that it is closing the facility next year, potentially putting about 100 people out of work.

Bay Valley Foods, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TreeHouse Foods Inc., said production is expected to cease in the first quarter of next year, with full closure expected in the summer of 2017.

The plant primarily produces a variety of regionally branded and private-label spoonable dressings, including mayonnaise, tartar sauce, salad dressings and sandwich spread.

In a statement, Bay Valley Foods officials said the closing is the result of an "ongoing manufacturing network analysis" by the company for the purpose of maintaining "competitive costs, service levels and product quality."

Ron Bottrell, a spokesman for the company, said the Ayer plant is the smallest of four facilities that TreeHouse owns and which do similar work. He said products made locally will be moved to the other three manufacturing facilities, in North East, Pa.; Atlanta; or Buckner, Ky.
So I guess the Cains brand is kaput.
 #1438761  by MRY
 
Cains as an independent company has not existed for quite a while. Cains as a brand has lived on in 2 separate forms, the pickle brand is owned by Gedney Foods and the dressings/spreads brand is owned by treehouse.
 #1439803  by markhb
 
Did Cains ship out by rail?

Regardless of the above, they had better not change their mayo recipe as part of the move! They could probably make even more money pushing the "all natural" angle today than they did when I was a kid (read the label sometime... still no preservatives).
 #1444451  by newpylong
 
A bit of info for the list:

Ayer IM running at 160% capacity currently due to parking shortage. New GMX warehouse currently being constructed off Track 11, current GMX warehouse to be bulldozed for more parking.
 #1444460  by jaymac
 
Good news!
Recognition and remediation of capacity issues are major steps forward. Hopefully others will follow and quickly.
 #1444511  by CPF363
 
newpylong wrote:A bit of info for the list:

Ayer IM running at 160% capacity currently due to parking shortage. New GMX warehouse currently being constructed off Track 11, current GMX warehouse to be bulldozed for more parking.
Any interest in re-configuring or adding any new tracks in the yard. There is an open swath of empty land between the freight portion of the yard and the intermodal terminal. Surprising that Guilford did not keep the intermodal yard on the western side of the Hill Yard as it was in the 1990s and did not buy more land adjacent to the yard from Fort Devens when it was available.
 #1444519  by F-line to Dudley via Park
 
NS interest?...absolutely. And I'm sure they'd love to get that place modernized like Mickeyville and CSX-Worcester so it's moving loads with more optimal throughput in addition to revamping the physical storage. But does the Billericadome care about stepping up to take any initiative on that, or chuck in 1¢ beyond its minimum-most passive contractual obligation for match-funding a wholly NS-led renovation project? Somehow I doubt Hill's going to get the full-and-total "pimp my yard" treatment until after NS is calling all shots. They'll probably do some things in the meantime because running that far over-capacity has negative consequences for the railroad, but as long as NS is dragging Billerica kicking and screaming into capital investments the fixes are more likely to be reactive in nature and limited in scope rather than paying the going rate to develop and pursue a full-on site master plan for Hill like they did when reanimating Mickeyville.
 #1444538  by atholrail
 
Heard the new GMX building will fit 15? cars inside and 10 outside. Also heard UPS has been looking for property around the Hill for some sort of a transfer facility. A lot of the Ayer local traffic is supposed to move to Fitchburg after the Fitchburg yard is rebuilt...still waiting on that though.
 #1444562  by johnpbarlow
 
Interestingly, a search of GMX Ayer, MA provides an address of 133 Barnum Rd. But when one looks at the area via Google Maps, Tighe Warehousing and Distribution shows up at 133 Barnum Rd. What is the relationship between GMX and Tighe, if any? At any rate, is this the warehouse that handles the inbound paper transload between box car and container? Also does this warehouse handle outbound recycled paper loading into box cars?

On a related note, I've heard that loaded Eimskip containers are drayed to an A Duie Pyle warehouse in Clinton for Poland Springs distribution to Southern New England so GMX Ayer isn't involved in Poland Springs, correct?
Attachments:
133 Barnum Rd Ayer.JPG
133 Barnum Rd Ayer.JPG (94.98 KiB) Viewed 6095 times
 #1444564  by newpylong
 
That's the GMX building Tighe is a lessee. All loads of paper in. yes transload.

The warehouse is not involved in the water that I know of.
 #1462233  by johnpbarlow
 
Has any progress been made in building the new GMX/Tighe warehouse? I did a drive by the Hill Yard IM facility today and the original warehouse building is still in use with box cars at the loading dock.
 #1507356  by Amtrak Enthusiast
 
As I know of right now, NS has abolished all the intermodal/auto rack trains (287, 28N, 205, 206) to points West and the only remaining train into/out of Hill is 22K/23K. Does NS have any plans to revamp Hill for more capacity and run more than one round trip a day, or are they going to continue to let things go down hill? (no pun intended)