Rumford Branch, RUPO / PORU

[gokeefe]

Who has a pulp mill in Saint John?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[PBMcGinnis]

The same family that owns all of Saint John:
Irving Forest Products

[S1f3432]

Todays PORU with 501-518-512 crossing the Dead River Bridge between Centraltown and North Leeds. Left Leeds Jct with 73 Cars.

[gokeefe]

I caught the same power set at Leeds switching the egg farm.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[S1f3432]

gokeeke, you must have arrived just after I left- I got a couple of similar shots when they arrived but with the clouds closing in and figuring they wouldn't be leaving for a while, I headed for home.

[gokeefe]

It's definitely an interesting little corner of the system there in Leeds.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[MEC407]

From the Bangor Daily News:

Rocked by a digester explosion in mid-April, the Pixelle Androscoggin Mill in Jay has now brought back most of its staff . It also has started producing a new specialty paper for the insulation industry on its A5 paper machine.

About 425 employees are back at the mill working on mill operations or on recovery, site security or preservation operations, said Heath Frye, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania-based mill owner Pixelle Specialty Solutions. There were 486 workers in mid-April. Inspectors, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, are still assessing why the digester exploded.
. . .
Last Thursday, Pixelle said it was making a new product on the A5 machine called the GlazeStar NK that is used as a paper backing for building insulation.

“This product should give us solid market growth,” said Bob van Helden, vice president of specialty papers at Pixelle’s Stevens Point, Wisconsin, location. “It’s a solid product, but it won’t fill the whole machine.”

The A5 paper machine also is making other Glaze-brand products including an oil and grease wrap for food packaging and a wrap for feminine products.

https://bangordailynews.com/2020/06/03/ ... rolls-out/

[newpylong]

Great news for sure. Thanks for posting. I always like to read about the Mill success stories up there.

[Highball]

Who has a pulp mill in Saint John?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

To note, J.D. Irving Ltd. has two mills in Saint John N.B., a Pulp & Paper and a Tissue facility. In addition, forty miles West of Saint John at Utopia, is a Corrugated Medium plant.

[gokeefe]

Pretty substantial log transload for Irving in Rumford for the past few weeks.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[BostonUrbEx]

Is Pan Am still upgrading the Rumford Branch to 286k? I noticed on their official weight map that the branch is still showing 263k. Back in 2015 or 2016 they were working on the bridge over the Androscoggin in Jay for the 286k upgrade. How much work is possibly left?

[690]

The bridge needs some work... they had a derailment two winters ago, or something like that where the truck off an empty slurry tank car took out one of the stringers, and they sort of patched it back together, but it's not by any means a proper fix.

[oibu]

Are RUPO/PORU still 7 days? Any reliability of schedule? I've tried a few times when I've been through the Rumford area the last few years but never had luck finding anything but the mill switcher.

[eustis22]

I was in Leeds over the weekend and caught PORU Friday evening and the return RUPO Saturday morning. Nothing thru noon on Sunday though.

[S1f3432]

Last spring PORU/RUPO had a fairly predictable routine where crews left Rigby and Rileys in the morning
and met often at Rumford Jct- sometimes Leeds Jct or Lewiston- around noon, swapping trains and
returning to their home terminal. As summer arrived the times kept getting later with the meet around
3 PM. Lost track of them for a while then observed a train leaving Rigby shortly after lunch time a number
of times more recently with a late afternoon arrival at Danville Jct. Ran into a couple of railfans from the
Livermore Falls area a week or so ago and they confirmed that the routine seems to have devolved into
more or less up one day and down the next with the two sides of the job sometimes operating the same
day. That day PORU and RUPO met at New Gloucester. I saw Panam power in the yard at Rumford around
4 PM one afternoon about three weeks ago and the past several trips I've made up there I haven't been
able to spot the leased power that the Watco switch crew had been using- didn't spot any power at all
2 days ago.