Suburban Propane - Chili

I noticed that the switch into Suburban Propane on Chili Ave was lifted sometime last week. They had not received cars in a while, but appears they won't be ever again.

Haven't seen a propane car on the Suburban siding in at least 6 or 7 years. Makes sense the switch has been lifted.

...FB

Not a convenient place for a customer - sandwiched right between 2 road crossings, plus no runaround nearby, and these days no local job on the Shore to do the work. There used to be a job, Genesee Junction Traveling Switcher, which left the yard every day with anywhere from 15 to 25 cars.

Somewhat sadly this leaves exactly (2) active sidings/spurs left in the town of Chili: The signaled siding off the CSX main between CP's 380 and 382, and the Metallico/84 Lumber spur off the Westshore near Scottsville Rd.

Higbie siding was lifted late last winter. The west end switch and several thousand feet Pixley Industrial siding was lifted about 1990 - the remaining Pixley Industrial Spur now stops near Trabold Rd at Weckesser Brick in the town of Gates. And the Case-Hoyt spur off the West Shore disappeared in the late 1990's.

On the R&S, the Gottry spur was lifted about 20 years ago after Higgins/Gottry folded. Remnants of another OOS spur still exist south of Paul Rd - the switch is long gone but the rails still wander off south-east into the underbrush.

"Progress" I guess...

...FB

Rochester has seen an amazing amount of growth, suburbs and housing development and I can't figure it out because the news is always this business closing, that one closing, here's another one not busy enough to use rail service - but it also makes sense that as it becomes more suburban you lose some of these industries when people don't want them in their back yard.

Same thing here in Buffalo. Lots of people moving out of the city into the 'burbs. Industry isn't following. What use to be large tracks of farmland are now giant neighborhoods. I have driven around different areas and am amazed at these 'superstructures" called homes. If Buffalo is falling apart and just about the poorest city around, where are the people getting the money to buy or build these homes? It doesn't match.

lvrr325 wrote:Rochester has seen an amazing amount of growth, suburbs and housing development and I can't figure it out because the news is always this business closing, that one closing, here's another one not busy enough to use rail service - but it also makes sense that as it becomes more suburban you lose some of these industries when people don't want them in their back yard.

Rochester is leading upstate in job creation, which is mostly in the fields of medicine and high-tech. Neither of those sectors generates much (if anything) in terms of train traffic. Monroe County saw a slight amount of population growth in the last census, but that certianly wasn't enough to attract new industry. I foresee the status quo continuing when it comes to local industry.

You may be looking at the consequences of Marcellus shale drilling in Pennsylvania.

For years, most of the propane sold in the northeastern US has come either from Canada or the southwestern US. Much of that was hauled by rail, because of the distances involved.

Well, things have been changing. A lot of the recent Marcellus wells in southwestern PA produce "wet" gas (ie with a lot of butane and propane, in addition to the methane that we think of as "natural gas". This is way closer to market than previously, and it wouldn't surprise me to find that the propane is being delivered by truck.

Those are good points. That being said, I can't recall the last time I saw a tank car at Suburban Propane. It has to have been 5 years, at the very least... probably before the naturgal gas drilling boom took off in PA.

Prior to my move to Dewitt in '05. I worked outa Rochester. The Lyons Local B766 made the trip down the West Shore usually 3 x aweek (Sun/Tue/Thur) then. I served Suburban in Chilli a few times during my 5 years at Rochester. Usually shoving West on the Shore from Genesee Junction. Shoving the entire train past Chilli Ave, then pulling East to switchout the 1 car spot. we would then run back East to Lyons, servicing the OMID in Newark along the way. I think it was winter of '04 that Suburban got 1 tank car as "protection" when they switched to truck service. CSX's annual fees for servicing a switch to an inactive customer was probably the final straw. That was most likely done a few years ago. But it took this long for the switch removal to get to the top of the MoW schedule. The Lyons local is now the B790 and makes the West Shore run 2 x a week, going East 2 days and local switching as need.

This siding: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/150290839 but was the entire siding pulled or just the switch? Just wondering what edit to make to OSM.

I doubt this was caused by drilling in the Marcellus formation. They don't pump propane right out of the rock, the gas extracted has to be processed. I THINK most of what is coming from the shale is methane (CH4) while propane is a heavier gas (C3H8 if I remember my chemistry right). Not sure if "refined" is the proper term for gas as it is for oil, but I would guess the stuff still comes from the same refinery as before, just by truck instead of by rail.

FarmallBob wrote:Somewhat sadly this leaves exactly (2) active sidings/spurs left in the town of Chili: The signaled siding off the CSX main between CP's 380 and 382,

Where is this?? I have no clue.

and the Metallico/84 Lumber spur off the Westshore near Scottsville Rd.

This: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/95037490

Higbie siding was lifted late last winter

.
This: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/53785720

The west end switch and several thousand feet Pixley Industrial siding was lifted about 1990 - the remaining Pixley Industrial Spur now stops near Trabold Rd at Weckesser Brick in the town of Gates.

This: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/53785725, although I don't have it to the west end switch marked as abandoned. Do you know exactly where that switch was?

And the Case-Hoyt spur off the West Shore disappeared in the late 1990's.

This? http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/52313090

On the R&S, the Gottry spur was lifted about 20 years ago after Higgins/Gottry folded.

This? http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/167157266

Remnants of another OOS spur still exist south of Paul Rd - the switch is long gone but the rails still wander off south-east into the underbrush.

This?? http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/167156211 But it goes south-west.
And what about this (or is this too close to the city?) http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/97935038

roadster wrote:Prior to my move to Dewitt in '05. I worked outa Rochester. The Lyons Local B766 made the trip down the West Shore usually 3 x aweek (Sun/Tue/Thur) then. I served Suburban in Chilli a few times during my 5 years at Rochester. Usually shoving West on the Shore from Genesee Junction. Shoving the entire train past Chilli Ave, then pulling East to switchout the 1 car spot. we would then run back East to Lyons, servicing the OMID in Newark along the way. I think it was winter of '04 that Suburban got 1 tank car as "protection" when they switched to truck service. CSX's annual fees for servicing a switch to an inactive customer was probably the final straw. That was most likely done a few years ago. But it took this long for the switch removal to get to the top of the MoW schedule. The Lyons local is now the B790 and makes the West Shore run 2 x a week, going East 2 days and local switching as need.

Thanks for sharing- that's interesting. When you worked the local back in '05, did it operate push-pull (or pull-pull?) with a locomotive at each end? I've seen B790 operate that way in recent years.

RussNelson wrote:This siding: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/150290839 but was the entire siding pulled or just the switch? Just wondering what edit to make to OSM.

Just the switch was lifted. The siding into the fenced area remains, along with the derail (not that it would be needed anylonger).