Largest NE Bridge Steel Fabricator to Begin Shipping by Rail

From PPH:

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/04/04/b ... -portland/

Bridge steel fabricator grows across South Portland

Casco Bay Steel Structures is in the midst of a cross-city, multimillion-dollar expansion to acquire coveted railroad and harbor access that’s expected to push Casco Bay Steel into wider markets along the Eastern Seaboard.

Over the last two years, the company has spent $3 million buying two industrial properties near its plant on Wallace Avenue to establish rail access at Rigby Yard. Construction of a 1,200-foot rail spur is scheduled to be completed this summer at a cost of $300,000, said Bryon Tait, president and CEO of Casco Bay Steel.

The ability to get 170-foot-long girders off the road and onto rail cars and barges is expected to save Casco Bay Steel time and money, open new markets, and double again its annual production to 30,000 tons within five years, Tait said.

More work for PanAm!

Wasn't the Saco Industrial Track also being extended to their small facility there? Is that still going forward?

IIRC, there's a couple Cianbro properties near PAR lines. Would be nice to bring them online, too.

Good to see that the turners island line will start to get more use again. I wonder if Casco Bay Steel or Turners Island LLC is interested in repairs of that segment of track. It's in terrible condition in a lot of places.

While adjacent to the yard, the properties in question are on the other side of the mainline from the yard and Turners Island. Near the Monson customer.

I think they would have to do some upgrades on that track if those heavy loads will be shipped over it even if just a short distance.

Economic development in the Portland area that isn't based around overpriced food or craft beer, nice.

The site in question:

http://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/u ... igbyYa.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BostonUrbEx wrote:Wasn't the Saco Industrial Track also being extended to their small facility there? Is that still going forward?

Yes, its been complete and receiving cars for a couple of months now. You can see it right adjacent to the Turnpike.

Eric

Can anyone decipher what this means for rail?

Steel in and completed structures out of both facilities? To the dock in Turners?

That was how it sounded to me when I was reading the article.

Also, love this part:

Portland Press Herald wrote:Last year, he bought a 4.5-acre wedge of vacant land from Pan Am Railways for $466,200. Negotiating with the notoriously tough rail company proved challenging.

“I should have read Donald Trump’s ‘The Art of the Deal’ first,” Tait said.

The expansion site was another steel company originally. They used railroad cranes to load and unload the bigger pieces.

newpylong wrote:Can anyone decipher what this means for rail?

Steel in and completed structures out of both facilities? To the dock in Turners?

Sounds like loads both ways, but likely rely on inbound raw materials more than outbound fast JIT service.

It looks like their northerly site to the west used to have a siding and the southerly one still does?

As for the expansion site, quite a bit of trackage in there.

Mikejf wrote:The expansion site was another steel company originally. They used railroad cranes to load and unload the bigger pieces.

The old Megquire & Jones facility.
They still have an American crane on the property. And plan to do quite a bit of track work coming up. As I understand it, they want to be able to bring cars into the shop building, which isn't currently possible as most of the trackage on the property is buried. They've also got a lot of stuff in front of the overhead doors, and some oil tanks for the heaters on a couple of the tracks...

KSmitty wrote:

Mikejf wrote:The expansion site was another steel company originally. They used railroad cranes to load and unload the bigger pieces.

The old Megquire & Jones facility.
They still have an American crane on the property. And plan to do quite a bit of track work coming up. As I understand it, they want to be able to bring cars into the shop building, which isn't currently possible as most of the trackage on the property is buried. They've also got a lot of stuff in front of the overhead doors, and some oil tanks for the heaters on a couple of the tracks...

Yes, that was it. Been a few years since I have been by for a look. Soumds like a big improvement for Casco Bay