Pan Am Southern / Patriot Corridor Discussion

[bostontrainguy]

. . . and open up the tunnel.

Haven't heard a thing about this lately. Anyone heard anything new?

[GU1001]

The following excerpt from the latest state rail plan, pg 107, just has a general reference to increasing clearance on the route:

Patriot Corridor Double Stack Clearance Study – An initiative between MassDOT, Pan Am and Norfolk Southern to improve the Patriot Corridor. The Patriot Corridor runs between Albany, New York
and Ayer, Massachusetts on the Pan Am Southern Rail line. The Patriot Corridor Double Stack Clearance Study has been federally funded and will be completed through the FY 2018-2022 CIP.

[johnpbarlow]

Now that the new GMX warehouse on the west side of Hill Yard is in use, won’t the old warehouse be demolished to make room for additional container/chassis storage? Also where do the loaded Eimskips get drayed to when the containers are taken off the spine cars? Thanks.

[gokeefe]

. . . and open up the tunnel.

Haven't heard a thing about this lately. Anyone heard anything new?

Last I read (a year or two ago) it was in engineering and design. Partly funded by MassDOT if I recall correctly.

[CN9634]

Now that the new GMX warehouse on the west side of Hill Yard is in use, won’t the old warehouse be demolished to make room for additional container/chassis storage? Also where do the loaded Eimskips get drayed to when the containers are taken off the spine cars? Thanks.

New warehouse is not GMX or Tighe... it is the former tenant on their own managed by a 3rd party.

[neman2]

Haven't heard a thing about this lately. Anyone heard anything new?[/quote]

Last I read (a year or two ago) it was in engineering and design. Partly funded by MassDOT if I recall correctly.[/quote]

I'm drifting off topic here but to give you an idea of how these things happen the Route 2 Concord Rotary cluster**** that I drive through frequently has been under engineering and design for about 30 years now.

[newpylong]

Now that the new GMX warehouse on the west side of Hill Yard is in use, won’t the old warehouse be demolished to make room for additional container/chassis storage? Also where do the loaded Eimskips get drayed to when the containers are taken off the spine cars? Thanks.

New warehouse is not GMX or Tighe... it is the former tenant on their own managed by a 3rd party.

Splitting hairs considering Fink called it a new GMX warehouse.

[johnpbarlow]

I don't know the exact date Google Maps posted this aerial photo (I'm guessing April or so of 2018 given how little tree foliage there is), but whatever the owner/operator of the new warehouse is, it's the big white building in the middle of this capture adjacent to the A Duie Pyle warehouse that has two tracks entering it at the southeast corner, correct? And it's the building marked Tighe and Norfolk Southern on the east side of the yard that is to be demolished to make way for more container storage, no?

Looks like there are a number of blue Eimskip containers parked at the old warehouse perhaps empties waiting to return to Poland Springs?

Operational question: when 22K triples its consist into Hill Yard, will the cut of containers that isn't adjacent to the unload/load pad need to be re-positioned or can the Piggypackers reach over an empty well car to access the 3rd cut? I'm guessing the Piggypackers can't reach that far and the 3rd cut needs to be swapped with one of the other two cuts by a yard local, correct?

[QB 52.32]

That's correct, Mr. Barlow.

[CN9634]

Splitting hairs considering Fink called it a new GMX warehouse.

Fink isn't the one leasing the warehouse.

[johnpbarlow]

Apparently NS is staging 3-4 22K and 28N trains on the Southern Tier for delivery to Pan Am Southern. There's a 28N parked at Binghamton, another 28N parked at Hornell, a 22K parked at Horseheads, and a 22K recently arrived at Binghamton tied down with an unspecified outbound crew OD time. And apparently NS is unable to establish when some of these parked trains can be delivered to PAS. Why is PAS unable to accept these trains - is the Mechanicville auto/IM terminal clogged or is there a problem running these trains on D3? Is this a consequence of the impact of the Farley and Royalston derailments from which PAS is still trying to recover? Tie replacement around Erving? Pan AM crew shortages? All of the above?

[newpylong]

Sadly still recovering from the derailments and wash outs

[atholrail]

Wash-outs and derailments haven't helped that's for sure, but I believe Ayer is a big part of the problem.

San-Vel holds around 44? cars, business seems up big here and the crews seem to be having difficulty keeping up. Not just train crews, but the employees working the auto yard.

The Hill also is constantly logjammed. Water business is up, and the 22K's and 23K's are usually daily monsters.

[johnpbarlow]

So the April 22, 2018 Google Earth aerial photography of Sanvel and Ford auto facilities at Ayer shows something interesting: the old Ford facility is chock full of new autos (and a handful of racks). Given there are no unload ramps shown in the Ford yard, I'm guessing the autos are unloaded at Sanvel and driven across Willow Rd to be stored. I have no idea if Ford yard is still full as of this summer but I'll check. Update: on the Pan Am Railfans Facebook page, a poster says the cars shown at the Ford facility are recalled VWs being staged for shipping by truck to somewhere.

I wonder if auto makers are building too many cars right now?

[Lincoln78]

Lots of parked trains in Middlesex county and a little bit of motion. Saturday 8/18 afternoon I randomly went from Tewksbury to past Hill Yard. Freight parked on the passing siding under 495 around 3:00 - don't remember seeing it earlier. There was a westbound (former CSX?) parked on the siding east of Forge Village, and and westbound NS-powered autorack parked at the Willows. Sat at Ayer for a while in the rain and watched a former CSX go back and forth in the yard (and two on-time MBTAs). There was a line of mixed freight cars parked on the north siding headed west. The former CSX retreated south and was replaced by a NS-powered container train (Hunt) that slowly proceeded westbound but stopped at the 2A bridge. I drove to the next crossing (Shirley line) and was disappointed when it didn't move for about half an hour. Headed home and discovered that the Willows siding was empty. Maybe I need to buy a scanner...