Carbon Dioxide tank cars into Praxair Tewksbury, MA

Do Carbon dioxide cars still go to Praxair in Tewksbury mass?

I just drove by there yesterday - looked like every spot was full, and there appeared to be a string of additional cars nearby.
But Praxair in Tewskbury is on Pan Am, not CSX. Do the cars from from a CSX connection?

Ken.

The cars could very well come from CSXT on Q426 which is delivered to PAR @ Worcester and the train becomes SEWA and is taken north/east to Ayer and beyond. For further discussion it's my opinion that this thread should be moved to the PAR/Guilford forum.

From a discussion on the Yahoo groups the CO2 from St. Johns, New Brunswick off Pan Am's NMED.

Everytime I go by Praxair they have cars on their curved siding. A couple of weeks ago I had to go Tewksbury on business. They were switching out Praxair and someone in a garbage truck ran the crossing and broke one of the gates. I give the driver of the truck credit, at least he pulled over, called his super and waited for police.

The siding for Praxair is very close to the Shawsheen St grade crossing and when switching they have to go over the crossing several times.

The siding is so sharp that the cars make a very funny noise when moving on their siding because of the sharp curve. The car that is at the end of the siding is facing west, you go onto their siding heading east and turn 180 degrees by the time you get to the end.

There is another siding just to the east of Praxair, that siding is for California Paint I believe. If not CP then another company in the same industrial park.

Quite often you will see praxair cars on the former Demoulas siding.

When was the Demoulas siding last used?

Well, the siding is used on a a daily basis, or almost a daily basis but not for Demoulas.

I don't know when Demoulas stopped getting rail service.

The track that goes to the building is still connected last I looked. The old garage type door has been replaced with a brick or stone wall. They may have torn up some of the trackage that used to run to the building but it is still there the short distance to the parking lot.

What is still referred to as the Demoulas siding is a siding that runs parallel to the Lowell Branch. What would be the eastbound iron when the Lowell branch was double tracked. I estimate the length to be in the neighborhood of 1/2 mile. Can someone confirm or correct that figure?

Across the street and across the Lowell branch is an industrial park with some spur tracks still visible. The switch to the industrial park is still there as is some iron.

If you're in the area it's something to look at. If you're heading west on East St take a right just before the crossing.

Have a nice weekend.

Praxair is still one of the biggest customers, if not the biggest customer the Lawrence local serves. The cars do come out of St John and usually get left at Lawrence off of NMED but things are so backed up, it can be any train.

The Demoulas siding is long gone. The "siding" they do use every day next to Holt Bugbee is the Demouals Run Around

You're right, the siding is pretty much gone. Only a little bit remains, last time I checked.

However, the district 2 TOM's still refer to it as the "Demoulas Siding" which I suppose is ok since they still refer to the M&L as the M&L even though it isn't even used as far as Methuen, let alone Manchester.

They talk about Lowell Hill which is in Lawrence and still refer to the "Southern" on occasion.

I also hear them mention "track cars" which is somewhat odd because the majority of them are good sized pickup trucks.

They also talk about the Lowell Branch that runs from Andover to Ayer (B&M mileposts along the line give the mileage from LJ and A. They call it a branch even though it is the main line for freight and without it, Guilford would be more than slightly inconvenienced.

BTW as long as the Form D's begin with the letter G, it's Guilford.

But, as you said, there is no longer a Demoulas siding to speak of, only the run-around that you speak of.

I will refer to it as the "Demoulas Siding" simply because I hear that term on the radio all the time.

It is used as a siding quite a bit. More often than not, when I drive by, there will be cars set out there.

Hope your work week is going well. Super day today, was nice to be outside for at least some of it.

New Andover Western Route Webcam from the MBTA Page!!!
http://shawsheen.com/RobotFoamer <<<< this is the link
There is a link from the MBTA page showing still web cam pictures from the above. As it changes frequently,it is not there now, but I saw on one visit to that site, a string of what looked like to be CO2 tank cars. Also today it shows a lone Guilford engine there as well.These must be the cars going to Praxair. I remember years ago when it was Liquid Carbonic,beside the CO2 plant, they had a air reduction plant that made oxygen and nitrogen. It is gone now but I cant remember if the siding went there too. I just used to get my load and buzz off, never really paying attention to the goings on. Who knew?

This is also known as the "Tewksbury Runaround" as well. Primarily only used by the Lawrence locals. Rarely do road trains stop there anymore due to train length and the crossings. It's probably closer to a quarter mile in length than a half.