Perhaps I've missed it but what is the destination of the containers once they reach Ayer? Are they shipping consumer bottled water that is destined for distribution centers (BJ's, Costco, Stop & Shop, Big Y etc.) or is it the 5 gallon jugs destined for PS own regional warehouses for home/office delivery?
Railroad Forums
Portland Waterfront Rail Ops (Yard 8, Intermodal, etc)
- 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
I can tell you on weekends Eimskip containers move into Clinton, MA. It is not uncommon to see up to four trucks at a time traveling together I-190 to route 12 to route 62 into Clinton. They move back and forth continually at least into the late evening . Usually they move with leased Ryder tractors. However, occasionally they move with A. Duie Pyle tractors. Pyle definitely has a facility on Adams Road in Clinton even though they don't show it on their website. I have not personally seen the containers at theIr loading dock so I have just assumed that is where they are headed to (I have no needed to head into that industrial area). Interestingly, the Pan Am Worcester main passes right by the warehouse.
I volunteer as a station host at the Wells depot. A northbound Pan Am train just came by with 60 flat cars of Eimskip contains.
Are Eimskip containers typically used to transport Poland Spring Water or do they contain goods brought to Portland from Iceland
or Europe on the Eimskip ships? Thanks
Are Eimskip containers typically used to transport Poland Spring Water or do they contain goods brought to Portland from Iceland
or Europe on the Eimskip ships? Thanks
Are Eimskip containers also used by the Eimskip boat line to ship items to and from Iceland and Europe or is Eimskip also in
the container business? Thanks
the container business? Thanks
Yes. Eimskip uses their boxes on their ships.
However they aren't currently shipping any of the boxes from Europe on Pan Am. All Eimskip boxes on intermodal equipment is Poland Spring.
Eimskip containers are used because they were available locally and provide additional revenue for Eimskip. Plus PS doesn't need 53' equipment because water hit's the weight limit before it does the volume limit on bigger boxes. Win-win.
However they aren't currently shipping any of the boxes from Europe on Pan Am. All Eimskip boxes on intermodal equipment is Poland Spring.
Eimskip containers are used because they were available locally and provide additional revenue for Eimskip. Plus PS doesn't need 53' equipment because water hit's the weight limit before it does the volume limit on bigger boxes. Win-win.
I thought that when Eimskip first landed here in Portland one of the big concerns was getting rail to the terminal to ship/recieve containers. So why aren't they moving containers out to Ayer to connect with NS or CSX cheaper to dray them???
As I understand it, anything going any distance is crossdocked from container to C Plate at Merrill's. Lack of both volume and existing intermodal lanes to build on make it more efficient to reload than trying to get a handful of containers here and a handful of containers there.
C'mon, let's give MDOT/MPA credit: They have built and now operate what is likely, at least in terms of loading capacity, the smallest purpose-built, rail intermodal terminal in the Americas.
Build it and they will come, but not always in large numbers.
"A gray crossover is definitely not company transportation."