CSX Track Upgrades & Infrastructure of Pan Am

sextant wrote:I would walk the right of way and find rotting ties that crumble under my feet and hands. I would find date nails from 1800s. Freight Trains would sit for days on near Shelburne Falls MA waiting for crews. Guilford would abandon branch lines with active customers with little or no notice. Guilford also tried taking over the D&H to mine coal tailings from its right of way. Guildford broke a strike by saying that the entire railroad was a entity called Springfield Terminal and parked all of its assets under a ghost 5 mile short line in Vermont. The Words Fink and Tim Mellon and Guilford are poison to most railroaders ears.. ... Maybe just maybe CSX will put some money into this operation to make it a real railroad again.

To quote the band The Who- "Meet the new boss, same as the old"

What? CSX has committed (and already begun to expend) more capital into the physical plant in the first 5 years of owning PAR than the Grinch likely spent out of pocket (ie without grant or state subsidies) in its entire 40 year existence.

I agree
New boss csx seems far different and better
Look at all the new wirk at rigby and between Worcester and Clinton on their own dime

sextant wrote: ↑Sat Oct 22, 2022 11:44 am I would walk the right of way and find rotting ties that crumble under my feet and hands. I would find date nails from 1800s.

Interesting find because date nails were not used until after 1900 in the United States and always had only 2 numbers. So if a date nail had a "57", it was 1957. Where did you find these "1800" nails?

F74265A wrote:Look at all the new wirk at rigby and between Worcester and Clinton on their own dime

Don't forget the work on the Freight Main between NMJ and Keag!!! Hard to believe the 'old boss' just decided to not bother with the first 65 miles of his flagship line. It's refreshing to see CSX believe in these assets.

And speaking of which - the last I heard, the ties that had been brought to Keag were being distributed in bundles along the Freight Main. Have they started to install them? Has any of the ballast brought northwards been dumped yet?

(By the way - as a resident of Virginia who has not set eyes on any piece of former B&M or MEC trackage in over a decade, I am deeply appreciative of the way that this board keeps me informed of goings-on up north.)

Stone is being dropped west from Keag, ties have been placed along the ROW but not installed yet

newpylong wrote: ↑Sun Oct 23, 2022 11:11 am What? CSX has committed (and already begun to expend) more capital into the physical plant in the first 5 years of owning PAR than the Grinch likely spent out of pocket (ie without grant or state subsidies) in its entire 40 year existence.

I should clarify, the only thing CSX is interested in is the main line. I do business with several customers who had high hopes for CSX and submitted letters of approval to the STB. None of them are impressed with the new owners. Atleast before they could get an excuse from Bellerica. Under CSX they cannot even get anyone to answer their calls.

All of the work being done between Mattawamkeag and Rigby is on the taxpayers dime via grants Pan Am had.

CPF66 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 28, 2022 7:29 pm I should clarify, the only thing CSX is interested in is the main line. I do business with several customers who had high hopes for CSX and submitted letters of approval to the STB. None of them are impressed with the new owners. Atleast before they could get an excuse from Bellerica. Under CSX they cannot even get anyone to answer their calls.

Naive to think anything is going to change in the first 6 months of even a year. The railroad is being run effectively by already overworked divisional superintendents in Selkirk because they've been unable to hire anyone halfway competent over here. Do you think they know anything or care about Joe 20 boxcars a year in Maine?

It is going to take a long time to straighten that place out. The operating agreements need to be fixed, the physical plant needs to be fixed, they need more crews, more Trainmasters, the customers need to be migrated to Ship CSX, the agents need to understand the ex-ST customers. Your contacts are in for a ride...

CPF66 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 28, 2022 7:31 pm All of the work being done between Mattawamkeag and Rigby is on the taxpayers dime via grants Pan Am had.

If you're referring to the "Pine Tree Corridor" grant (I know of no others) that only covers between Bangor and Keag and $20M is provided by CSX (as the successor to PAR) and the other $20M is grant funding.

I do also wonder if the project that CSX will implement between Keag and NMJ (not just in the immediate term, but “eventually”) is identical in scope to the one that was awarded the grant. $40mm, which is about $650k per mile, is surely enough to get the line to 25 (right?). Something tells me CSX will eventually want to go to 40 at least?

Photos posted on Facebook show new hotbox? detectors (metal huts) to either replace existing ones or add ones in new locations like east of Waterville.

A Defect Detector around MP 8 at Bagley Mountain Rd in Lincoln, and another at "Greenbush" MP 31.39.

Will CSX finally put money into fixing the track and 50 years of Fink and Mellon. I have hobo freinds who have riddne the line and all the slow orders means it could take 3 days from Mohawk Yard to Portland ME

Today at 14:24 hrs MEC 7541 dropped 11 gondolas modified to carry turnout panels at CPF-307, Westford. Nine of these cars have pre-assembled turnouts in them, two appeared to be empty (above the side of the gondola nothing visible to me)

Does anybody know where all these turnouts are going?