Excessive power on Cayuga Lake line?

...the salt is trucked over to Newark Valley and loaded on rail there on the Oweog and Harford. NS lost that business years ago but don'tknow how much has been regained.
AS FOR EXTRA UNITS: cold weather plays havoc with airline (brakes) and therefore the more power, the more braking power with both dynamics and air compressors.

Henry6, are you sure about this? Just tonight I saw a long train of salt cars (maybe 30) on Cayuga Lake line. Also the Newark Valley line has had lots of washouts and slow orders. It would be simpler to truck to Auburn or Syracuse. I have never heard of this. Do you have a source at Cargill Lansing mine?

I've never seen any place to load salt in Newark Valley.

...this has been done for several years now...the old lader factory on the west side of the track south of town is the site...several cars a week are loaded, not full trains...three cars went out yesterday....from the mine at Lansing, I believe.

Henry, would it be too much trouble (assuming you live in Newark Valley or go by regularly) to find out about this? It seems very strange since there is a direct rail link at the Lansing mine, the track is is great condition, and there is a train with numerous salt cars every weekday. Why would salt be trucked 30 or so miles over the hills to a short line?

I don't know if this practice exists or ever did, BUT, this summer, I saw the FGLK RR in Penn Yan while they were switching. I had a nice chat with the engineer, who told me they were spotting a Box Car to be loaded with Salt at the Birkett Mills Transload Siding. The salt was trucked up from Watkins Glen, where the FGLK also serves two salt companies. I don't know why they would have an arrangement like that, but they did, so you never can assume the logistics of something don't make sense from a cover view of an operation without an understanding of the actual costs. It was obviously cheaper for the Shipper to truck Salt to Penn Yan and load in a Box Car then directly load in Watkins Glen, even though there was rail service in Watkins Glen. So it could make sense for Cargill to truck salt to Newark if the right factors were in place.

Brooks