Portsmouth Branch Activity

I noticed the same empty appearance around the Boise facility while going over the bridge on the bus last Tuesday, but there were a couple cars at the siding, so that was good to see. A yellow centerbeam and a green crle box.

DO-1 switched out Boise yesterday, and took two covered hoppers somewhere, but I didn't have time to chase them.

On friday, 3/9, there were a couple of centerbeams and a box in the yard; it looks like they (centerbeams, at least) had been emptied, based on the piles of lumber that were neatly stacked. I believe that they are still listed on the Boise-Cascade website as a warehousing facility.

What happened with the lumber yard just below Rt. 95?....Use to be Furnam Lumber....Looks empty as of last week..
Did they go out of business?

That's Boise now. They get 2-3 loads a week.

DO-1 510 was in Dover at 4pm headed for Rockingham Junction. It had 3 Fish Refrig. Cars, a Center Beam, a boxcar, and a LPG car for C3. He was droping LPG cars for the New Hampshire Northcoast on the number 1 frieght.

NHN DOBO arrived at Dover same time, parked on Number 2 Mainline with 3823-3825 and 15 loads for Boston.

Cory F.

When was the spur to Pease built?
When was it last used?

There are some details on the Pease Air Force Base here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pease_Air_ ... Guard_Base

It would appear that the base became operational in the 1954-56
time frame. "The Rail Lines of Northern New England" by Robert
M Lindsell (2000) states that the spur was built in the mid-1950's.

Initially, the base received tank cars of jet fuel, etc., but at some
point, time frame unknown, a pipeline was run from a pier on the
Piscataqua River to the base. Freight shipments continued to the
base commasary for a while longer. However, I think all rail freight
service to the base has ceased prior to the 1988 decision to put the
base on the BRAC closure list. I am not sure what year all trackage
on the base was removed.

Apparently rail access isn't as important to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as many of us assumed:

Portsmouth Herald wrote:The U.S. Navy has "not requested or budgeted" any money for its portion of the rehabilitation work on the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, although a two-state task force expected the Navy to kick in $30 million.

The Navy goes even a step further. Lt. Cmdr. Alan Garas, a public affairs officer with the Navy, said, "should the rail line that is supported by the bridge structure not be available, the Navy will explore other alternatives."

Read more in the Portsmouth Herald: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/ ... -203160399

One more drop in the water torture that will be the closure of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. It dodged a BRAC bullet once before, but that's unlikely a second time. At least the Navy is saving some money in not funding bridge work. Before Devens was de-Fortified, the Department of the Army spent a large fraction of that amount building a highly secure but Ivy-League-look-alike
new building for the Army Code School. The Code School was transferred to Ft. Huachuca ever before the construction at Devens was completed.

jaymac wrote:One more drop in the water torture that will be the closure of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. It dodged a BRAC bullet once before, but that's unlikely a second time. At least the Navy is saving some money in not funding bridge work. Before Devens was de-Fortified, the Department of the Army spent a large fraction of that amount building a highly secure but Ivy-League-look-alike
new building for the Army Code School. The Code School was transferred to Ft. Huachuca ever before the construction at Devens was completed.

PNSY dodged two previous BRAC rounds, but yeah, we are pessimistic around here. That land will be really valuable when converted, but boy it is going to take a fortune to clean up 212+ years of chemicals and fuel

mr. mick wrote:is the Boise Cascade (?) outfit that used to get weekly shipments of lumber gone? Their yard, which used to be covered with lumber packages, looks empty from the high rise bridge.

It is indeed barren at the siding. But, being the nosey person I am, I called them. They moved to Greenland, four miles away to expand their offerings and have more space. Maybe they still get rail shipments, then truck them over?

jlarose wrote:With regards to the work in Kittery: I don't know for certain if this is the case in this specific instance, but I do know that the Shipyard specifically works with PanAm to keep the Kittery side of the line in reasonable condition, despite only a single move per year.

Regarding this "one move per year", does anyone know when this is or how to find out?

There are actually two moves. One is to take the empty equipment to
the yard and then take the loaded vessel out. It is usually several weeks
or more between these moves. There was an outgoing move about three
weeks ago, so it could be roughly another year before another pair of
moves...

Supposedly, PAR gets an annual payment from the US Navy to keep
the line to the Yard open, in addition to revenue from any moves
there. If the line to the yard was to "go away", I suppose it cannot
be ruled out that PAR would want to abandon the line from Rockingham
to Portsmouth and Newington all together, although of late, they seem
to be servicing Portsmouth somewhat more often, than in recent years.

Perhaps a shortline operator would be interested in leasing the line.
I doubt any shortline would be willing to come up with the big bucks
to purchase the line. The state might get involved, if they wished to
preserve rail service, but unless there were some federal grant (a
dirty word, these days) available, that would be a problem.

One locomotive kept at either Portsmouth or Rockingham would be
sufficient. Maybe the NHN would give the Portsmouth operation a
look. With the business of the Big Dig long gone, the NHN probably
could work in the Portsmouth line into their business plan.