Berkshire & Eastern (former PAS)

Problem with CN originated grain for Ardent Milling is that the areas CN serves in the US is that farmers in their service area grow mainly corn, the wheat area is further north or further south depending on whether you are milling Winter Wheat (Kansas, Eastern Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle) or Spring Wheat (NW Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana).

What about wheat from western Canada?

I am pretty sure that there is a Tariff that is high enough that Canadian Spring Wheat isn't competitive on price. The only Canadian grains that come into the US in any quantity are Oats and Barley.

Looks like unfortunately some jobs will be cut for sure:

https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... 301706.pdf

I've now heard from two reliable sources that B&E takeover day of Pan Am Southern / Springfield Terminal operations will be June 1, 2023.
Any other info available?

July.

I've heard it is now August 1st, but we well know it could keep getting pushed back further.

According to several posts in the Pan Am/CSXT thread, it's September 1st.

I have a nomenclature question for some of the rail employees on here - will the proper name for the rail lines covered in this thread (for interchange/paycheck/etc. purposes) be "Berkshire & Eastern", "Pan Am Southern (operated by Berkshire & Eastern)", or something else entirely? I know Pan Am Southern is a legal entity and isn't actually going away, even if the operation is being run by a different company.

This just in: on July 19, G&W's Pittsburgh & Shawmut RR dba Berkshire & Eastern has posted Conductor job openings for Devens MA and Deerfield MA.

CSX has no Springfield Terminal conductor job postings for Massachusetts or Maine. Nor is there a Voorheesville-based locomotive engineer job posting for Norfolk Southern.

I decided to take a look at the G&W website to see what job openings they still have for B&E since September 1 is near, and if they keep their site up to date it seems they have a lot of openings. Some were posted as recently as yesterday.

They have openings for conductors and loco engineers in Mechanicville, Deerfield, and Devens.
Asst. Gen. Manager, Trainmaster and car repair in Deerfield.
Director of Operations, Supervisor of Operations, and Dispatcher in Billerica.

In addition to the former Pan Am units headed for the Berkshire & Eastern, QGRY 6904/6908 have come off the SLR, and are waiting at Rigby Yard for their trip west

So what trains is B&E moving now west of ED? Are they still using the same symbols as previous?

This picks up on some comments posted on this thread several months ago -- or at least I believe it does. Loaded grain train today with BNSF power is heading for Ardent over BERX. I presume others closer to the situation can explain how it is now handled around Ayer and whether this marks a notable addition to operations or is more of an occasional routing.

They toss a PTC equipped leader on, split the train in half to unload it, reverse the process and head back west.

The train has come over this route plenty of times, this isn't anything new.