CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways

If you take a look at the 2 end to end CN/NBSR yards at Saint John on google maps you can get an idea of just how much business Irving Oil does. I have no doubt that CSX is going to put a serious dent into CN's market share on that business..

Absolutely-- the 'Blue Nose' POSJ/SJPO traffic dented both MMA and CN volumes (mostly MMA) but now it'll surely move CSX to prominent northeast markets. I'm told CSX wants to run Keag to Rigby in one crew in the next 5 years.

I think the Pleasant River Lumber facility at Enfield is also going to develop into a very nice piece of business. Not only will it be the highest producing lumber mill in the state by 2023, but it also appears that it will become the major reload site for lumber coming out of their Dover-Foxcroft facility. That is a lot of lumber and should translate to a lot of centerbeam shipments.

With the proper capital investment, csx could easily do 1 crew keag to Portland and then 1 crew Portland to Selkirk to very efficiently move maritimes and Northern New England traffic onto csx’ core national system. If they would spend the money, I’m confident that the needed infrastructure upgrades could be done in less than 5 years

I think more realistically the crew districts would be Keag-Portland, Portland-Worcester, and Worcester-Selkirk. Still two or three crews less than such a move would be possible with today.

At current track speeds on CSX Worcester - Selkirk is roughly 4-5 hours for a freight, assuming no stops to work anywhere. Even if we add another 25%-50% to that, we're still only talking about 6-7 hours or so.
At the "official" track speeds (~40MPH max) listed in the Pan Am timetable (meaning no speed restrictions due to track condition), Portland - Ayer is approximately 3-1/2 hours, and Ayer-Worcester another 1-1/2 (total of 5 hours). So we're looking at roughly 9-10 hours base time for a single crew from Portland - Selkirk (assuming no stops or delays) and probably closer to 12-15 in real conditions. It's possible to do it with one crew if the dispatcher works to get the train over the road, but you would run the risk of running out of time if things got delayed.

In B&M days, not exactly sure what years, Rigby to Mechancville was one crew. CSX would likely need to upgrade the Lowell Branch, Stoney Brook and Worcester main in order to make Rigby- Selkirk work on a consistent basis.

Indeed. NE-84/NE-87, then later POME/MEPO trains (symbols changed in 1978?) ran Rigby-Michy with one crew up until GTI takeover, I think.

Yes, it is possible, in theory. But relying on a 9 or 10 hour run in a 12 hour day in the freight business is cutting it pretty fine, believe it or not, and carries risk. One significant delay and the train will end up parked probably in some awfully inconvenient place, close but not quite there. With shorter crew districts, that risk is minimized, and there may even be opportunities for one crew to do a round trip within their hours and thus taxi/hotel/meal expenses are avoided.

Also don't forget that any Pan Am employees taken on by CSX will almost certainly be protected from the southern incursion either by separate union agreements or by "prior rights" which will drive the decision of crew district boundaries. That's why I suggested Worcester (probably more technically Barbers, or maybe even Ayer, since CSX crews have had rights to work that far for a few years now) as one of those locations.

The other thing to remember, when comparing what's possible with "days gone by" is that the 1-1/2 hours from Ayer-Worcester doesn't get you any closer to Selkirk. You're essentially heading parallel to your end point for that time. And that time isn't going to get much shorter - the last 3 miles into Worcester are always going to be within yard limits on the P&W, at restricted speed. That's at least 20-30 minutes right there. Even if the other 27 miles could be at an an average of 60MPH (never going to happen), the last 3 miles at 8-10MPH will be what kills the time.

Perhaps they try running something like Selkirk-Dover, Dover-Keag or Selkirk-Lawrence, Lawrence-Waterville.

As I said, it would take investment. Get track speeds back up on Stony brook and Lowell; rebuild the 2d B&M main on the east side of existing track through Worcester to minimize interaction with PW, return 40mph to Worcester main which is what I think it was in B&M days
B&M trains used to really move to make Portland to mechanicville with one crew

bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Sat Jun 26, 2021 10:37 am Is that "yard" even necessary anymore? Can't they remove the yard limit there or is it more involved than that?

There's more to it than that. "Yard Limits" allows a crew to use the area, throw switches, switch cars, and make all sorts of moves back and forth without needing to ask the dispatcher for permission for each move. There's a customer along the line (in the Millbrook St area) that gets switched by the yard crew as part of the work they're doing in the yard; having the area within yard limits also allows a crew to use any track they need to when moving things around without needing to worry about someone coming along at high speed and hitting them. Quoting from GCOR 8th edition:
"Within yard limits, trains or engines are authorized to use the main track not protecting against other trains
or engines. Engines must give way as soon as possible to trains as they approach. Engines must keep
posted as to the arrival of passenger trains and must not delay them.
All movements entering or moving within yard limits must be made at restricted speed unless operating
under a block signal indication that is more favorable than Approach."
P&W uses those yard limits (from Barber all the way to Worcester on the Gardner Branch; from Worcester to Greenwood on the main line, and from Worcester to Sword on the Norwich Branch) to save a lot of time and aggravation for the dispatcher. They're not going to get rid of them or shrink them.

F74265A wrote: ↑Sat Jun 26, 2021 10:54 am As I said, it would take investment. Get track speeds back up on Stony brook and Lowell; rebuild the 2d B&M main on the east side of existing track through Worcester to minimize interaction with PW, return 40mph to Worcester main which is what I think it was in B&M days
B&M trains used to really move to make Portland to mechanicville with one crew

The times I gave already assume 30-40MPH on the Stony Brook/Lowell Branch and 30MPH on the Worcester Main - you're not going to improve the time by that much no matter how much you invest.

Yes - you could make Portland-Mechanicville with one crew - but using the Worcester Main route means you're adding another 1-1/2 hours to that time since you're going "sideways" without getting any closer to your destination. If you take the time estimate I gave (9-10 hours minimum; 12-15 in practicality), and subtract the time it takes to run the Worcester Main, you get to a time that's realistic for a single crew. That additional 1-1/2 hours makes a big difference between a crew making it all the way and running out of time short of the terminal.