The Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division

NH now owns up to the state line east of the Connecticut, but AxisGis tax maps do still list the RoW in at least greater St. J as belonging to MEC.

exvalley wrote:Can someone tell me what the status is of the track in Vermont from Gilman to St. Johnsbury?

Absolutely still railroad owned according to every source I have read.

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NHV 669 wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 5:19 pm NH now owns up to the state line east of the Connecticut

i don't understand this statement, as the state line is the normal high water mark on the western side of the Connecticut.

Yeah, you're right. Should have just said "the bridge in Dalton."

Cassella Waste Management is proposing a 137 acre lanfill in Dalton NH. Cassella is a major rail shipper of C&D material and you see green high side hoppers moving on various freight trains in the Northeast USA. I am not familiar how close to the former MEC Mountain Division the proposed landfill would be located. It is about 24 rail miles from Dalton to St. Johnsbury. The cost to rehab that line probably would probably be prohibitive.

Details on the Cassella proposal are found in this Union Leader article from 9/1/2020
https://tinyurl.com/kad229u4

The entrance to the proposed landfill is actually off Route 116 by Alder Brook, close to the former B&M Berlin Branch. Those tracks are abandoned and will likely come up within the next few years, and the steep climb to the proposed site would make direct rail service a non-starter for this project.

Just how steep is it? I'm reminded of this video clip of a Pickens Railroad U18B climbing some crazy industrial trackage:

Instead of fixing the 24 miles to St. J, it would be only five miles, plus or minus, to Whitefield. From there to Hazens and up to Groveton is serviceable, probably 10 MPH, and connect to the SLA.

MEC407: I cant access Dalton's tax maps to see exactly what parcel they want to use, but the plan is to somehow access it via the property of a local gravel pit owner they're buying the land from. Going off topo maps, it looks to be close to 10% from the tracks to the center of where his pit is, and levels off at that height. Either way, the entrance is right at a curve and would simply not work logistically for any kind of siding, especially crossing a 50 mph road at an angle.

BM1566GP7: Absolutely, a much shorter distance. But where would you load the cars? How much traffic would actually be generated, assuming it's not being buried here already at the existing landfill in Bethlehem, or trucked to places like Mt. Carberry in Berlin, or Turnkey down in Rochester? These tracks will be gone before that landfill becomes a reality.

Dalton has a population of 979 and 28 Square miles. The fire department has a 13 year old engine as their #1 piece. They have two other 35 year old tanker trucks. Cassella ia promisiing the town millions of dollars. NH seems to want everyones trash. Rochester gets free trash and recycling pickup and disposal from Waste management. I am unaware of any other payments to the City. Dover is concerned that the WM Turnkey ladfill will polute the nearby Isaglass River, that Dover uses to recharge it's aquifer there. Dover is currently dealing with aquifer pollution from the former Madbury Metals junk yard in the former Madbury gravel pit from which there were thousands of rail cars of gravel shipeed to MA in the 60's for I-95 construction.

There are two trash outfits in Ayer MA shipping trash to Pennsylvania and Alabama by rail. Also shipping out C&D. It is 149 road miles from Ayer to Dalton via I-93. Seems like the MA TT trash trucks could be heading for Dalton by 2023.

We don't want everyone's trash; Casella wants to dump it all up here. The current landfill in Bethlehem has been allowed to operate until 2026 as of a few months ago, and voters in Dalton decide tomorrow at town meeting, on the fate of the project. You won't see any trucks on Douglas drive hauling trash before 2026, at any rate. They're already making the right turn for Mt. Carberry outside of Berlin off Route 3.

Casella has the same deal with us, including free trash and recycling and "millions in benefits". It's not exactly expensive to live in Dalton, they just don't have much in terms of a tax base. Casella is trying their best to buy their way in with financial promises like they've done here as long as I've been alive.

We also just had a major leachate spill, and our landfill is right next to the Ammonusuc, only a handful of miles upriver from the entrance to the new proposed one.

BM1566GP7 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 3:17 pm Instead of fixing the 24 miles to St. J, it would be only five miles, plus or minus, to Whitefield. From there to Hazens and up to Groveton is serviceable, probably 10 MPH, and connect to the SLA.

The entrance to the gravel pit is about half a mile within the abandoned portion of the Berlin Branch. Guess the state could try to buy it back since it's only been a couple years.

Even if they put in a small yard along the mainline and then unload containers there and drive them to the landfill on chassis it could be cheaper than trucking it in the entire way.

The state has owned it for almost 25 years. If this was a viable idea, you'd think they'd already be sending cars to Berlin on the SLR to that landfill.

Dalton voters "rejected further negotiations with Cassella". I am not sure what that means and I cannot read the rest of the story as the Caldonia Record is subscriber restricted.

I am not sure what that means

There was a vote on whether to require the Select Board to negotiate a Host Community Agreement with Casella. The impact of not doing so is probably that, should the landfill be approved, the town will receive fewer guarantees and a much less favorable deal.


Town Meeting agenda with a few more specifics:
https://townofdalton.com/wp-content/upl ... 6-2021.pdf

For the curious, here's the application:
https://www4.des.state.nh.us/DESOneStop ... ID=0003132

Links to all documents (there's a total of 18) related to Casella's application with the state can be found there, including massive PDFs with drawings.