Rockland Branch Discussion

2310 was WB with one perlite empty at 8:28 through Finntown Road in Warren.

Not sure if it's still happening, but a few years ago PAR started transloading propane at Rigby Yard. There weren't any racks or permanent structures, just some portable equipment that allowed them to transfer propane from tanker cars directly into trucks. A similar setup could work on the Rockland Branch.

At least from google maps, it looks like it is still taking place. By the looks, they have the unloading racks mounted to a couple of old delivery trucks. But there is a market I would think for an lpg transload somewhere on the Rockland Branch. Either you have to pull from Westbrook, Lewiston Jct, Waterville, or Hampden. The midcoast area has had quite a bit of population growth the past few years. So if someone were to put in an LPG transload for just the cost of the unloading racks, it could be quite profitable. Or even if the railroad did it, and sold the LPG directly to the larger fuel companies or the smaller distributors, they might make quite a bit.

2310 was eastbound through Bath with 11 hoppers at 14:58.

So I found this interesting tidbit at work tonight. For a few months now, Amtrak has been uploading head-end ride videos to their intranet for physical characteristic training on the routes we run. They just uploaded a 2+ hour video taken from a Hi-Rail of the entire Rockland Branch. I wonder if test trains will start running for crew familiarization.

Interesting,
If they could run year round service to Hardings/Bath they could probably get a good deal of ridership from BIW. Between the two locations and the area offices BIW employs close to 6,000 people.

What has to happen for BIW to get more inbound steel? They sure seem to build a lot for the lack of inbound raw steel coming in via rail. Do they truck it over from that new customer now instead of direct at Hardings?

I’m under the impression that the steel comes from ASA, and they just truck it over. In fact, 2310 was parked on the ASA spur all weekend and then headed over light to Rockland today assumedly for tomorrow’s move (or so says the Facebook group).

2310 was west with 3 cement hoppers through Finntown Road in Warren at 08:25.

newpylong wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2024 11:53 am What has to happen for BIW to get more inbound steel? They sure seem to build a lot for the lack of inbound raw steel coming in via rail. Do they truck it over from that new customer now instead of direct at Hardings?

All the steel for Hardings goes to ASA now, except for a few moves per year of heavier material which is unloaded at Hardings still. When they expanded the fab plant a few years ago, they lost a lot of the storage space so they worked a deal with ASA to unload there so they could truck it to Hardings or the ship yard.

BIW is already doing a ton of steel by rail, quite a bit gets transloaded at Casco Bay Steel in S. Portland (Or at least it used to when CP was refusing to install a switch for ASA) and I want to say they unload some down in Saco as well. When ASA first opened I heard they wanted to put in a second track from New Meadows road and I think a short spur on the east end of the facility as well to unload more steel, however thats the last I heard of it. The current operation, results in FGLK spotting the cars one day and tying down there for the day. Then the following day they take the empties back to the interchange so the cars don't sit idle for long. BIW/ASA crews work overnight to unload the cars and they pull material as its needed out of the facility as time goes by.

Thanks.

Seems like New England Rail Excursions will be running their “Summer Solstice” motorcar excursion on the Rockland Branch from June 21-23 this year.

https://www.nerex.org/excursions.html? ... Y3fhdo3TZq