Rumford Branch, RUPO / PORU

Does anyone know how much of the pulp is currently coming in by rail vs. truck? For a mill of this size, that's a lot of pulp to be bringing in, and in theory would represent some decent traffic for CSX

Saw a video of what I thought was a RUPO the other day, until I realized there were too many open gons with those MS paint company marks (ended up being a WAPO.) Is ND still getting those oversized green cars of shredded tires, or did they move onto another fuel source? Are they still getting the occasional cut of coal hoppers or no?

While the permanent closing of the pulp mill and paper machine is obviously not great news, at least it sounds like they are fully committed to upgrading and continuing to run the rest of the mill well into the future which I don't think was a sure thing.

that will have far-reaching consequences for harvesting in central new england, because it was a primary outlet for pine pulp, especially with the closure of so many of the biomass power plants.

it will be difficult to find alternative economical markets for that resource; more of it will be left in the woods.

For those of you in the know in terms of paper production, am curious if having to bring in pulp from outside sources vs making it yourself is not the preferred method and puts you at a distinct disadvantage from a cost standpoint? If it was less costly to have it shipped in I don't see why any plants would make it themselves. If I recall, some of the plants that have closed were more dependent on market pulp, like Madison, Bucksport and Lincoln after the explosion, so am thinking there must be some advantage to making it yourself? If so I wonder how stable a future Pixelle at Jay really has?

Market pulp is cheap at the moment and building a digester from scratch is expensive. That's really all there is to it. If the pulp price increases, things may change.

Ok that's good to know, so in all likelihood the future looks ok for this mill then?

Here's today's RUPO for size, still a decent amount of cars headed down the branch.

How many days a week do RUPO/PORU run, is it every other day, one way to Portland then the next day back? Thanks.

roberttosh wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 2:47 pm If it was less costly to have it shipped in I don't see why any plants would make it themselves.

well, pulp is created via pulpwood. new raw material needs to be introduced; pulp fibers break down over time via recycling. someone has to create new pulp to meet the demand.

NHV 669 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 6:43 pm

Here's today's RUPO for size, still a decent amount of cars headed down the branch.

I saw some number of cp rail box cars in that consist. Don’t know if that’s normal or if cp rail is getting a greater share of the mill traffic now that cp is back in ME in a big way

Impressive train. I am getting pretty sick and tired of all the graffiti though. I wish railroads applied graffiti-resistant paints or sealants and ended the visual assault.

2020-12-15 9:59 EST | ME | RUMFORD |**TRAIN DERAILMENT/FIRE/INCIDENT**| WYMAN HILL RD AT RT 108 | UNITS O/S OF A TRAIN DERAILMENT INVOLVING 2 TANK CARS AND 2 BOX CARS. TANK CARS ARE EMPTY. DEP AND EMA ADVISED.

Just another day...

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/12/15/ ... an-a-week/

Also 2 box and 1 tank derailed at ND Paper on the 10th.
John, the guy in the blue car with the wing on back