New Customer (Ayer Recycling Plant)

i'm confused. did not csxt have a auto rack facility in hill yard?
isn't there blocking gt to csxt at stony brook siding? isn't there a portland to selkirk daily train? if this is to work, it must get on csxt at the closest point. i'm currently thinking intermodal to some site on the worcester main ideally hill yard. i need help . thanks all.

KEN PATRICK wrote:i'm confused. did not csxt have a auto rack facility in hill yard?.

CSXT had an auto rack facility, but it was not in the Hill Yard. It's a few miles from the Worcester main line. You had to pass through the Hill Yard and then out onto the Fitchburg Route Mainline and go a little over a mile to get to it. The facility is still there and CSXT still controls it via a lease, but it has not seen a train in years. It's just a weed filled lot now.

KEN PATRICK wrote:isn't there blocking gt to csxt at stony brook siding?.

Not sure what you mean? Do you mean Granite? If so, then yes, there is a customer there who ships granite that often goes to CSXT but Guilford runied that business. They rareley see any cars nowadays and when they do, Guilford switches it. CSXT never goes past Burncoat St in Worcester for anything.

KEN PATRICK wrote: isn't there a portland to selkirk daily train? .

In theory, yes. But in reality, no. AYSE/SEAY used to be the start and finish of SEPO/POSE. They used to have a crew on duty in Ayer who would take over the SEAY train (minus the Ayer setoff) and take it to Portland where it woul be switched out. But months ago, Guilford decided to shutdown most of the yard in Portland and abolished most of the yard jobs. They decided to instead switch the SEAY train out in Ayer. This eliminated SEPO/POSE. The plan was to switch SEAY out in Ayer and then send it to Portland and further east as pickups for trains EDWA, EDRU and EDNM. Of course, the fact the yard is WAY too small in Ayer both in length and track capacity turned it into a NIGHTMARE. The yard was constantly plugged, locals were not getting the work done, road jobs were being delayed and cars were arriving days late. Rather then admit defeat, Guilford decied to move the switching to Lawrence. Which made things better to an extent in that it cleared up Ayer for the locals and other road jobs. But Lawrence is also too small. And you can only switch from the west end acct of Andover st crossing. The yard is simply too small though. There are 4 tracks in the yard out of service and rest are plugged. Guilford needs to just send that train back to Portland. Rigby yard in Portland is HUGE. It's the largest yard in the system and has PLENTY of room to switch. But Guilford as usual is too stupid to relaize that. Cost cutting not to better serve customers, it's all done to pad the pockets of owners who are clueless when it comes to railroading. How else can you explain a capacity strapped railroad closing it's largest yard? Alot of changes are coming in the next year with the buy-in of NS. It's not going to solve all the issues, but it will help dramatically.

KEN PATRICK wrote:if this is to work, it must get on csxt at the closest point. i'm currently thinking intermodal to some site on the worcester main ideally hill yard. i need help . thanks all.

I cannot think of anywhere in the Hill yard that has the space you are looking for. A second intermodal facility is not going to happen in Ayer. Possibly on the Worcester main, but as soon as you leave the Hill Yard you go though a wildlife preserve so that is not going to happen there. Maybe farther west?

What's this NS buy-in all about?

Thanks
Peter

Just wait a bit and you will see. Not worth getting into it on here because for some reason anytime it's brought up the mods close threads. Apparently we are only allowed to discuss things already reported by the media. First hand info from people who are actualy involved is not allowed.

NV290 wrote:Just wait a bit and you will see. Not worth getting into it on here because for some reason anytime it's brought up the mods close threads. Apparently we are only allowed to discuss things already reported by the media. First hand info from people who are actualy involved is not allowed.

If you have an issue with how I run this forum, please feel free to discuss it with me. I am always open to suggestions.

With all due respect, "first hand info from people who are actually involved" has turned out to be bogus 99% of the time. That is why I see no point in entertaining the constant flurry of rumors regarding Guilford/Pan Am buy-outs. If it's actually going to happen, we will eventually hear about it in the media, because it will be a huge deal. Until then, there's no point in rehashing the same ol' same ol' and getting everybody all riled up.

I'm not trying to stifle anyone's ideas or opinions, and I want everyone to feel like they can post information that would be of interest to all of us here... but I really must insist that the rumors and hearsay be left at the door. I don't think that's too much to ask, especially considering that many of the moderators in the other forums are a heck of a lot more trigger happy with the "lock" function than I am.

"We now return to your regularly scheduled episode of the Ayer Recycling Plant, already in progress."

To clarify what is happening at Ayer and what may happen;Pan Am subsidiary GMX operates the intermodal loading and unloading activity in the Hill Yard on tracks 1 and 2. The service is marketed by NS and the destination is Chicago. Pan Am operates one train daily in each direction between Ayer and Mohawk Yard to connect with the NS train that originates in Albany. The Ayer ramp is in direct competition with the CSX ramps at Boston and Worcester. Unless the market east of Ayer opens up again, you're not going to see any CSX pigs coming to Pan Am.
There are a number of local customers both within the Hill Yard and in the area that are serviced by Pan Am locals.
Pan Am brings one CSX a train up from Worcester daily. It usually drops and picks up at the number 2 main line between Westford and Graniteville on the former Stony Brook, about 7 to 8 miles east of Ayer, and in the Hill. Pan Am returns the train to CSX at Worcester (or more properly Barber).
There is a vacant lot that is paved, with two tracks, at the Willows (jct of the Fitchburg Route Main and the former Stony Brook, now the Freight Main) that is across Willow Road from the now vacant Ford yard. There has been much speculation that this will become a new auto facility, but there's no information on for who and what other railroads might be involved.

MEC407 wrote: If you have an issue with how I run this forum, please feel free to discuss it with me. I am always open to suggestions.

I have no issue with any of the mods. I just think that at times many are like you said, trigger happy to close a thread. And often i see no legitimate reason why. But i simply move along. I am the lead moderator on a forum with over 30,000 members that is in the top 1% of forum traffic worldwide. So i understand that the mods have the final say. I do not argue.

MEC407 wrote: With all due respect, "first hand info from people who are actually involved" has turned out to be bogus 99% of the time. That is why I see no point in entertaining the constant flurry of rumors regarding Guilford/Pan Am buy-outs.

I understand your point. And i respect it. Notice how i said i would not discuss it further when a member asked? Your forum, your rules. I am a guest here and will respect them. The only reason i even mentioned it in the first place was it was relevant to the topic.

MEC407 wrote: I'm not trying to stifle anyone's ideas or opinions, and I want everyone to feel like they can post information that would be of interest to all of us here... but I really must insist that the rumors and hearsay be left at the door. I don't think that's too much to ask, especially considering that many of the moderators in the other forums are a heck of a lot more trigger happy with the "lock" function than I am.

Understood. But on the same note, if members do want to discuss things that they have heard whether it turns out to be a rumour or not, i see no harm in it. This is after all a discussion forum. Discussions are why we are here. To close a thread on a topic that is clearly generating views and discussions simply because a mod does not know anything about it first hand seems a bit extreme. I see it all over this site. But i see it working both ways. Mods close a thread that appears to be a rumour, yet allow threads to stay where for example incorrect information is giving. It's the same situation. Nobody posts thier credentials on here. While it's clear many of the members are in fact railroad employees, many clearly are not. I see wrong info all the time. But it's not my place to argue with the people. Untill it's actually causing a problem, i am not going to report it.

In any event, i will not discuss anyting the mods are against. Sorry to have annoyed you.

cpf354 wrote: Pan Am operates one train daily in each direction between Ayer and Mohawk Yard to connect with the NS train that originates in Albany.

AYMO actually only goes as far as Crescent. Not Mohawk Yard. The train is left at Crescent and the power is put on the siding there to be used as the MOAY power later that day.

cpf354 wrote:There is a vacant lot that is paved, with two tracks, at the Willows (jct of the Fitchburg Route Main and the former Stony Brook, now the Freight Main) that is across Willow Road from the now vacant Ford yard. There has been much speculation that this will become a new auto facility, but there's no information on for who and what other railroads might be involved.

That lot is actually not paved. It's still all dirt, much of it ungraded. It was the old San-Vel concrete tie facility. Construction was started on the new facility months ago but was halted by the town of Ayer. Apparently permits were yanked because of enviormental concerns. It was in the paper in Ayer as well. The argument was that the auto facility could contaminate the ground water. I honestly would not be too worried about brand new cars on a paved lot being a threat to ground water, but hey, you know the deal.

The facility was being built for NS to handle Toyota traffic. That was well known. The unions were involved because there was talk NS crews would be hauling the trains all the way from NY. Obviously Guilford crews were not thrilled. But it's all on the back burner now, possibly for a long while to come. The lot now is used heavily by MotoCross riders on weekends.

On the same subject, Guilford was using the abandoned concrete ties left behind when San-Vel left, but they have no clips to secure the rails to the ties. That was delaying things as well. But the well known defective ties are in the news again:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A96F948260

Can we please get back on topic?

I simply want to know roughly when we can expect to see cars to/from the new recycling plant.

Thanks.

JD

NellsChoo wrote:Can we please get back on topic?

I simply want to know roughly when we can expect to see cars to/from the new recycling plant.

Thanks.

JD

Not anytime soon. Last i heard, due to yard capacity issues along with pricing, the facility will be be using trucks for the near future.

The facility wanted 10 cars per day. An extremely unrealistic amount of cars to be delivered reliably out of Ayer due to lack of crews, motive power and storage capacity. As it is now, customers served by the Ayer locals are not getting the cars they need on time. Adding another customer that needs that volume of cars a day would be far too much to handle.

Same ol' story... customers can't get the cars they want. Kramer's at Deerfield was willing to pay the price of a west end switcher to get two switches a day. They wouldn't have it....

newpylong wrote:Same ol' story... customers can't get the cars they want. Kramer's at Deerfield was willing to pay the price of a west end switcher to get two switches a day. They wouldn't have it....

Makes you wonder who the railroad is really serving...