"Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

[Cosakita18]

Are either Old Town or a potential Lincoln mill re-activating going to be shipping by rail? and why did PAR resume NMJ-Keag for about a year and then abandon it again??

[gokeefe]

Old Town already is. Just waiting for the final touches on their plant to be completed.

[KSmitty]

The mill site in Lincoln is at MP13.62. Keag is MP0.39. So, basically 13 miles.

Much of the rail east of Old Town is indeed old and light. 85# rail with stamp dates from then end of WWI are common. Crossings rebuilt by DoT have either 100# or 112-115# with considerably newer milling dates. Tie wise, the line is in pretty good shape, half the ties half been replaced in 2 tie jobs done in 2012/fall and 2016/fall. Road bed wise some spots need significant amounts of rock, but all in all the limiting factor on the line is certainly the rail.

Old Town to NMJ actually got some welded rail. Surplus from the initial Downeaster rebuild if memory serves. It's about 20 years old now, but the roadbed/tie conditions have beat it up pretty good. It's at least newer and heavier so it holds up better to the beating.

Old Town is shipping, outbound pulp and inbound caustic. And they are having some trouble getting the pulping recipe down. Too much caustic was the problem last I'd heard, but they've had a whole slew of issues. They've been shut down, I guess retooling some things, for over a month now. Got some specialists in from Europe somewhere to sort things out. WATCO provides contract switching services, but because of limitations with the track layout, and WATCO's operation being an industrial contractor and not "real railroad" their crews are not allowed out on the Pan Am main line. So their contract is for the whole of mill switching operations, but they are only able to work the inbound side of the mill, leaving Pan Am to switch the pulp barn.

The line to 'Keag appears to have been spared from the scrappers grasp about a month ago. ST requested trackage rights on CM&Q to Brownville for direct interchange with NB&M as a condition of CP's acquisition of CM&Q. CP's response to the board, short version, was "they have their own line, they can pound sand." Without CP's consent it seems unlikely ST will get trackage rights, and thus will preserve the 'Keag line, even if it languishes in disuse, its purpose as a negotiating tool will remain. Of course the STB could surprise everyone and grant the rights, but we'll find out for sure in the next month or so.

[Cosakita18]

So realistically anything east of NMJ becomes a branch line for Old Town and HoltraChem cleanup?

How much traffic is Old Town really producing? I remember at one point under previous ownership they were producing 10-15 outbound carloads per day.

[gokeefe]

They're going to get there or higher eventually. The shutdown should be over very soon.

[KSmitty]

The line is essentially a branchline and has been for a long time. The long term viability of the line is dependent on the STB ruling on the request for trackage rights. If ST is awarded rights to Brownville I'd expect 'Keag to MP 44ish to be abandoned in short order. If not the line will likely languish OOS until such point as ST and CP can no longer reach a mutually agreeable deal for haulage. For CM&Q the haulage has been a great benefit at a rumored $500/car. For CP, if they seriously expand Searsport's capacity and build their own traffic organically, with a combination of the fact that CP is much larger and doesnt need the lower margin haulage traffic to survive, I think it's only a matter of time until ST is forced to invest in and reopen the line to 'Keag.

Actual production has been maybe 25/week outbound, and that is, again, when the mill is running. Stage 1 of startup, which hasn't been reached yet, was supposed to generate 50 loads a week, 5x10 car blocks. Plus the inbound caustic. Stage 2 was bigger, I don't remember the numbers, but I'd like to say close to double stage 1. First they have to figure out how to make pulp...ND is invested. The whole mill had to be replummed after Expera just shut the lights off and walked away. Lots of freeze damage and whatnot. So it's physically in pretty good shape now. Just got some science to work on, and no doubt they will get there, but right now Old Town is a problem child.

[gokeefe]

The whole mill had to be replummed after Expera just shut the lights off and walked away. Lots of freeze damage and whatnot.

Can't emphasize enough what a miracle it has been that a mill left in this condition has been saved. Perhaps one of the most unlikely turnarounds in the history of Maine's pulp and paper industry.

[CN9634]

You have to remember there is a big difference time and cost wise with a brownfield vs greenfield project. Only so many pulp mills out there in the wood basket, so Old Town being recently shuttered wasn’t the worst option. I don’t think the mill was left in as rough shape as previously mentioned, but ND did invest $46M since assuming ownership (I’m not sure what they bought it for) likely a lot of conversion and modernization work. Also keep in mind nearby Irving just completed (or is near) a multi phased modernization of their pulp mill for nearly $500M CAD so the price tags on these things are pretty steep regardless.

[newpylong]

I watched a largely marketing fluff video a while back when they reopened but it was quite apparent where the money went. The place looked abandoned in place, no attempt at mothballing.

[Cosakita18]

Looked like a couple JB hunt containers sitting at the IM ramp in Waterville this afternoon. Don't know if they were being loaded onto WAPO as part of the Poland Spring run..or some other intermodal project... or just there delivering equipment to the yard.

Speaking of that...why doesn't PS/PAR use 53' domestic containers for the water run? seems like it would be more efficent than 40' borrowed Eimskip stock

[KSmitty]

Water weighs out before it cubes out. Why pay for a big box that you cant fill if there is a convenient supply of boxes you can borrow that you can actually fill.

[roberttosh]

Does the Irving Pulp mill ship much outbound rail or is it mostly used at the paper mill?

[gokeefe]

I don’t think the mill was left in as rough shape as previously mentioned

I have heard from "those who know" that is was in fact that bad and other aspects not mentioned here certainly confirm it for me.

[backroadrails]

How long is it taking for a typical train to get from NMJ to Waterville these days? 5 hours or so?

Making the leap from 10 MPH to 25 MPH might not sound like much of an upgrade but it cuts that 5 hour trip time in half. That probably doesn't mean anything for customers of non-time-sensitive products but it makes a big difference for the railroad in terms of making crew shortages and power shortages more manageable.

I'm not sure I can think of any other regional railroads in the US that would be content with a 10 MPH mainline. Shortlines, yes. Regionals? None come to mind.

That’s if everything goes to plan, and depending on the crew. There are a few crews that like to sit at the car house X-over for hours on end. I know they have had issues in the past with CMQ dropping cars that have quite a few defects that require them to be kicked out. I don’t see much happening from OT East. That’s a lot of money to drop in a line that right now doesn’t have the traffic to warrant a rebuild. The roadbed from Waterville East needs quite a bit of work. The derailment at Enfield and Etna show this. NMWA derailed at Bog Road last night as well. I heard with the upgrades between Waterville and Royal Jct some of the rail might be installed up here. Tie condition between CPF110 and Palmer road isn’t bad but between Palmer rd and Carmel hasn’t had ties installed since the oil train boom. Drainage is another thing that needs improvements. With the current traffic base, unless OT starts pumping out large amounts of pulp, I doubt there will be a rebuild for at least right now.

[CN9634]

They should be finalizing the digester upgrade work (two digesters both being upgraded as they are interlinked but will become independent units) shortly and coming back online. They idled the mill early March to start the work, I thought that was widely known as it was reported.