Bucksport Branch activity & news

This is bad news not only to Pan Am, but Maine in general. We have had discussion after discussion about the railroad. Why has the track been let deteriorate, and about the poor service. This shows that they have tied themselves too heavily on one source of income.

There have been many posts about the improvements since young David has taken over. He has no control over the general economy of Maine paper enterprises. This has likely been why he has been trying to solicit new customers. I just hope that it is not too late.

We will have to see what happens. Mr. Mellon might look to forgo paying himself dividends, so that the money can be spent improving the plant. This could entice new customers. The other option is to sell out. There can't be that much more land to sell, so it could come to a point where he feels that he has gotten everything out of his investment.

I've been scanning this forum to see if it would come up in discussion, but Eastern Railroad News reported last month PAR was already planning to end operations between Bangor and Keag in favor of routing the NBSR traffic over the CMQ to Brownsville Jct. And this was before the Bucksport announcement. An agreement between the two roads was being worked out for this rerouting to occur sometime before the end of the year.

It was not clear to me whether CMQ would take the traffic via a haulage agreement, or if PAR would get trackage rights, but I suspect it's haulage.

I think this unfortunate announcement will only seal the deal on something such as this agreement with the CMQ.

The above has been discussed heavily in the "Up North Gawking". Supposedly it was a done deal, Irving just needs more crews.

Thanks for the clue in on the topic thread, KSmitty.

Irving committed to buying brand-new DOT 113 tank car sets and only operate those (if you read about the incident you will come across a lot of info on the old cars). Lead time on new tank cars has been about 2 years since the Dakota crude oil boom started. I'd venture to say you'll start seeing them again at some point.

Trinnau wrote:Irving committed to buying brand-new DOT 113 tank car sets and only operate those (if you read about the incident you will come across a lot of info on the old cars). Lead time on new tank cars has been about 2 years since the Dakota crude oil boom started. I'd venture to say you'll start seeing them again at some point.

Thats not quite true. Irving is still getting lots of cbr at Saint John. The announcement of better tanks is a feel good pr deal, nothing more. They will be transitioning to newer tanks, but they werent going to stop rail shipments for 2 years while cars were built.

The service stopped because the MM&A blew up Megantic, and Pan Am's service times sucked. The bulk of Pan Am's oil business was lost in March 2013, before Megantic and Irvings safe tank decree, after they spilled a dozen cars in Keag. They lucked out, at 5mph they didnt blow anything up, or even crack anything open. Spilled less than 10 gallons,which was nothing more than off the side of cars from spills at loadout. That was the end of unit trains. They had 1 more already on the way, then smaller blocks on the freights and now nothing in several months.

KSmitty wrote:

Trinnau wrote:Irving committed to buying brand-new DOT 113 tank car sets and only operate those (if you read about the incident you will come across a lot of info on the old cars). Lead time on new tank cars has been about 2 years since the Dakota crude oil boom started. I'd venture to say you'll start seeing them again at some point.

Thats not quite true. Irving is still getting lots of cbr at Saint John. The announcement of better tanks is a feel good pr deal, nothing more. They will be transitioning to newer tanks, but they werent going to stop rail shipments for 2 years while cars were built.

The service stopped because the MM&A blew up Megantic, and Pan Am's service times sucked. The bulk of Pan Am's oil business was lost in March 2013, before Megantic and Irvings safe tank decree, after they spilled a dozen cars in Keag. They lucked out, at 5mph they didnt blow anything up, or even crack anything open. Spilled less than 10 gallons,which was nothing more than off the side of cars from spills at loadout. That was the end of unit trains. They had 1 more already on the way, then smaller blocks on the freights and now nothing in several months.

Whatever is going "over the top" via CN I'm not aware of, but I should have clarified that I know the shipments by rail resumed after the incident. I'd venture to say they are likely in the newer cars. I have it on good authority that Pan Am has handled empty trains recently. However there is more to it than Pan Am's times (which were actually decent - it's the shortest route mileage-wise). It has more to do with the price of oil. Transport by rail from the Dakotas is more expensive than by tanker from the North Sea. So if the price of crude is comparable, Irving goes to the North Sea. Pan Am demonstrated their ability to handle the trains in the 2012-2013 winter. True they could use some infrastructure upgrades, but they handled what was given to them.

Irving was looking into railcars when Megantic happened. So this is merely an extension, just delayed by the incident. I've heard they are buying 5 or 6 trains worth.

Oil will be back...

And the recent 'empty oil trains' you're referring to may be the one empty oil train that came off CMQ from MMA a few weeks ago and is waiting to return back to CP.

Trinnau wrote:Whatever is going "over the top" via CN I'm not aware of, but I should have clarified that I know the shipments by rail resumed after the incident. I'd venture to say they are likely in the newer cars. I have it on good authority that Pan Am has handled empty trains recently. However there is more to it than Pan Am's times (which were actually decent - it's the shortest route mileage-wise). It has more to do with the price of oil. Transport by rail from the Dakotas is more expensive than by tanker from the North Sea. So if the price of crude is comparable, Irving goes to the North Sea. Pan Am demonstrated their ability to handle the trains in the 2012-2013 winter. True they could use some infrastructure upgrades, but they handled what was given to them.

Irving was looking into railcars when Megantic happened. So this is merely an extension, just delayed by the incident. I've heard they are buying 5 or 6 trains worth.

Getting way off topic...

Pan Am has handled 1 empty oil train, and its not really "handled" yet. Still sitting at Walnut per recent picture on NErail. This is a 1 off move. The night of July 6, 2013 there were 2 oil trains around Megantic, the fated eastbound, and an empty in the hole somewhere between Megantic and Jackman. This empty sat, along with some empties at Brownville, while MM&A was in bankruptcy. Finally got pulled back east (since CMQ can't run even empties through Megantic) and routed out PAR for reintroduction to the oil car pool.

I'm under the impression CN is handling anywhere from 20-70 cars of oil/day with an average around 40 according to recent reports from SJ. Plus I think they are still getting barged oil from Port Albany, can anyone confirm that?

I believe there is more than enough business for Pan Am to pick up right now. I'm not sure they didn't price themselves out of the business. While they handled the oil even at the peak, they really struggled to handle everything else at that time. Bucksport switch crews were "borrowed" and manifests sat while the oil highballed its way to Keag. The sad thing is that the Keag line is basically at capacity right now, and the oil trains really F'd up the system east of Waterville, and esp. NMJ. That close call in Keag, and I'm sure they are aware, especially now, just how lucky they were. The cost of 13 newer tanks is nothing compared with what it could have been...and the business seemed to stop PDQ after that.

If it were cheaper for Irving to have Pan Am ship oil than to ship it by sea, they would have Pan Am ship it in a heartbeat. And Pan Am would jump on the opportunity because oil pays far better than the non-hazardous overhead traffic from EMR they're shipping right now. Even if the tracks to Keag are at capacity, that was also the case with numerous Class 1 main lines prior to the oil boom. The oil ends up becoming the priority because it pays better, while other traffic is delayed.... just ask the grain industry...

Must have clicked on the wrong page. Never seen a unit oil train on the BUCKSPORT BRANCH

No worries. Just stirring the pot as they say.

Never seen a unit oil train on the BUCKSPORT BRANCH

The funny thing as that they might have run on occasion into the 80s, in a manner of speaking. There was a 10+ car-spot oil rack in Bucksport that loaded out for some of the MEC-served mills such as Shawmut. (Remnants are probably still there.) Not saying it ever happened, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was an occasional Buckport extra that ran with just oil.