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Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

 #1519122  by b&m 1566
 
Come on people, I wouldn't expect them to rebuild 20 miles of track for what they currently handle, in fact I didn't even suggest rebuilding the track at all, all I was asking is, "would it be worth NHCR time to explore having trackage rights to St. Johnsbury, VT"? I'm well aware there's nothing up there right now but in theory I would like to think that could change. There in business to make a living right? part of that business I would like to believe is trying to recruit, expand and grow.
 #1519136  by gokeefe
 
Further up thread the clay slurry traffic was being discussed. This would have been for Portland. Seemed crazy to me but it came up as something that was being openly considered by a carrier.

Otherwise very much agreed. For one car a month (or even a handful more) it's too much mileage for not enough return on investment.
 #1519148  by newpylong
 
They're not going to rebuild the entire Mountain Division to move slurry to Portland.

Bellows Falls to Portland that way is 255 rail miles, many of which is either out of service, or cannot handle any tonnage.
Bellows Falls to Portland via PAS Haulage is 223 miles and it exists.
 #1615251  by bigfreight
 
There was an article in the St Johnsbury VT newspaper earlier this week about a group of individuals who are trying to make the line fron St Johnsbury VT to Whitefield NH into a rail trail. It said in the article that the owner of track is CSX Transportation. Can anyone tell me how and when they took possession of the line from Twin State RR ?
 #1615255  by NHV 669
 
Twin State never owned the line, the St. Johnsbury tax maps continue to list MEC as the owner, under a Billerica (GTI/PAR) address. CSXT acquired it once they purchased the assets of Pan Am last year.
 #1615282  by FatNoah
 
Twin State never owned the line
In addition to that, I believe the NH trackage is owned by the state of NH, which generally seems to be cool with rail trails.
 #1615287  by Drewby27
 
bigfreight wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 7:00 pm There was an article in the St Johnsbury VT newspaper earlier this week about a group of individuals who are trying to make the line fron St Johnsbury VT to Whitefield NH into a rail trail.
Do you have the article?
 #1615325  by NHV 669
 
It would be a huge addition to the VAST network, but the major roadblock would probably be funding to remove the rails, and undoing 20 years of unmaintained tree/brush growth. The LVRT is just about complete, and it sounds like this is the next move.

The recent removal in Littleton was done by two different contractors, and it seems like getting a percentage of the scrap proceeds was part of the deal.
 #1615362  by Drewby27
 
Unless something changed and I didn't hear about it, I thought they were removing the rails all the way to Wing Road in Bethlehem? Wouldn't they complete that before starting a whole new project or rail removal?
 #1615365  by b&m 1566
 
This push is coming from people in Vermont, not New Hampshire.
None of us should be surprised by this news, today where they want to rail-trail everything, including active lines, this was expected. This is only the beginning, the support will grow and they will lobby, now would be a good time to try and get the diamond and ball signal protected. One of the last active, if not the very last active ball signal, in its original location in the entire country, that should be deserving of historical recognition and preservation.
 #1615369  by Drewby27
 
I don't think they would do anything to disrupt the ball signal. How can we be sure that they would go all the way to the ball signal? NHCR would have a say about that I would think.
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