Railroad Forums
Dirt cars
- 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
Being staged/stored there for the LOSA/SALO jobs hauling dirt out from the Wynn Casino project in Boston. They are loading, I think, 28 per switch with 2 switches a day now? Loads are waiting for POSE to pick up, and empties are waiting for LOSA to take them into Boston.
Yes there is still much dirt in many old hopper cars thru Lowell. Not just sitting. It does lay up for a spell but not long. Why is someone hauling 1/2 full hoppers with dirt chunks and paying to move it by rail?
Rail is how you move large quantities of dirt into or out of a large metropolitan area.
Regarding "1/2 full" there are a couple considerations. The car may be half full by volume, but full according to weight, which is all the railroads care about. Or, since I believe this is contaminated dirt, it is likely loaded to not exceed the car sides and covered or bagged to contain contaminants.
Regarding "1/2 full" there are a couple considerations. The car may be half full by volume, but full according to weight, which is all the railroads care about. Or, since I believe this is contaminated dirt, it is likely loaded to not exceed the car sides and covered or bagged to contain contaminants.
I bet you that it is a weight issue. I have two customers that over the past year, have both been tagged by CSX in West Springfield for overweight cars, and have had to send up forces to empty the material out of the car until it becomes under the weight limit. One case it was contaminated soil and another it was processed C&D debris. So they are probably loading these cars to make sure they are NOT overweight.