The Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division

Even if the Berlin project pans out, the Mountain Division still doesnt make much sense as you would have possibly 3 roads invloved to get the shipments there. Considering if a load originated on the rebuilt portion, it would have to be handled by whatever operator of that line then handed to Pan Am, then to SLR in Danville for delivery to Berlin.

"Cowford will say that this business is still better suited for trucks but its hard not to believe so much mass, unit train conditions,changing fuel prices, and eventually longer hauls and handling efficiencies indicate more local use of the regions rail network including the Mountain Division for this new/old commodity."

I think this quote from hte Laidlaw webpage is telling:

The Berlin Project is expected to utilize in excess of 750,000 tons of clean whole tree wood chips per year in order to generate approximately 70 megawatts of electricity, thus creating substantial local economic activity for loggers, truckers and other local businesses

But I'm open-minded...

To be sure, that's a lot of wood. (It's equiv to 27% of all the wood harvested in New Hampshire last year!) The sheer volume indicates that at least some of the fuel will have to be imported from ME, VT, and PQ. And it's going to be chipped. That said, the only way I see any possible play for rail is in big centralized chipping operations at distant locations. Massive investment in rail cars and unloading infrastructure would be required. And to Dano's point, the Mountain Sub won't enter into the equation.

I think the first link posted by piker seems to cover where they plan to get their wood (emphasis and coloring mine):

The fuel source for the Berlin Project will be whole tree wood chips and other low-grade wood, often referred to as “biomass materials”, which are the byproducts of the local forest products industry and land management practices.

The Facility also has rail access which may offer opportunities for cheap fuel from other regions (e.g., storm debris from the Southern U.S.).

So, it looks like the primary fuel will be trucked in from the area, but with the possibility of importing stuff from further away via rail.

Just so long as the train can drop me off in Fryeburg some day... I'll be happy! Flag stop at Fire Lane 11, maybe?

I for one am glad to see investment in railroads. I'll be interested to see how this plays out. With the right management and marketing, anything is possible.

-otto-

Have crews started relaying the track yet?

"The Facility also has rail access which may offer opportunities for cheap fuel from other regions (e.g., storm debris from the Southern U.S.)"

Does anyone else see the irony of a company touting a biomass plant's "green" benefits, while at the same discussing the issue of importing fuel from regions 1-2,000 miles distant (and using diesel fuel to do so).

Cowford wrote: Does anyone else see the irony of a company touting a biomass plant's "green" benefits, while at the same discussing the issue of importing fuel from regions 1-2,000 miles distant (and using diesel fuel to do so).

So, Cowford, it makes no sense to have biomass fuel imported from afar by rail ? If that is the case, then trucks would be more efficient ? Really..........are trucks using other fuel than diesel these days.........perhaps they are burning used cooking oils...........truckers appear to eat enough " fried " food.

Cowford wrote:"The Facility also has rail access which may offer opportunities for cheap fuel from other regions (e.g., storm debris from the Southern U.S.)"

Does anyone else see the irony of a company touting a biomass plant's "green" benefits, while at the same discussing the issue of importing fuel from regions 1-2,000 miles distant (and using diesel fuel to do so).

If there is one thing rail is good at it's moving lots of weight long distances using less fuel then any other mode. CSX claims to move a ton of freight about 500 miles on one gallon of fuel or 500 ton's one mile on a that same gallon. A ton of wood chips has 14 million BTU's 500 tons would have 7 billions BTU's , A gallon of diesel ful has 130,500 BTU's so 261 million BTU's would be needed to move 7 billion BTU's the 2000 miles or around 4%. seems like a pretty good deal to me considering is waste wood that would be buried or burned openly anyhow. Even at half stated efficiency is still a worth while proposition.

All that being said, I think it's a big joke to call biomass green.

Sigh.

Highball, I made no mention of rail.

My point was that it's much more environmentally sensible to burn the waste wood at/near origin rather than transporting it halfway across the country.

Now if I was railroad marketer being asked to quote on this business, I certainly wouldn't turn it down!

Unfortunately it's not online, but there was quite a letter in the Windham Independent of this past Friday criticizing the Mountain Division proposal as "Bill Diamond's Train to Nowhere."

What's the deal with relaying the track? Was work not scheduled to begin asap 2011?

Finally found a little more solid information about the proposed wood pellet mill for Baldwin.

http://www.cumberlandcounty.org/CD/CDBG ... 0Plant.pdf

This is an application for public funding for a road that will better connect the pellet mill entrance withe RT 113. According to the document, construction is expected to begin before the end of 2011. The mill will reportedly generate 21,900 trucks per year (40 inbound and 20 outbound trucks per day * 365). The application later states that rail will "eventually" replace "over 20,000" of those truckloads per year. (Not sure how they did the math on that, considering it also states, in effect, that all inbound will remain truck. In the Mtn Sub plug, it also states that the mill will be the "highest volume" "anchor" shipper on the line. (if 50% of their outbound were converted to rail, that would be about 2-3 cars per day.)

Unfortunately the limited scope of this document precludes a dicsussion of HOW they'd be served by rail. The mill will be over 1/2 mile and two road crossings from the Mtn. Of course, neither does it mention WHY they think rail will work for them.

Going by their math, it seems like 7,300 truck trips would actually be replaced if they converted 100% of their outbound to rail. Still a ways off from 21,900. As for WHY rail would work, the latter part of the document states that rail access would provide a cost-effective means of reaching customers in the midwest.

Even so, those INBOUND trucks have to leave the plant SOMEtime...

At least empty trucks don't hold up traffic as much as full trucks do.

Thanks, I overlooked that. I'm curious how they came to that as well as the 'competive advantage over southern producers' conclusions. It states earlier that they will be marketing to the "industrial" energy market... putting wood pellets up against natural gas in the midwest will be a tall order.