Rigby Yard — Activity, Sightings, and General Discussion

Swung by rigby yesterday afternoon, there was lots of leaser power. Anyone know what the "GATX Classroom" cars behind the yard office are used for? What I am assuming was a PORU left at around 3:00 pm with probably less than 20 cars, mostly omya slurry.

I would tend to suspect that the GATX class room is a facility for training first responders, firemen police etc, about haz mat shipments by rail. the "classrooms" are generally air conditioned with desks and a certain amount of props, bottom outlets etc, PPT projectors etc, the "outside" exhibits usually are tank cars designed for hands on review field work. With the continuing desire to move stuff like frac oil, the need to be proactive explaining the hows, whys, and whos if you have a "what if" to the ers up and down the line goes a long way to help relieve local high anxiety.

The Press Herald has a story on the updated - and much smaller - proposed relocation of the NGL propane termianl to Rigby, and this one includes a diagram (new facilities, including storage tracks, would go in the former roundtable area).

The company, a subsidiary of NGL Energy Partners of Tulsa, Oklahoma, initially submitted a plan in January for a facility that would include a rail siding and six 60,000-gallon tanks – for a total capacity of 360,000 gallons – for the storage and transfer of liquified propane gas. However, that proposal ran afoul of a city ordinance prohibiting the creation of any “new aboveground storage tanks” that hold more than 25,000 gallons.

NGL’s new proposal reduces the size of the proposed facility to a single 24,000-gallon propane storage tank.

The company’s existing facility in Portland has a total capacity of 280,000 gallons.

“While the storage volumes in our proposed project are less than our existing Portland facility, design changes will allow us to drive greater operational efficiencies,” said Kevin Fitzgerald, NGL’s regional operations manager.

Looks as if this project is moving right along now. Good to see. I also really like the site reuse there. Great to get those areas capped over with concrete and improved drainage.

Been seeing legions of RBOX's rolling into Rigby lately, sometimes blocks of 20 at a time, why all of a sudden ? I know Old Town utilized them often, but thought I heard they were scaling back up there...

Sounds like a wholesale fleet management practice change. Perhaps Pan Am changed rates on their paper service box cars.

See the Pan Am Boxcar Fleet thread. Long story short, sounds like they are wasting no time selling off Pan Am boxcars to match the mill closures/downsizing. RBOXes could be covering any fleet gap short term.

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/11/23/g ... -measures/

But NGL representatives say the company’s safety record matters, including at least a decade without a reported public safety incident at the Portland terminal. They won’t comment on rumors that NGL is scoping out other potential rail delivery sites in Greater Portland, saying that the company is committed to moving to Rigby Yard by next spring so the state can begin building a cold storage facility at the Commercial Street site.

What the heck happened to all the beer traffic ?? All those insulated CSXT's, BNSF's, HPJX's, CRYX's, etc, that we've been seeing roll thru over the past decade or so, all seemed to have disappeared. Always heard mixed reports on what they contained, some folks said Moosehead beer, and some said Guinness...

Some Moosehead, but the bulk of it was Guiness, from Saint John. Moosehead had the Guiness contract for North American distribution, until about the beer traffic's tap ran dry. With the loss that contract, the beer traffic from Saint John dried up.

Fire code could stop Pan Am Railroad from building a new NGL terminal at their Rigby yard.
The latest story below,
http://www.theforecaster.net/fire-code- ... pot-fight/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sopo votes against moratorium

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/01/20/p ... -portland/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Further, if bad weather disrupts the transport of propane by rail throughout Maine, it has nothing to do with storage or NGL’s plan. Rather, it is because, in part, Pan Am has not installed heated rail switches, and consequently, rail tanker cars become stranded in Rigby Yard. In a real emergency, propane from these rail cars can be transloaded into tanker trucks.

NGL has no right to store more than 74,805 gallons of liquefied petroleum gas in Rigby Yard unless it seeks a zoning change. Starting in May 2014, before any contact with South Portland officials, NGL set plans to build an oversized liquefied petroleum gas terminal there, apparently with no intention of following the proper procedure for requesting this zoning change."

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/01/26/m ... -facility/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

South Portland has no say on how much propane is stored in the yard, right? Since it's RR property?

I don't see how switch heaters have absolutely anything to do with it.

More grandstanding.

BM6569 wrote:South Portland has no say on how much propane is stored in the yard, right? Since it's RR property?

It's murky at best.

While I'm not going to do a legal dive for this particular case (since that's what the lawyers' jobs are for); but from what I learned about how preemption of local/state zoning laws (via the STB case decision between the town of Grafton (MA) and the Grafton & Upton RR), it depends who's facility it is. In that case, the "Town’s theory was that the facility would be constructed and operated by the Propane Companies (not rail carriers) rather than by G&U (a rail carrier)", which ended up not being the case when G&U terminated their contract with those companies with the intent to build and operate the LPG facility themselves. Further, "The Board further found that state fire safety and construction codes would still apply to the construction and operation of the facility as long as they were applied in a non-discriminatory manner".

Now back to Rigby: I don't think the STB has jurisdiction over NGL. They are not a common carrier despite being on railroad property, and Pan Am wouldn't be the operator of the facility. Now, if the facility were Pan Am's, they would have the case on their side as the (proposed) changes to the fire/safety code South Portland is trying for would very likely be considered discriminatory, specifically targeting a rail carrier... which is the very reason the Federal government has the power to preempt local/state laws, as railroads just can't pick up their infrastructure and move somewhere more hospitable like other businesses can. But NGL, theoretically, can... hence, murky at best.