Connecticut River Line (Pan Am)

What's the sum total of things they're allowed to do at Cedar Hill with their rights down there? It takes a scorecard to figure out the fine print in the paper barriers for what all 3 non-CSX carriers can and can't do when they converge on CH from their respective ex-Conrail territories.

You would have to go dumpster diving into ICC documents to find that out - they've had those rights for a very long time but they have not been exercised in decades obviously.

Be nice if they had wiggle room. Cedar Hill--just the active parts--is so criminally underutilized for how many truckloads it could be taking off I-95 north from New Jersey. Not even big stuff...even a decent portfolio of medium-small daily churn of carloads would do noticeable good for alleviating time-of-day specific truck congestion and loosening up the distribution flexibility a little bit in that part of the state. I strongly suspect that CSX (for obvious competitive reasons) keeps PAS, CSOR, and P&W pretty tightly bottled up to not one inch more utilization than those moldy ICC-approved Conrail dispersal documents gave them. But even in this day and age that site could/should be so much more useful than it actually is.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:What's the sum total of things they're allowed to do at Cedar Hill with their rights down there?

Under the original B&M/Conrail agreement from the early 1980s, the B&M could do two things at Cedar Hill: offer intermodal service to and from the former NH piggyback facility off I-91 at the north end of the yard, and deliver general freight for interchange with the Long Island Rail Road, which would be conveyed onward by Conrail under haulage rights. They did run scheduled intermodals for a while, notably an extension of the Central Vermont's Rocket that served the Montreal market out of St. Albans, but as far as I know the LIRR haulage rights were never exercised. The B&M did not have any rights to handle general freight into New Haven or New York, and operated non-intermodal trains only as far south as Berlin to reach the Waterbury cluster.

I'm afraid I have no idea how this may have been modified over the last 30 years!

Respectively, I disagree Cedar Hill would be a good intermodal site. It's on the wrong side of the Hudson, as most RDC/DCs are in Jersey or Eastern PA. It also isn't quite the appropriate sweet spot distance for any major savings for Northeast traffic. You might be able to squeeeze the Poland Spring deal and some ocean freight from Eimskip but really nothing substancial. You certainly arenlt going to open any huge midwest lanes out of there... and besides, trying to dray into Jersey from there is a pain. Crossing the GWB alone is half the problem.

Agreed - it would have been done already if it was worth it. Of course, stellar Guilford and now Pan Am service is a crux.

CN9634 wrote:Respectively, I disagree Cedar Hill would be a good intermodal site. It's on the wrong side of the Hudson, as most RDC/DCs are in Jersey or Eastern PA. It also isn't quite the appropriate sweet spot distance for any major savings for Northeast traffic. You might be able to squeeeze the Poland Spring deal and some ocean freight from Eimskip but really nothing substancial. You certainly arenlt going to open any huge midwest lanes out of there... and besides, trying to dray into Jersey from there is a pain. Crossing the GWB alone is half the problem.

If the Poughkeepsie Bridge was still active perhaps it would be more attractive, as freights could get East of the Hudson more easily?

No Poughkeepsie is too far... in intermodal you're looking at a target of less than 400 miles and avg more than two loads per local driver per day. 3 is good, 4 is great. Remember the time it takes to drop&hook (half hour or so with pre /post trips, ppwk and etc) or live unload (1-3 hours pretty normal). It typically takes a driver from CSX Kearny about 3-4 hours just to get into New Haven area (thats one way).

The traffic load on the Cross Bronx Expressway and the GWB heavy at all times,and I-95 in Conn
is a construction Horror Show near Bridgeport,Kerny-New Haven in 4.5 hours via Tappen Zee and I-287
on a good day.
Better shot from Springfield to New Haven in 1.5-2 hours on I-91

I got lucky and saw PL-1 passing the site of the new propane customer today. There was a lot of activity going on and I noticed what looks like a switch being installed in the back (not on the main track). It will be nice seeing the additional traffic going west of Plainville.

Maybe 2 sidings off the spur for the customer?

BM6569 wrote:Maybe 2 sidings off the spur for the customer?

No, there's a significant grade difference between the mainline and the siding, which is up on an embankment. So it's only one switch (still connected and cleared) and about a 450 ft. climb up the embankment. It used to fork at the top of the embankment into 2 sidings for 2 adjacent customers. Now it sort of takes this winding path 1500 ft. path to the far side. There's a lot of room up there; you could do an entire 3-track mini-yard with storage for 10+ cars, just on the embankment without actually entering the property, and with passing space to keep the siding clear. Whoever used to be there ages ago got a lot of cars.

Drove in there last week and from what I could see there is probably one switch off the main line (couldn't actually see it) then a second switch on the spur (that I could see) to give the customer two unloading spurs - one on each side of the unloading piping "rack." Might end up similar to Amerigas at the Plainville-Southington town line on the Canal Line.

Why did PC let a fire force closure of the Poughkeepsie bridge? That could have been helpful today. Im sure insurance would have helped them rebuild it.

cu29640 wrote:Why did PC let a fire force closure of the Poughkeepsie bridge? That could have been helpful today. Im sure insurance would have helped them rebuild it.

PC consolidated their East of the Hudson classification work at Selkirk, so it didn't make a lot of sense to run any traffic via the Poughkeepsie bridge, as most of what formally went that way was either routed down into CT via Springfield or into the Boston area via Framingham/Readville, in both cases via the B&A. In addition, by the time the bridge burned, the former New Haven Railroad's customer base was already in a serious downward spiral.