Ethanol Trains to Revere

I didn't know until recently that the branch is almost like a large wye. It used to first branch off right after the present day Chelsea station and then again in Revere near Route 1A. Any idea which they'd be using?

there is no more bridge over the river.

EPA has a nice map of the area and terminals. It's also pretty easy to see the rail ROWs in question as well.

http://www.epa.gov/ne/npdes/chelseacree ... a_area.jpg

As a side note the new Chelsea st. draw bridge under construction is twice as wide as the old bridge and will allow bigger ships to get to the end of Chelsea creek. I am curious if global or irving is looking to reactivate rail service to take advantage of this.

Anyone know the status of the line? OOS? abandoned? It will be interesting if they rebuild the line past the storage building, the line apparently took a big turn around the back of the building right in the middle of the current parking lot.

The power probably broke down or was used for something else...If they can't run a test train,how are they going to take care of a customer? As for track rehab....ya, right!....The customer will have to pay for that.

no, Dave said no crews.

As for track rehab....ya, right!....The customer will have to pay for that.

I have to imagine that if a customer is going to start bringing in unit-train quantities of ethanol, the cost of rehabbing a mile of track probably won't be too much of an issue for the customer.

Another report I read stated that something like 70-80% of New England's fuel storage capacity resided in E. Boston, Chelsea, and Revere, so if unit trains of fuel are going to happen, this seems to be the logical place.

FatNoah wrote:

As for track rehab....ya, right!....The customer will have to pay for that.

I have to imagine that if a customer is going to start bringing in unit-train quantities of ethanol, the cost of rehabbing a mile of track probably won't be too much of an issue for the customer.

Another report I read stated that something like 70-80% of New England's fuel storage capacity resided in E. Boston, Chelsea, and Revere, so if unit trains of fuel are going to happen, this seems to be the logical place.

I couldn't have said it better myself! Thans Noah!

If local trains serving the Boston area come from Lawrence or Nashua, why would they run this train right out of Ayer? Wouldn't it be easier to have the ethanol come down with a local or is the train going to be too big to be part of a local?
Also, what is a "unit train"? This is the first time I’ve ever heard the term.

Basically it's a train carrying one commodity from its origin to its destination. The cars don't have to be switched out en-route like car load freight does. Engines could be, and often are, swapped out but the cars will all stay together as a single unit.

A local can be a unit train. We have a unit grain train that is a local, and it is the last leg in the journey of that train. It brings the cars the final 30 or so miles and spots them for the customer.

So the Bow Coal train is a unit train; I never knew that.
Thank You!

I am not firmiliar with Revere, but I can tell you if this train is to come out of Ayer via the Fitchburg through Boston, you will have a LOT of NIMBY liberals fighting it. They want to force us to be "green", but they don't want the stuff traveling through their towns. (Didn't D.C. want to stop these trains from coming near the city?) If this train ends up a reality, they will probably have to run them at night. That will wake Mr. Jones from his slumber... And didn't the MBTA have length rectrictions on the Pan Am freights during the recent flood detours?

With the big push to get CSX out of Boston so the real estate can be swallowed up, will this be the only way to get anything into Boston anymore?

(I am being Devil's Advocate here... I am so used to incompetant decision-makers, I assume the worst, so when something GOOD happens, it is a nice suprise!)

NellsChoo wrote:I am not firmiliar with Revere, but I can tell you if this train is to come out of Ayer via the Fitchburg through Boston, you will have a LOT of NIMBY liberals fighting it. They want to force us to be "green", but they don't want the stuff traveling through their towns. (Didn't D.C. want to stop these trains from coming near the city?) If this train ends up a reality, they will probably have to run them at night. That will wake Mr. Jones from his slumber... And didn't the MBTA have length rectrictions on the Pan Am freights during the recent flood detours?

With the big push to get CSX out of Boston so the real estate can be swallowed up, will this be the only way to get anything into Boston anymore?

(I am being Devil's Advocate here... I am so used to incompetant decision-makers, I assume the worst, so when something GOOD happens, it is a nice suprise!)

There is nothing legally the affected towns could do to stop the traffic, however they would do well to make all highway grade crossings compliant for "quiet zones". Athough most of them are, I know at least one in Concord is not, Sudbury Rd.

Ah yes, but when has the law stopped people in the Boston area? Yes, most crossings seem to already be silent. One thing I don't quite get is how they can get away with it without the crossing upgrades I have read about for other parts of the country. But that is for a different thread... BACK TO GAS!!!

This is the pure raw ethanol that they use to blend in with raw gas to make the gas station mix right? How does it get there now? Is it on a barge?