CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways

CN9634 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:42 pm That’s an extremely unusual amount of pole cars, I’ll see if I can dig into that

Sounds like a slug of Nashuas.

Are these welded rail trains for PAR itself or is PAR simply handing them off to the T?

CN9634 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:42 pm That’s an extremely unusual amount of pole cars, I’ll see if I can dig into that

The total amount of cars in the train were 30-40, there was only 1 or 2 loads of poles. English composition was never my strong point in school.

BobbyT wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 6:20 pm So at this point what operational changes has CSX made beyond extending 426/427 to Portland and what looks to be the creation of a Lawrence block? Have they done any re-blocking out of Portland? It seems like the Ayer warehouse Paper/pulp traffic may have been shifted over to POED, perhaps in an effort to expedite 427 across the railroad.

It looks like they are going to try running M426 on an alternate P&W/ Pan Am schedule. One day it will be a solid P&W train and the next it will be all Pan Am's with the P&W train having regular non access engines.

The first one went last night, solid P&W train with 131 cars and DP. Tonight's train should be solid Pan Am with the 400's.

Both trains are still symbolled as M426.

So an almost immediate cut in service to northern New England

F74265A wrote:So an almost immediate cut in service to northern New England

But aren't the two main trains that 426/427 feed into (PORU, POWA) also every-other-day operation? So, if done right, this won't actually impact the delivery of cars to customers in any material way. Come to think of it, running 426/427 every day, when the trains that it feeds are run every second day, kind of doesn't make sense... right? (They can sync up PORU and POWA so they leave on the same day, if that's not already the practice.)

I'm curious - in pre-CSX times, how often would the predecessors of 426/427 (POSE/SEPO I believe) make it across the railroad on one crew, vs. outlaw somewhere and sit idle for a while?

F74265A wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:45 am So an almost immediate cut in service to northern New England

If you say so. In reality, not really.

The cars just sit in Rigby anyway what's the difference? Also the actual tonnage recently between Selkirk and Ayer hasn't really warranted a daily job (when crews are scarce) because they're leaving tonnage behind in Selkirk (because of the P&W/PAR combination).

Until the physical plant is improved to get trains over the road they are going to be throwing darts as to integrate the PAR system. But once that's done, even with PSR, the economics will warrant running a dedicated SEPO again daily. Hopefully more crews will be onboard by then too.

Also from what I'm hearing they are really short on crews at Selkirk right now.

All things being equal, running trains v. every other day should theoretically provide better service but both CSX and Pan Am in Worcester these days are parking lots for carload freights due to lack of crews and the complexity of adding or setting out blocks. M426 sets out a P&W block while M427 picks up a Framingham/Westborough block. My understanding is M426 must tie down at Worcester west of CP-45 until M427 departs New Bond St, where it has been tied down for 8+ hours. I believe this is because CSX, having limited crews, uses a Worcester turn crew to run 426 north to Ayer and bring 427 south. If M426 and M427 run the Worcester main on alternate days, perhaps M426 can run from Selkirk to Ayer (without needing to set out P&Ws at Worcester) in one day with one crew. And M427 could run the next day from Ayer to Selkirk although I'm not sure what train would take the Framinghams west to Selkirk - is CSX re-starting a 437 train out of Framingham that would also run every other day?

There is a rumor out there that NS is now thinking about owning (and operating) 100% of PAS.

It's kind of in line with what my contact at NS said who basically claimed that they stopped contributing to PAS because the money would just dissappear. But now that PAR is out of the picture they are rethinking that.

Right now PAS has 49 miles of 10 mph. It's taking the pig train 3 crews to get across the system. G&W doesn't want to take over until PAS is in stable condition and even then they're having 2nd thoughts.

CSX would be elated at not having to deal with 50% of PAS.

Let's see where this one goes..

So Mr. Newpy, Topper "wants back in the game" after he "bolted to the paddock"?.

And this; even after he knew that 49 some miles of "The Route of the Flying Yankee" is FRA Class 1?

Further of concern is Mr. Barlow's immediate suggesting that Chessie will only run "one a day" to Rigby. My question is that is all the present level of business needs OR is this some limit a passenger train agency (MBTA; NNEPRA) has imposed?

Eventually, when they get the crews, they are going to have to add another manifest to the line. The waste business is growing by leaps and bounds and once CSX gets Pan Am straightened out, there will undoubtedly be more traffic coming down from Ayer. I could see there being the need for a straight Portland/ST job, a Framingham job and a G&W (NECR/PW) job East of Springfield. One of those trains may need to carry an overflow West Springfield block as M424 can't absorb much more traffic and ran with 175 cars today.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:02 pm So Mr. Newpy, Topper "wants back in the game" after he "bolted to the paddock"?.

And this; even after he knew that 49 some miles of "The Route of the Flying Yankee" is FRA Class 1?

Further of concern is Mr. Barlow's immediate suggesting that Chessie will only run "one a day" to Rigby. My question is that is all the present level of business needs OR is this some limit a passenger train agency (MBTA; NNEPRA) has imposed?

Maybe, time will tell. It's just a rumor until it's not.

Not sure what you are referring to about one a day. They are always going to run at least 2 pair between Ayer and Portland. 1 will be the priority ie 426 the other won't be and will do the setoffs ie ED/AYPO.

CSX has a crew problem like everyone else. The fact of the matter is going to every other day for the P&W and Pan Am traffic on the B&A temporarily will make sure they can take full tonnage when they depart. It may not pass the smell test but when the trains sit waiting for crews anyway, it's kinda not a bad solution for now.

Even though I was critical of earlier of going Selkirk to Ayer every other day, the track work May in fact proceed more quickly this way.
I’m hoping that more rail trains show up soon and drop rail on the Clinton-Ayer segment

Based my eyeball observations of 22K passing the Elkhart live cam this week, I’m guessing NS/PAS are only taking Ayer single stack blocks every other day. This morning, 22K-03 passed by with 0 single stacked containers while the previous day’s 22K had 130 singles between the Taylor and Mechanicville blocks. And 22Ks earlier in the week had no more than 10 singles.