Connecticut River Line (Pan Am)

[gokeefe]

How long has the Lowe's RDC had a siding?

[newpylong]

Pan Am and PVRR interchange loaded lumber cars for Lowes RDC in Westfield. Pan Am brings in the loaded cars and PVRR returns the empties. This exchange happens once a week but I am not sure of the days.

This isn't the only PAS - PVRR traffic interchanged either.

[Safetee]

i can't remember the exact date but lowes had w.j.riegel install their track in westfield at least a dozen years ago. A very steady customer for pvr.

[gokeefe]

No kidding. Wow. I had no idea any of the big box store RDCs took rail at all.

[newpylong]

The Home Depot distribution center in Norwood MA also gets rail service.

[QB 52.32]

The Home Depot distribution center in Norwood MA also gets rail service.

As does the DC in Bloomfield, CT on CZNR with some traffic moving via interchange with PAS and Home Depot building a new CSOR-served DC in South Windsor.

Yes, the garbage traffic has taken off. I believe this is the brainchild of the Pan-Am marketing department, which is absolutely top-notch (last year as railroads were shedding business due to PSR, Pan-Am was growing).

While PAR's marketing department deserves credit for positioning themselves for this traffic, Waste-by-Rail as a targeted market has been around for ~30 years, started at Conrail under the leadership of Wayne Michel, now president of the Reading & Northern, and has included Construction & Demolition (C&D), Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), and contaminated soils ("dirty dirt"). As a growth target market, it was affectionately called "Urban Ore".

On the MSW side of the business, the impetus for the start of this traffic was the rise of environmental laws prohibiting the dumping of greater NYC-metropolitan solid waste into the Atlantic. In New England, the driver for MSW is the amount of available regional solid waste landfill capacity, currently trending toward diminishing, with one previous rail MSW contract held by CSX and operated out of Beacon Park yard until it lost out to regional landfills (as well as BCLR/Mass Coastal's unique on-going niche Cape trash-to-steam short-haul service).

[MEC407]

Off-topic but germane to MSW-by-rail on the B&M: I've always wondered if the old Maine Energy Recovery Company (MERC) was sited in downtown Biddeford on the B&M mainline because the plant developers/proponents thought they'd eventually receive MSW by rail. The location of the plant was what eventually lead to its demise — no one wants a regional trash incinerator in the heart of downtown — but the location would've been marginally more logical if the original plan included rail. Granted, there were other rail-served locations in Biddeford that would've made much more sense, such as the industrial park, but I guess I'm just trying to find some possible reason for the downtown location that makes a shred of sense.

[gokeefe]

My impression is that Biddeford's downtown commercial district had failed as a result of mill closures and population loss. Consequently the City was open and even encouraged this type of industrial use in a central business district.

It's worth noting that given the industrial history of the mills right next door there might be a case to be made that in the mindset of the 1970s this was seen as a compatible use.

The incinerator stack was little different from the stacks of the old coal boilers right next door.

There is no guarantee that the incinerator was assumed to produce such a significant trash odor. It sounds intuitive that it would smell but it actually isn't guaranteed if the facility is built right and managed properly. I can recall driving through Biddeford before it closed and only catching wind of it right at the plant driveway.

[Hux]

It ain't the smell but the breakdown of chemicals/plastics that end up/show up in the waterways that's the real issue. (Though I suppose if you can smell it you are inhaling that which ends up in the water).

[MEC407]

The biggest problem in the early days wasn't the smell but the ash raining down all over a 1-mile radius around the plant. I remember stories about people having to wash their cars every day because of the ash.

When I lived there in the early 2000s the ash was no longer an issue but the smell was still a problem.

The downtown area was a lot busier, and had very few vacancies, when I was a kid in the '80s. I remember my mom taking me there to buy shoes, get a haircut, and go to the doctor. It seemed very busy then; cars and people everywhere. By the time I moved there in 2000, it was much more desolate, which many people attributed to the plant.

I still wonder if MERC might still be operating today if they had sited it in the industrial park. Even if they didn't use rail, the close proximity to I-95 would've meant much less wear and tear on the downtown streets.

Thank you all for indulging my off-topic curiosity.

[twropr]

What happened in Greenfield Mon 8-9? Amtrak Valley Flyer 478 was turned at Northampton and 495 originated there this morning.
Andy

[EDFLD Bill]

Tie job starts at 03:30.......

[twropr]

Does anyone know what happened Tue Dec. 13 PM around Holyoke that caused Amtrak's Valley Flyer 494 to terminate at Springfield? 494 normally goes to Greenfield.
Thanks
Andy