Freight Operations on the "Northern" New Hampshire Mainline

FatNoah wrote: ↑Mon Oct 12, 2020 6:31 pm Any idea where they plan on loading the gravel in Tilton? I assume it's going to be trucked a couple miles from the gravel pits in Belmont to the rail line, but you never know.

Ian mentioned a large site next to the tracks, I believe it's literally next to 3M and their spur in Tilton.

Pike is apparently not affiliated with the gravel at all.

Thanks for the info.

I believe his handle was “rock guy”

newpylong wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:29 pm NEGS's new owner (VRS parent) is working on running gravel from Tilton down to Lowell Junction to Lynch Construction. I believe the owner of this business posted a few times many years ago with his plans to reinstall sidings into his business.

Correct. We've been working with him since his posts here on the topic looking for service. The trucks will transport from the pit in Belmont ( I believe it's off of Hurricane Rd. NOT PIKE) to the loading siding by 3M in leased cars to his rebuilt facility at LJ. MassDOT IRAP funds have been applied for to assist with the LJ setup.

Plans were to have it online just as the VRS deal closed but COVID presented logistics issues on the MA side. Looks to be a late spring/early summer 21 startup at this time.

Looks like PAR derailed 4 cars in Nashua between Nashua Drive and Canal Street per the Statewide NH fire alerts FB page.

Link with photos
https://patch.com/new-hampshire/nashua/ ... ils-nashua

One tank car marked 1824, Sodium Hydroxide solution

Hillybilly Branch it looks lile.

Yes, less than a mile onto it. I thought the "real bad" track was further west?

This is likely ice build up in the flangeway as opposed to poor track

I walked that portion of the line last fall with me dog. Plenty of ties had recently been replaced, from the looks of it. Looked in decent shape, although that track is really sunken low in that area.

NA-1? on the ground tonight in downtown Concord just south of the route 9 overpass.

CSX geometry train was tied down at Bow yesterday evening, due to MoW work putting track OOS south of them.

Hopefully there's a future for this stretch, now that Mellon is out of the picture.

The Bow coal fired plant just renewed their peaking power contract for 2025-2026. At what point is it cheaper to run the coal plant fulltime and idle some natural gas plants? This plant once got lots of coal delivered

BandA wrote: ↑Sun Jun 19, 2022 12:53 am The Bow coal fired plant just renewed their peaking power contract for 2025-2026. At what point is it cheaper to run the coal plant fulltime and idle some natural gas plants? This plant once got lots of coal delivered

At the point in time where the cost of natural gas (including transport) is higher than the cost of coal (including transport) + the cost of the emissions control equipment. Believe it or not, even with petroleum prices skyrocketing, natural gas is still cheaper by a significant margin due to increases in the price of coal and shortages in coal supplies. In addition, the decisions about what plants to run full time and what plants to use only for peak needs tend to be made on a multi-year basis, rather than based on what the previous month's fuel costs were.