Pan Am Coal Trains

Schiller Station:
http://www.psnh.com/PlantsTerritory/Sch ... ation.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Coal for Schiller Station arrives by barge. Some time in the 90's
GRS ran a couple of "test" unit trains from Schiller to Bow with
two 300 class locos and 30 loads. The rail route via Haverhill,
Lowell, Nashua and Manchester to Bow was 98 rail miles. By road,
it is 48 to 52 miles depending on the route taken. Apparently the
test did not turn out to be beneficial, so was not continued. I
believe PSNH has trucked coal to Bow from Schiller at times in
the past. I do not know if they still do that today.

Merrimack Station (Bow)
http://www.psnh.com/PlantsTerritory/Mer ... ation.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Newington Station
http://www.psnh.com/PlantsTerritory/New ... ation.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Renewable Generation
http://www.psnh.com/RenewableEnergy/Abo ... ation.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It may have had to do with the Thanksgiving holiday and the tremendous
snow storm in Western NY, but there were three coal trains to Bow all on
PAR at the same time about 4 weeks ago.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Well, New Hampshire is totally backward in all things infrastructure so they're going to be coal- and nuke-dependent longer than all 5 of their New England neighboring states. It's to the point where doing nothing is going to leave them absolutely screwed in a couple decades when Bow needs its next major rehab/upgrade and Seabrook's license is up and needs billions in retrofits to keep going. The trend in the rest of the region is going to stay the same...what's left of the coal power generation shriveling to too little for any rail carrier to possibly make a profit. They've all been converting to natural gas-fired at a breakneck pace and going big on wind power over the next 20 years. Massachusetts has zero coal power generation left with Mt. Tom's closure. Vermont and Rhode Island have zero coal plants and zero intake from coal-generated electricity. Bridgeport Harbor is the last in CT and more or less insolvent and despite the operator's claims to the contrary it's unlikely to survive much longer. Maine's down to one and plans for a second have been blocked multiple times over. There simply isn't any power plant fuel in the region beyond anachronistic Bow that lends itself to rail transport. And that includes petroleum-fired plants, which are likewise getting the natural gas conversion treatment with the non-converts likely next on the chopping block when some of these big offshore and mountain peak wind projects go online.

There's not even thru traffic potential for anything other than the ongoing crude oil boom to/from Canada. What little coal generation exists in the northeast immediately outside of New England is all far western NY in anthracite territory or the remaining industrial dumps of the southern swath of Greater NYC. And that fuel supply--such that it still exists--is all going to come on CSX and NS from the west and south or CP from Canada instead of on haulage through New England. The profit margins are simply too low for multiple handoffs.

I appreciate the concern but I am sure we will be fine up here.

Losing Bow would hurt the railroad, but operationally not much would change with its demise. The railroad has mentally moved off of Coal as their cash cow.

jaymac wrote:Dunno what else may be happening, but with the general decline in demand for coal, PSNH might be finding itself in a very advantageous pricing position. In earlier years, the cars for Bow service could be and frequently were a hodgepodge, including leasers, some of whom had SLSF branding ghosting through the paint-overs. More recently, the 88 have been all NS or NS plus a few CR, and aluminums, which had been a rarity around here, have become far more frequent and numerous, possible indications of the increasing availability of company rolling stock and the increasing relative importance of Bow.

I strongly agree that Bow appears to be headed for a position of strategic significance. There will be days when they are going to have to make power for all they are worth.

Currently there is a LCT sitting at XO on the CS with a CP GEVO leading. No ETA on crew.

I may have asked this before but anyone know the last time Schiller Station near Portsmouth received coal by rail?

Coal train at hoosick jct 11:00 crew coming out of the hotel.

As of 15:15h today...

NHB-23 (Now ECT) has been dumped and was moving west as of 05:00h.
NHB-24 (LCT) has been shoved in, and is being dumped.
NHB-25 trainset assigned to the mine, loading shortly, if not already loaded.

I guess everyone missed it, but there's a PWBO in Bow right now. P&W power and everything. How did the hoards of railfans let this one slip by?

EDIT: I guess one person caught it! http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 588&nseq=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We were on top of it! There have been lots of activity in Bow for quite sometime now, and this was the first appearance of a P & W limestone train since perhaps last Spring.. While the P&W colors are unique, the engines were two B39-8's and a leased SD60, they are good catches, no question, and we've seen them many times before over the years. If the SD60 #9000 which is co-leased between the P&W and VTR, or their two new ex-FEC SD70M-2's were leading the way, I know I would looked out for them. The Cabless B-30AB's were neat sights, but gone now.. The PWBO didn't stay long in Bow at all, one day tops. We've been spoiled a bit in Bow with several recent UP Engine lineups and two appearances of the Monongahela Heritage Engine on these quiet New Hampshire rails..

TT Special Instruction all unit coal and grain trains top speed reduced to 25 MPH while load. Was already 30 mph which was stupid, now this is just idiotic.

BUMP! In case you're not plugged into the right grapevines, NS 532 (aka "Loaded Coal Train") should be in Binghamton this afternoon. Not only is this possibly the 1st LCT for 2016 but it was routed by way of Harrisburg and the Sunbury Line, a shorter route than going via Buffalo/Portageville.

So, that gets me to the question: IIRC, the Portageville Viaduct on the NS Southern Tier is rated for 263K pound cars max. And the Pan Am Weight Limits map shows that D3 between N Adams and Gardner is still in the process of being upgraded from 263K to 286K as of May 1, 2016. So NS still can't yet operate a Bow coal train at the 286K rating per car, n'est-ce pas?

http://www.panamrailways.com/includes/t ... itsbig.jpg

I doubt 263 vs. 286 is that big a financial constriction for serving this one customer since Bow in recent times has been running well below its generation capacity for more months of the year than it used to. New Hampshire just doesn't load up the grid nearly as full as they used to, so Bow doesn't get restocked nearly as often as they used to. And it's quite unlikely the plant is going to be around in a few years. It's up for auction, and interest from new buyers so far has been pretty low because it's a very outdated, unmodernized plant that would need tens of millions in modernization to be profitable by the standards of this fast-declining coal market.

Odds are either A) They don't find a buyer and it goes the way of Mt. Tom; B) They find a buyer, but it's a buyer who wants to convert it to gas-fired like Salem Harbor. Option C) purchased as-is and modernized...possible but very less likely, and quite likely to be more miserly with its rail deliveries than even now. It'll take some time to sort out; the auction process is starting years late and moving glacially. But the railroad must be looking at a mid-term future where that customer no longer exists; they've got to be resigned to it by now, with NS knowing the score for New England coal traffic's future when it bought its way in. It'll be the biggest anticipated loss of an anchor customer in D2, but at least D2 has enough wheels in motion on new anchor customer sign-ons to counteract the loss. Won't be the end of the world like the crisis D1 is facing with the disappearing mills...more like a 'melancholy' sign of the times.

This analysis is not entirely accurate. Bow is on the auction block ALONG with PSNH's (Eversource's) other 2 coal plants and all of their hydro facilities. It is for sale because as competitive energy supply has gotten more mature here the legislature believes customers should not be subsidizing the operation of plants owned by the state and that these plants should be individually operated and be able to sell generation on the open market. They have gone back and forth on this for the past year and I believe they are back wanting to sell them and figure out how to recoup the costs of the modernization of Bow.

As for Bow, it has undergone nearly half a billion dollars in modernization in the past 5 years unlike the other two plants in the state. It is one of the cleanest burning plants in the country. As for the lack of electricity generation and as such coal trains - the price of natural gas has sunk and the price of coal has soared - making it un-competitive.

As far as a buyer - there is always the risk of further environment controls making coal even less profitable to burn.

The railroad has accepted the loss of this customer and does not depend on it as a milk cow any longer - if the plant goes under operations are not going to change on the Northern.

newpylong wrote:As for Bow, it has undergone nearly half a billion dollars in modernization in the past 5 years unlike the other two plants in the state. It is one of the cleanest burning plants in the country. As for the lack of electricity generation and as such coal trains - the price of natural gas has sunk and the price of coal has soared - making it un-competitive.

Given that level of investment I would imagine Bow will be one of the last coal fired power plants in all of New England.