POSE / SEPO (Portland - Selkirk trains)

[newpylong]

That would be the case if Barbers ceases to be the interchange point and it changes to Ayer (likely to become the case). Then it would be considered a direct interchange train and only require a Class III. If the interchange stays where it is at Barbers and the slip is only good till there, as soon as they start block swapping in Ayer with a new train symbol the cars will need to be retested. I am assuming they still swap blocks in Ayer correct? That is why we used to play games with the brake slips (MOPO, EDWA, etc) and have them terminate far beyond the away from home terminal so that they could swap blocks and keep the test. Trains like SEPO, 16R, etc do not require a Class I because they are direct interchange.

This is what was told to me on several occasions when FRA inspectors looked at our slips.

[Ironman]

Didn't CSX operate Q274/Q293 Ford auto rack trains on a Worcester-Ayer turn trackage rights basis back in the pre-Pan Am Guilford era? Or did these auto trains use GRS crews between Worcester and Ayer? I forget...

Is this new arrangement to operate a Q426/Q427 turn due to Pan Am being short on crews? And do Q426/Q427 still handle P&W interchange at Worcester?

Q274/ Q293 used to run with GRS crews from Worcester to Ayer under CSX, at least from 2004 until the trains were abolished in 2010. Q426 still brings the P&W cars, but they usually run a full P&W train west with a Q427 symbol. So on some days you'll have 2 Q427's with different dates running. One will be all Pan Am traffic and one will be all P&W traffic.

[johnpbarlow]

In his gung ho wrap up of "RailTrends - 2018" conference, where Michael Bostwick EVP and chief commercial officer at PanAm Railways delivered a presentation, Tony Hatch (an independent transportation analyst and consultant, and a program consultant for Progressive Railroading’s RailTrends® conference) had this quip re: Pan Am's nimbleness in dealing with class 1 RRs:

Pan Am executed a new service deal from “soup to nuts” with CSX in only 30 days

I'm guessing this is in reference to the recent shift of SEPO/POSE ops over the PAR (formerly?) Worcester main to a CSX turn crew out Worcester to Ayer and back?

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ ... tch--56325

[gokeefe]

I'm curious if any of these changes are related to Rumford's new wood pulp export traffic. If pulp is being shipped out of New Jersey that would appear to imply POSE as the preferred train to handoff to CSX. Presumption is that NS is not the terminal operator.

[PBMcGinnis]

Barbers to Maine is still Springfield Terminal, not Pan Am Southern. So as far as Maine to NJ traffic goes it all comes down to who is cheaper to get there. CSX is apparently lower and also willing to run that traffic more than NS who has a longer more circuitous route via Mechanicville, Binghamton and then North Jersey.

[Wayside]

All they need to do is a Class III, because they're only swapping power. Changing the symbol has nothing to do with a brake test, since Ayer isn't the initial terminal. If CSX failed to provide a brake slip, then they would have to perform a Class I test.

This is correct.

[Jonathan]

Do these trains make any stops to add any cars along the way?

[newpylong]

They used to pick up and set off in Ayer when I was there.

[Jonathan]

I saw a video of a train (I think SEPO) switching in Tewksbury.