Potential PAR/PAS Traffic Growth

Amazon Prime containers appear regularly on CSX IM trains on the B&A west of W Springfield (don't see Prime containers passing through Palmer - and the same appears to be true for FedEx trailers/containers). Amazon currently has one or two warehouses in Milford MA but I don’t know if the railed-in containers go there. OTOH, NS 22K/23K don’t carry any premium IM traffic - just lots of EMP/Hub/JBHU/Swift containers.

Existing PAS customer Catania seeks big expansion-Article from March 6 Lowell Sun ----

The edible oil company located on the eastern side of town pitched an expansion to its manufacturing facility at 1 Nemco Way during the Ayer Select Board meeting on Feb. 18.

The company’s current facility is approximately 96,000 square feet located in front of its corporate offices and distribution facility that’s approximately 115,500 square feet.

Catania has been located in Ayer since 1994.

According to Catania’s Chief Financial Officer Mike Coutu, the expansion will add about 51,500 square feet to the manufacturing facility. It’s expected to cost about $ 14 million, with $ 6.3 million in construction costs, $ 2.6 million for infrastructure and $ 5.5 million for personal property.
https://lowellsun-ma.newsmemory.com?sel ... 03&artid=3

A link to the web version of the Catania article: https://www.lowellsun.com/2021/02/26/ve ... to-expand/

They’ve expanded a couple times since I first watched Guilford switching them in the late 90’s. Back then the building was about half it’s current size, and they only had the two tracks nearest the building, which no shed over the tracks. Now they’ve got 4 tracks. I wonder if they’ll be adding more rail spots, or just increasing the rate the move product using the existing spots?

Question: I used to see EB trains out of Portland carrying plenty of cars marked Kaolin, which I believe is used in certain paper-making. I realized I haven't seen those in a while; does anyone know which mills used it? (Consider it negative traffic growth for thread-germaneness ).

That traffic still exists, although not in the same quantity as 10 years ago I'm sure. I believe Sappi and Rumford take a lot of it.

That Kaolin comes from Brazil on the bulk carrier TANJA. Which makes a regular two month-long circuit between Vila Do Conde, Brazil, Portland, Searsport and Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

A ton of it (Clay Slurry/Calcium Carbonate white UTLX tanks) used to go to Bucksport from the south via NS to CP(D&H) - but no more mill.

most of that kaolin used for coating papers for the mills in new england used to come from Georgia in tank cars and covered hoppers from the Sandersville RR and Huber among others. Around 1990, a far superior coating kaolin was found in Brazil , undoubtedly in an endangered rain forest. No question that between the arrival of the superior Brazillian kaolin and the demise of a good chunk of Maines paper industry, rails carriage of kaolin in Maine plummeted.

Safetee wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 2:16 pm most of that kaolin used for coating papers for the mills in new england used to come from Georgia in tank cars . . .

Yep, in the late '90s and early 2000s I saw these almost every day on either EDPO or SEPO:
Athearn (the model train people) have this to say about kaolin:

"Kaolin, a fine white clay, is produced by the natural chemical weathering of aluminum silicate minerals such as feldspar. Mined in the southeast United States (primarily Georgia and Florida), kaolin is used in the manufacture of ceramics, bricks, light bulbs, cosmetics, medicines and food additives. The largest use is in the manufacturing of paper, especially in creating glossy paper. Kaolin is shipped both as a dry powder in covered hoppers and in tank cars with water as a slurry. In the slurry form the weight of water requires the tank cars be smaller capacity compared to other liquids such as ethanol and LPG. Identical tank cars are also used to haul calcium carbonate slurry, used in the making of lime and cement."

Someone grabbed this of me putting together what mostly likely was an EDMO ~2005. Miss those Sandersville cars...

The clay slurry is part of what makes the paper surface glossy. Up into the 70's ship loads of "China" clay originating
in England docked in Portland harbor to be reloaded at Maine Central's dock into box cars for shipment to the mills.
When large deposits of Kaolin were discovered in Georgia and Tennessee it became much less expensive to ship this
product to the mills and the clay dock in Portland was abandoned. Now the slurry from Omya in Vermont is displacing
the Georgia clay as it is much closer to ship and is derived from what is essentially a waste product from the marble
quarries.

Thanks, everyone!

Dragon Paper in Old Town announced Thrusday that they have started to produce fiber pulp. They expect to produce 200 metric tons on a daily basis. No indication on how it will be transported.

Significant volumes by rail seem likely.

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That's good news. Anyone know how much they're shipping by rail now? Also, any updates on Pleasant River at Enfield? Thanks.

gokeefe wrote: ↑Sat Apr 24, 2021 12:12 pm Significant volumes by rail seem likely.

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Even if all of that by rail that's a small handful of cars/day.