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  • Potential PAR/PAS Traffic Growth

  • Pan Am Southern (webssite: https://panamsouthern.com ) is jointly-owned by CSX and Norfolk Southern, but operated by Genesee & Wyoming subsidiary Pittsburg & Shawmut dba Berkshire and Eastern,
Pan Am Southern (webssite: https://panamsouthern.com ) is jointly-owned by CSX and Norfolk Southern, but operated by Genesee & Wyoming subsidiary Pittsburg & Shawmut dba Berkshire and Eastern,

Moderator: MEC407

 #1572272  by newpylong
 
roberttosh wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 10:41 am
newpylong wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 10:23 am I just pass information like this along, take it for what it's worth.

To Roberttosh's point, they could bring in smaller slugs of it from Lawrence with the rest of the BO traffic, even if that isn't the modus operandi for Class Is.
With PSR, there's actually been a shift or more of an acceptance in moving blocks in manifest service vs full unit trains. Many locations around the country receive regular manifest shipments, some along with full unit trains, so definitely not a deal breaker. I don't recall any outcry when they started shipping blocks of Acid up to Peabody through Boston so I think as long as they stay away from unit train proposals it would be an easy get.
Plus, who is to say they couldn't bring the train as a unit somewhere else, and then break it down for delivery to the consignee in blocks. Like they do with the grain trains, but this would be smaller blocks. Lawrence certainly has plenty of room.
 #1572274  by CN9634
 
I've said this of unit coal trains to Portland for Pan Am. Bring one a week out of the starved domestic coal markets (should be able to compete with import coal I'd think given the market prices domestically), and dump some at Sprague for local customers (some get it by truck), then cuts for Rumford. CSX might be able to put that together too with a single line haul.
 #1572636  by gokeefe
 
Who does Sprague sell coal to? I thought that was all Rumford coal being transloaded from ships.

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 #1572663  by MRY
 
IIRC not all coal is created equal. Some power plants (because of their age, condition, scrubbers, etc.) require imported coal which is different than domestic coal. I may be misremembering this, but I think this was the case with Polish coal coming into Providence years ago (and may still be happening).
 #1572707  by S1f3432
 
Coal passed through Sprague on its way to the cogen plant at Sappi in Westbrook prior to its closure. Online
sources show the Sappi plant at about 50 MW and the Rumford plant at 85 MW. When the Rumford plant
went online in 1990 MEC RB-1 was running six days a week with seven 100 Ton hoppers in the consist- 7 cars
X 6 days = 4200 Tons a week or 600 tons a day. The mix was 30% coal to 70 % biomass altho in recent times
they've been burning shredded tires among other things. A unit train of coal would last them a long time if
they had the place to store it and the track could survive the beating. The coal goes into four silos in the
boiler house at present
 #1572777  by Safetee
 
well the union pacific still handles a lot of pet coke and i assume the rockland branch is roughly the same gauge so maybe the reason pet coke isn't handled is because of a lack of marketing?
 #1572793  by NYC27
 
No, the plant isn't set up to unload it right now....plus it is cheaper by water. It may be as simple as the tracks and conveyors to handle it are out of service and Dragon doesn't want to spend the capital to fix them. You may see CP put something together via Searsport. Since it has to be truck delivered, it makes no sense to add Pan Am to the mix.
 #1574119  by gokeefe
 
Still interesting to me that no one seems to know who the other customers for Sprague coal are ... Sappi is biomass boiler is not running at present according to what I've heard ... Not sure if they have a different boiler that could take coal.

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 #1574124  by S1f3432
 
With both the Cogen Plant and the paper machine shut down, Sappi's steam requirements are quite small;
probably a small gas fired package boiler would be adequate. Coal wouldn't make sense with transportation,
emissions abatement and ash disposal all being considered.
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