CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways

CSX handed off Everett? Chelsea? business to PAR because it wasn't worth running a separate small train from Worcester. If they plan to run a train over a souped-up Worcester Main or the Grand Junction to Lowell or Maine then they might as well drop stuff off at the New England Produce Market.

Are there any paper barriers that are in need of falling? (like to a mill in Maine that wanted service but couldn't get the last ?half mile? from their preferred railroad, or some thing in Vermont at the western end of the Mountain Division?) Are there any abandoned lines that need to be sold for railbanking / rail-trails at a reasonable price? Any ROW double-tracking that needs to be negotiated, or passenger slots expanded (cough, Worcester-SPG). They have already agreed to install PTC for the Downeaster route, presumably paid mostly by Amtrak!

I thought I read in the documents that NS is getting some trackage rights or something on some G&W lines or am I hallucinating?

There are several small pieces of track PAR hung onto to prevent other carriers from making connections. The Lewiston Lower is one, part of the mountain division at both ends? Probably other examples outside of Maine

b&m 1566 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 9:45 pm Is CSX going to handle the NHN trains to and from Dover and Boston?

I doubt Boston Sand & Gravel would be pleased if CSX took over the gravel trains.

BandA wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 3:10 am I thought I read in the documents that NS is getting some trackage rights or something on some G&W lines or am I hallucinating?

NS is getting overhead trackage rights from Voorheesville - Ayer via the B&A, the P&W Gardner Branch (the G&W line you're thinking of), the PAR/CSX portion of the Worcester Main, and the PAS/B&E portion of the Worcester Main (the other G&W line involved in this whole process). This is for the operation of one round trip pair of intermodal/autorack trains.

NRGeep wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 9:02 am I doubt Boston Sand & Gravel would be pleased if CSX took over the gravel trains.

I don't think they'll have much choice... Nobody else is going to run them.

NHN sent a letter of support - see page 348. So presumably they’re happy about the deal. NHN ends at Dover, where they interchange with PAR. I believe DOBO is run by PAR/ST currently (even though it appears they sometimes use NHN power), so after the deal goes through it would be CSX running it.

Yes, DOBO always runs with NHN power (except for the rare occasions that NHN has leased an engine from Pan Am, like the 5972 recently). I wonder if CSX would have any reason to change this arrangement (i.e. swap NHN for CSX power in Dover), especially seeing as NHN 3823 & 3825 are now both PTC-equipped to run in T territory.

The Craft employment numbers that were originally redacted on the primary docket (301684 PDF page 56) are now in public view on modification 301706 (PDF page 3). There will be 55 less craft positions overall: 58 abolished craft jobs and 3 more created engineer positions from ST/PAS to B&N.

The juicy stuff.

OOf. Looks like E Deerfield is going to take a beating...

I guess MofW reductions are probably because they can bring in crews with more special equipment to get things done with fewer people?

What does “Trainmen” encompass? Conductors? More?

Conductors, Brakemen, and Utilitymen. Hard to tell what's going on specifically because G&W roads typically have Trainmen who are qualified as both Conductors and Engineers so it may not be an apples to apples comparison. They might be nuking the Utility positions as most railroads use carmen in a similar role.

Still, it is a huge gross drop in positions I am sure the Unions are going to fight.

I know the staffing chart above only covers a portion of the system (the PAS portion, apparently), but I'd be extremely curious if anyone has any context of what the staffing levels might have looked like at these places, say, the day before Mellon and company bought the system? I'm sure it's lower now, but I'm curious *how much* lower.

It looks like Mechanicville is picking up a lot of the displaced crews at East Deerfield. 1 Engineer & Conductor (XO-1) currently to 8 each.