POSE / SEPO (Portland - Selkirk trains)

Just for some perspective what was the normal consist at Sand Patch with helpers? I'm guessing about 100 cars?

Video by 16th Ave Productions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qp94xd3N8k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What days are these trains running (on Panam)?

CSX crew, based out of Worcester, now brings the q426/q427 to and from Ayer. Selkirk crew brings them to and from Worcester as usual.

PAR ownership probably happy. PAR crews, too?

Sounds like they are trying to get that train to Portland with one crew..

Didn't CSX operate Q274/Q293 Ford auto rack trains on a Worcester-Ayer turn trackage rights basis back in the pre-Pan Am Guilford era? Or did these auto trains use GRS crews between Worcester and Ayer? I forget...

Is this new arrangement to operate a Q426/Q427 turn due to Pan Am being short on crews? And do Q426/Q427 still handle P&W interchange at Worcester?

In the Conrail days, ML-438 and ML-439 ran autos with a Conrail crew. It was a turn job from somewhere out on the B&A, possibly Springfield. Wonder if CSX is going to insist that the Worcester Route's speed limit be raised to at least 25 MPH if their crews are running over it. That is why SEPO/POSE can't make the entire Worcester to Rigby run with one crew, in addition to the bottleneck that is the Hill Yard and the slow running to Lowell Jct.

Those jobs kept running with CSXT crews too. Ive spotted racks before in the Ford Yard mid 2000s they still brought em up.

If the trains are running with CSX crews and power over Pan Am owned tracks to Ayer, how does the revenue get divided up? It seems that this would be a loss in revenue to Pan Am.

The answer lies over in the New England forum under the topic about Last Customers in Boston.
A trade off maybe??

Noticed on another site frequent recent mention of trains AY/PO and PO/AY. Is this the new nomenclature for the former Selkirk-Portland symbols now that CSX runs directly to Ayer yard??

No, this is actually bottled water on containers that is bound for the intermodal ramp in Ayer. The symbol has been used occasionally prior to that when volume accumulated at either location sufficient to run a dedicated train. If you think about it, Pan Am has been using the train's origin, Selkirk, as part of the symbol and not the train's origin on Pan AM, Worcester or Barbers. So no need for a symbol change just because a CSX crew is handling it about 25 more miles.

Plus the train would need a full Class I brake test in Ayer if the symbol changes from SE to AY. In the FRA's eyes that's a different train and would render the previous test null.

All they need to do is a Class III, because they're only swapping power. Changing the symbol has nothing to do with a brake test, since Ayer isn't the initial terminal. If CSX failed to provide a brake slip, then they would have to perform a Class I test.