Canadian Pacific Returns to Maine

Canadian Pacific 2nd quarter earning's are in Q2 Net C 635 million/ US 473 million. Not to bad all things considered. Definitely have some spare change to spruce up the CMQ to mainline standards.

Rumored that CP will be sending a unit train to SJ this weekend. Any truth, I would like to go to Danforth and watch go through on its way to SJ.

The train is currently in Jackman-- a 10000ft intermodal job. Will be handed off to NBSR this afternoon using the 908 crew about of Brownville. Not sure many more details besides that, but its a full stack train for Hapag, with the DETROIT EXPRESS waiting for dock time in the Saint John harbour at this moment (scheduled to start working the ship at 0800 tomorrow).

Also to note, the MAERSK PATRAS is coming 8/14. Besides that all other ships are diverting to Halifax, including Hapag ships, pending the outcome of this weekend's trial ship (their words not mine). If it goes well Hapag will likely move via SJ moving forward. I saw the HL rates for the diversion via SJ vs Halifax, and the Halifax rates are much higher, likely due to the fact its a two-carrier move, CN handoff to CP at MTL, whereas SJ is quoted as a full CP move.

Last note, MSC and OOCL (COSCO) have diverted several ships to Halifax, so they're going to be right out straight... I think it's in Hapag's interest to get the SJ port to work out but they need to do their due diligence first. Halifax and CN are already pushing their capacity limits with the existing detours.... 16,000' 120/121s on the Napadogan are pushing some serious limits, with other traffic being delayed in the meantime.

146 cars, here's another fantastic shot by Frank Jolin at Bury, QC

https://railpictures.net/photo/744464/

I hate to burst your bubble cn9634, but as of an hour ago it was thought the internodal was still in Jackman. Expected in Brownville Jct. around 22:00. Source told me don't be surprised if it hits around midnight. Source was a birdie who flew to my house with the info. I don't hand out names or positions to protect the innocent. Its only common courtesy. Of course the birdie could be off as well.

baldy wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 4:52 pm I hate to burst your bubble cn9634, but as of an hour ago it was thought the internodal was still in Jackman. Expected in Brownville Jct. around 22:00. Source told me don't be surprised if it hits around midnight. Source was a birdie who flew to my house with the info. I don't hand out names or positions to protect the innocent. Its only common courtesy. Of course the birdie could be off as well.

You didn't burst my bubble, I reported it incorrectly based on what time they should have been there since I couldn't escape work today to go see myself (glad too that would have been a long wait at Jackman). The trace did update at 1320 departure out of Megantic and they were into Jackman at 1510 per the dispatcher but plenty of people on site to get you the to the second count. One would have thought it wouldn't take 7 hours to get from Lennoxville to Jackman it happened, even with the stall.

Also its being pretty well documented so not sure why the secrecy. Actually per my source the train will be in Saint John tomorrow morning (top secret intel there). Or you could just list to the scanner feed and hear them talking to dispatch, clear MP32 about 30 mins ago. They've decided to swap the power (pretty silly) with 3 NBSR locos at BVJ so that'll be a fun trip east...

CN9634 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 6:38 pm They've decided to swap the power (pretty silly) with 3 NBSR locos at BVJ so that'll be a fun trip east...

Latest info out of New Brunswick was that they went east from McAdam with only 2 NBSR SD40-2s (6319, 6315) hauling the train at 05:45 (unclear whether that was Eastern or Atlantic time, NBSR normally runs on Eastern time). Obviously the weren't in Saint John at 08:00 for the ship. It will be interesting to see how the tides figure into the ship loading/unloading process there.

GTD

Yeah they were cutting it closer than I would have... in typical ship operations I've seen (not sure what DP World does here) they work the ship with two cranes to unload and reload at the same time. However, the wild card here too is that the POM bound ships typically completely unload and reload, instead of doing a NA rotation, due to the vessel size being fairly small for the trade lane. But it also gets them fastest transit times from NA to Europe. So my point here being they work the ship longer than a tradition vessel where they are taking certain stacks here and there, but dock time is not how steamships make money, so hopefully they get those remaining containers in today off 250 (about another 7000-8000 feet or more by estimate) and into the port this evening.

The Montreal dock workers have not had a contract for two years now. Things got ugly , this week, when replacement workers entered the port and started switching containers and were promptly set upon and beat up. The Union and employers association are entrenched and it may be along time before it is resolved. So CP may have a lot of overflow traffic to push over the CMQ. Never a dull moment with this property it seems . LOL

First autorack of the new Glovis (Hyundai/KIA) contract came in unceremoniously this morning to Brownville Jct destined for Saint John. The business is expected to ramp up through the end of this year to be more than anticipated when they were awarded the contract a few years ago.

Was this solo rack a test for transit time, or did they intend to send just the one? I saw photos of it on the headpin of 250.

Much more insight in the article below but they won some new business that just came online and this is handling auto distribution for all of Atlantic Canada with the new contract. I'm told ramp up to 50-60 loads per week by year's end.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/railw ... nada-ports

"It also enabled CP to grow its market share in Atlantic Canada. For instance, on Tuesday, CP will be responsible for handling Kia and Hyundai’s finished vehicles into Atlantic Canada. The railway will use its access to Saint John and a mothballed terminal in Saint John that will come back to life, Wahba said."

I read somewhere about the potential for auto service by end of FY 2020, maybe it was that Q2 earnings call. Nice to see things coming to fruition so quickly.

Zeke wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2020 7:31 pm Hate to se the CMQ go but nothing is permanent in business except Progress. My friend the class one big wig told me months ago CP was going to make a run at the NBSR. The good old Irving's are in the cat bird seat as usual and ready to reap a fat payoff for the NBSR as I keep hearing they will let it go at their asking price. I assume they bought it to keep CN honest and thwart a captive shipper strangle hold on rates as Irving is notorious as a cheapskate shipper. The MMA- CMQ- NBSR-PAR soap opera continues.

Any update on when CP will acquire the rest of the line from NBSR?

"When?"

How exactly do you put a timeline on something that is merely rumors at this point in time?