The Ayer "Ford" Yard

SpiderHill wrote:

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:With only 3 years left on the CSX lease before they're free to use it for themselves, has there been any discussion about what they might want to use this yard for?

I would think it would depend on who owns it. Was it included as part of the PAS transaction or is it still a PAR asset?

I knew that PAS went as far as Veryfine. What I was suggesting is I would not be surprised if a large piece of real estate adjacent to the ROW would be retained by PAR. If I was PAR I would not be so quick to transfer that real estate. I would have tried to keep it and the lease payments from CSXT. After the lease is up, then sell it, lease it to someone else, etc. Why share with NS if you don't have to? Who owns that property and which carrier serves it are two different questions.

I think I answered my own question. The Ayer assessor shows two parcels owned by Pan Am Southern and one parcel owned by Boston & Maine Corp on Willow Road in 2014. The PAS parcels are about 126 and 39 acres and the B&M parcel is about 1 acre. The details are a little thin but I would say the 39 acres is the Ford yard.

Well, the damaged RCOX LPG tank car has been moved out of the Ayer Ford Yard. I saw it yesterday on the east wye of the Worcester Branch attached to a PAR local. It still has a pretty big dent on the left side. I wonder if it is going to be sent west on POSE to be repaired.

This morning, I noticed that the bulkhead lumber flats and the FBOX and YKR high cube boxes were still stored in the Ford yard, so I wonder if they will eventually be moved out as well...

-mike

Bumping this thread...

Now that 2017 has come and gone and presumably CSX no longer holds a lease on the old Ford yard, what is its usage these days? I was up there a week ago and thought I saw in the distance a string of covered hoppers but I'm not certain.

Storage and cripples, from the sounds of it.