CSX Track Upgrades & Infrastructure of Pan Am

Yes, it could be helpful. I agree. But assuming im is up front, couldnt they drop the rear of the train on worcester main, pull through with first tranche of intermodal, drop it and run around on thoroghfare back to the rest of the train, repeat with 2d tranche of intermodal, then run around again to get any racks on the back, all witjout east wye except to depart to sanvel with the racks? Query if the racks even move back to worcester route since they no longer move on 264/265

Each time they do that (drop cars and come back to them), they need to retest the air connection. That's a lot of walking just to (maybe) avoid the need to take headroom.

Yes to what John says I would expect headroom needed because their train is likely to fill out quickly to the 9,000 ft max singles or doubles. Single stacks it will be easy and when they finally double stack them they will likely tack the racks on to fill it out. From my recollection there is not a pad's worth of headroom to set over without getting the signal on East wye or going through Moore's or the Camp on West.

From the point of the proposed relocation of the north end #10 turnout between intermodal pad tracks M1 and M2 to the signal at the east wye is no more than 2,000 feet and the length of the useful M1/M2 tracks is about 3,300 ft. So a mile long 264 might get away with not setting foot on MBTA ACSES PTC track at CPF-AY when yarding its consist.

Amtrak snagged $27M for Brunswick to Mass state line for track work... also CSX throwing in ~$7M. 124,000 ties... thats not joke... wonder how they'll handle passenger service while doing that work.

Also seems the future of Midcoast (unrelated) is determined as an Amtrak only line. I suspect CSX will run any local traffic (basically ASA), not sure they'd want to run out to Rockland for perlite which could probably move to truck via transload. But hey, if they can take 4-5 cars at a time it might work out for a monthly run with perlite + ASA out of Rigby to Rockland and back.

https://www.mainepublic.org/business-an ... provements

jamoldover wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 4:58 pm Don't forget that the sections through Northern Maine Jct and Bangor are identified as Yard Limits, which will slow things down a bit as well. Depending on the amount of traffic, it might make more sense to run things as an "up one day, back the next" operation, at least for now, and perform switching along the way.

Bangor hasn't had yard limit protection in some time. I want to say they removed the signs last summer. Old Town is no longer in yard limits, they sent a test train through a few weeks ago at 25 MPH. But like most of the "rehabbed" track from Waterville to Passadumkeag, the cross levels (in places) are so out of wack that if they do over 10 in spots, the units shut down because the water sloshes around so much that it wont cycle through the radiators.

You know I was wondering why they were still creeping through downtown Bangor and then I realized there were Yard Limits there. If this is not the case any longer perhaps it was just due to being the first job through?

Glad to hear CSX is unwinding some of the operational sillyness, there are a lot of similar time sinks across the board. Unnecessary yard limits, unnecessary Other than Main track because they were too lazy to give paper, etc.

I believe the bridge in town needs work. That plus the concert venue is a never ending construction zone, and in the past materials have fallen on the tracks and the venue has driven equipment down the tracks without informing the railroad. They got busted by the RRPD last year for flying steel over the tracks without calling the railroad as well. So for crew safety I imagine it will stay 10 MPH. During concerts I have a hard time seeing them go faster, with a few thousand drunk concert goers stumbling around.

Thank you.

In this You Tube video from CHUX Productions from Rigby Yard at the 3:00 minute mark you can see steel ties without the rail installed laid out . They look like they are relay.(re-used) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFKs6XF ... WL&index=4

I'm guessing CSX had a stock pile of steel ties? I've read CSX used steel ties instead of treated wood ties to eliminate soil seepage as a "green practice" when it built the Northwest Ohio Intermodal Terminal at North Baltimore OH in 2010 or so.

They may also be intending the rehab of Rigby to be a "once and done" type of rebuild, and want to get as much life as they can under favorable tax conditions (I believe they're able to deduct expenses relating to the acquisition for a limited number of years after the closing date.)

This way they get the most bang for the buck...

It now looks like a different yard on a different planet, compared to how it looked when PAR owned it. I never realized just how bad it was until I had the CSX version of Rigby Yard to compare it to.

There's some fellow on YouTube videos called Maine Railfan or something like that who trolls the videos saying CSX has barely spent any money, etc and so on. Clueless. SMH

They probably spent at least a million dollars on the yard office renovation alone.