Railroad Forums 

  • Sappi Westbrook shuts down one of their machines

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1547506  by riffian
 
The Westbrook mill does not use rail to any great extent, does it?
 #1547508  by MaineCentral252
 
Not much, all inbound loads. All of their outbound moves by truck, mostly to the port of New Jersey I believe. They are not a high volume producer, for one, but the service isn't there for them to make better use of rail, either. They've certainly been hurting as of late, with a drop in demand for their product. Seems like management is trying to trim the fat off the operation before they end up in trouble like so many others.
 #1547514  by Safetee
 
There was a time when westbrook supposedly did as many as 15 thousand cars a year. I think they still were doing 3000 cars mainly chemicals and georgia clay with a a few outbound boxes in the early 90s. Westbrook had their problems with strong unions, outdated machinery, a rail carrier that was indifferent about the customers needs. Their big deal of the 80s was the cogen plant. There actually was a plan to have a unit wood chip train from Ossipee to Westbrook. Ossipee was the source of most of their 100 trucks a day of chips by truck. They got close but between the strike, a crazy crossing situation in Ossipee, and Guilford not particularly interested in reopening already closed lines it didnt happen. Amazing that Westbrook held on until 2020.
 #1547516  by newpylong
 
Ugh, that sucks. Is there any chance of someone else buying the property? They still do a lot of R&D there don't they? I remember seeing the grown in outbound side of the rail yard and thinking they must have moved some volume at one time....
 #1547567  by toolmaker
 
Does anyone know what paper product is made by this machine?
 #1547589  by MEC407
 
From the WMTW story:
WMTW wrote:Sappi said it is permanently shutting down Paper Machine 9 and the majority of the energy complex at its mill.

Shutting down the paper machine will result in 75 layoffs.

The company said financial pressures and marketplace conditions led to the decision.

"The restructuring at the mill serves to strengthen this business, however, these decisions are never easy, and we do not take them lightly. We thank you for your outstanding contributions and we will do everything we can to support our affected employees during this transition," Sappi North America Vice President of Manufacturing Mike Schultz said.
. . .
Sappi said it plans to shift the paper machine's production to mills in Skowhegan and Minnesota.
As MEC252 said, this is not a complete shutdown of the entire Westbrook operation. This is only a shutdown of one specific paper machine, along with the power generation system. Presumably the power needs of the remaining machines can be met more cost effectively by purchasing power on the open market than by generating power onsite.

Also noted in the WMTW article, the work that would've been done on Machine #9 will be moved to the Skowhegan mill.
 #1547591  by S1f3432
 
Having worked in the mill a number of times over the years for electrical contractors, most
recently 3 or 4 years ago, there is only one operational paper machine at Westbrook. There
were a couple of shut down machines but the last one was dismantled and sold about the
time of my last visit. That leaves several small coaters used to produce the release paper
and a couple of them are fairly new being less than 10 years old. That is the only activity left
aside from the lab across the street from the shipping room next to the old WN&P. Is it the
coaters that are being moved to Hinkley or Michigan? That doesn't leave much.
 #1547647  by roberttosh
 
Looks like Pixelle at Jay announced some layoffs as well, mostly associated with the pulping operation which of course doesn't exist anymore. Sounds like they won't make a determination on the mills future until at least the end of the year. Hopefully if they don't rebuild the pulping side they will still keep the paper machines going and not abandon the whole operation.
 #1547781  by festis
 
S1f3432 wrote:Is it the coaters that are being moved to Hinkley or Michigan? That doesn't leave much.
The coaters are not moving. production of the paper that feeds the coater is moving to Cloquet Minnesota and Skowhegan. that paper will be transported to Westbrook for finishing as release paper
 #1548010  by newpylong
 
I think substantial work would need to be done to the outbound side trackage to and in yard (the only side that can accommodate boxcars) to bring loads in like that.

This would leave only DeadRiver left on the Mountain Branch?