Milford-Bennington Railroad (MBRX) Discussion

[Dick H]

Granite State Concrete warns of line abandonment, from the Nashua Telegraph 5/13/13

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/100 ... -rail.html

One would think that PAR or ST or whatever corporate entity that is being used to get
the state contract, would have had discussions with the only shipper. It appears that
State Commissioner Clement has been less than forthcoming. More pieces to the puzzle.

[MEC407]

Thanks for the article link, Dick.

Here is a selected quote from the article:

In an April 30 letter to Councilor Colin Van Stern, the president of the Lowell-based Granite State Concrete wrote that the state’s proposed agreement with the Pan Am subsidiary, Springfield Terminal of Billerica, Mass., provides no obligation to provide service for more than two years.

“This is equal to the abandonment of the line,” John G. MacLellan said.

MacLellan is also concerned because no one from Pan Am discussed the possible take over with Granite State and its shipping requirements.
. . .
“The terms of the agreement itself bolsters the fear that ... continuous rail service will no longer be available,” wrote MacLellan, who said Pan Am’s failure to contact Granite State “indicates that there is no established plan to address the needs of the current users of the line or to provide service at all.”

[fogg1703]

Can someone describe how the M&B ran their operations? Two loaded shuttles a day with 10 cars 5 days/week?

[citystation1848]

Can someone describe how the M&B ran their operations? Two loaded shuttles a day with 10 cars 5 days/week?

MBRX 901 is on the railroad-south end of the train (also happens to be the downhill end).

A day on the railroad:

• - It starts its day with an empty train on the siding at the processing plant in Milford.

• - Clearance is received to enter Pan Am's track.

• - Train leaves the plant and moves towards Westchester Drive.

• - Crew prepares for reverse move railroad-north to Wilton with the conductor on the caboose.

• - MBRX leaves Pan Am's territory at Howard Street in Wilton.

• - Enters Granite State's quarry and loads one car at a time.

• - Once full, the train returns to Howard Street in Wilton.

• - Clearance is received to enter Pan Am's track.

• - Train continues to Westchester Drive in Milford.

• - Crew does a reverse move into the processing plant and unloads the cars one-by-one.

This is repeated usually twice a day, but they have done three trips occasionally I believe. And yes, five days a week.
The operation stops sometime in the fall and does not resume again until spring.

Matt
- Former conductor on the Wilton Scenic Railroad

[fogg1703]

Thanks Matt. Given the slow process of loading/unloading, even shuttle trains to GSC Lowell and Westford operations seem impractical even with their proximity to PAR lines. Although the Westford operation could receive cars on the Fletcher Quarry trackage with relatively little infrastructure improvements.

[artman]

Leishman wins!

From Nashua Telegraph: - http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/pol ... ation.html

Leishman keeps control of local train operation

CONCORD – The state Executive Council rejected the Department of Transportation’s recommendation to take a local railroad operation away from State Rep. Peter Leishman, D-Peterborough.

The 3-2 vote of the council marked a big victory for Leishman, who retains the Milford-Bennington Railroad.

[BowdoinStation]

Is there any more business to be had on that part of the line ? Did I read that there was a paper mill that used rail at one time that is still accessible by rail though trucks are the main mode of shipping ?

[johnden223]

Can someone post a synopsis of why pan am/fink are interested in this line?

Reading through the history I see a lot of bad blood/pride issues. Are there any business reasons for putting this line out of business and/or operating the gravel train shuttle?

[newpylong]

They wanted the Bennington Mill back...

[tahawus84]

Why don't they just let leisman run the gravel trains and give panam trackage rights to the mill? (Providing they want service) seems like then everyone will get what they want.

[artman]

Can someone post a synopsis of why pan am/fink are interested in this line?

Reading through the history I see a lot of bad blood/pride issues. Are there any business reasons for putting this line out of business and/or operating the gravel train shuttle?

That's the 64 million dollar question. I wish I knew.

[thebigham]

Pan Am didn't want to serve the mill. They just wanted revenge on the M-B.

IF PAR really wanted to serve the mill, they would have to spend a ton of money to rehab the line. Has anyone here seen the line? It's in rough shape.

[b&m 1566]

Where do you get the revenge from or are you just assuming? If something comes out of the Bennington Mill, I'm sure they would upgrade their part of the line before service started.
It will be interesting to see what Pan Am's response will be, it will be hard to negotiate with a mill that they don't have access to. Does the M&B have rights to Bennington? For some reason I don't think Pan Am will walk away from this one. Who knows, maybe in future years will see M&B continue its conveyer belt operation and Pan Am getting its access to Bennington.

[thebigham]

^Yes, the M-B has rights to Bennington.

We don't even know if the Bennington mill wants freight service.

I don't think it's had freight service since the 80s!

I said revenge because PAR said in court that the M-B had an accident with a truck and they were ignoring safety rules.

The truth was that it was the truck driver's fault and he was ticketed. The M-B did nothing wrong in the accident.

PAR just wants to take over the line to kick M-B out.

[newpylong]

Pan Am didn't want to serve the mill. They just wanted revenge on the M-B.

IF PAR really wanted to serve the mill, they would have to spend a ton of money to rehab the line. Has anyone here seen the line? It's in rough shape.

The truth is actually a little of both. They do want the mill, but as of yet have not offered competitive enough rates. They also want the line, just so Leishman doesn't have it.

Why would they need to spend a ton of money on a state owned line? Their section is in service and would be fine to initiate service to the mill. Look no further than the Hinckley and Madison branches in Maine.