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  • 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

 #1537596  by newpylong
 
I can see a contributing factor to capacity issues. I watched a couple videos and they are restricting them to 10 MPH over the entire Whitehall Sub. That's 30 miles of 10, when Amtrak does 50. Another wacky VRS restriction?
 #1537606  by johnpbarlow
 
Inbound auto traffic is being embargoed around North America as RRs have no place to put the autos thanks to Covid-19:
https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... el-traffic

BNSF has closed all 23 of its auto distribution centers. Other excerpt:
Canadian National placed an embargo on traffic bound for 20 of its auto terminals in Canada. Union Pacific has closed its auto ramps at Chicago Heights and West Chicago, Ill.; Santa Rosa, N.M.; and Benecia, Calif.; to inbound traffic. CSX Transportation has embargoes in place on multilevel terminals in Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and New Jersey. Canadian Pacific has limited traffic at four auto terminals in Canada and one in Minnesota. NS is limiting inbound volumes at the Wentzville, Mo., auto ramp.
So maybe auto traffic to Ayer/Davisville and E Brookfield will start to atrophy soon.
 #1537876  by GU1001
 
Wednesday evening, I had to run down to the store in Northampton. As I was going into the store, a Valley Flyer went by northbound. Good timing I thought to myself.

When I came out of the store, horns blaring, there go 3 Pan Am 6 axle GEs pulling some freight north. Well, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take the roundabout way home & chase them to Deerfield.

As it turns out, they were RJED pulling 111 or so cars. It was a key train with propane, acids & chlorine so the slower speed made the chase easy.

My son & I decided to stop in old Deerfield where it goes back to 2 tracks (sorry, not sure of the proper rr name). Much to our amazement there was southbound local with 1 GP40 and some of the trash containers waiting for RJED to pass. At this point we couldn’t believe our luck!

As we continued to East Deerfield, sitting on the bridge idling was a lone Pan Am painted GE waiting for clearance. At the yard, on the house tracks, here comes a GE with the Housatonic GP35 trailing! A couple minutes later, RJED came rolling slowly down the loop & into the yard.

We couldn’t believe our luck! Never had we seen so much in such a short time around here. My son said it was like being back in Cresson, PA. It was a welcome distraction in these difficult times & one we’ll remember for some time.

Hope everyone out there is staying safe & healthy!

B. Moore
 #1537893  by GU1001
 
Yes, a detour RJED. Heard conversation with the dispatcher & backed up with a visual on the cargo. Many loads such as loaded propane headed north, not south to CT. Chlorine destined to NH? Acid for Salem. Empty, not full high sided debris gondolas.
 #1537948  by Plate C
 
These detours routes seemingly change by the week. Might that train have come off CSX in SPG? Saw CSX moving a line the other day that didn't fully look like their traffic and heard some noise about needing to coordinate something w/ PAR, wonder if it was that.
 #1537950  by GU1001
 
Hi all,
Maybe one of you on the board could help shed some light?

If anyone has seen the interchange with CSX in Springfield, please share how they are coordinating the handoff.
I’m curious if Pan Am crew is picking up the train in West Springfield yard (are they qualified on that short section of B&A?) or is CSX coordinating a handoff by the station or another location nearby?

Is West Springfield still an active if rarely used interchange, or have provisions been made due to the detour needs?

On a related note, I’ve heard EDSP used recently. The locals to Northampton & Holyoke used to be ED8 or something along those lines. What is EDSP’s role?
 #1537994  by roberttosh
 
Speaking of Springfield (the diamond area specifically), it's really too bad there isn't a decent place to watch the action there, not to mention the fact that it's not exactly a great area. Between a dozen or more CSX through trains, a couple CSX locals, a few CSO road jobs, the occasional EDPL/PLED and numerous Amtrak and CT Rail trains it has to easily be one of the busier spots in New England for catching a variety of heavy freight and passenger action.
 #1538001  by QB 52.32
 
GU1001 wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:50 am If anyone has seen the interchange with CSX in Springfield, please share how they are coordinating the handoff.
I’m curious if Pan Am crew is picking up the train in West Springfield yard (are they qualified on that short section of B&A?) or is CSX coordinating a handoff by the station or another location nearby?

Is West Springfield still an active if rarely used interchange, or have provisions been made due to the detour needs?
My understanding is that the CSX RJED detour trains out of Selkirk to date have been pulling east of and shoving back through CP-98 onto the Conn River via track 11 (north wye) for the ST (PAR/PAS) crew to tie on and head north.
 #1538005  by newpylong
 
gokeefe wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 10:19 am Wow ... How long has it been since Springfield had a road job assigned by Pan Am or the B&M?
There isn't really a job assigned - it's run as needed. It doesn't happen often but Pan Am still has crews qualified into West Springfield yard and can utilize these rights. We used to do it every so often to interchange with the CNZR when I worked there. I do not see the ST as an interchange partner with them on their site anymore, perhaps there is a paper barrier now. SPED last ran in the early 90s and they had Holyoke locals in the 90s as well. Holyoke yard used to be pretty busy before the mills shutdown and they even had a small piggyback ramp.