Intermodal to Saint John

Word from a non-railroad source is that Hapag is starting a new contract at Saint John in October, consisting of traffic which had been going to Halifax. Its enough where 907/908 are coming back on Irving.

You think any of that business could end up routed over Chessie?

Always good to hear of more traffic coming through Saint John. I wonder if the port will hit 200k TEUs this year?

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 09:59 with KCSM 4716/3015, 57 mixed freight, KCS 4794, 37 wells/74 containers, 10 empty autoracks.

Its going CPKC from what I was told. 120/121 will likely dedicated auto/stack trains like they were a few years back. 907/908 will likely be Monday-Saturday days a week with the fiber, McAdam, CPKC (mixed freight), and CSX traffic like it was in 2022.

My guess is they will do a meet at Bancroft with 907/908. 907 will do a drop at Knights with the MNR and CSX stuff, running into BVJ and dropping for CPKC. The crew will get recrewed by EMR 120, and will head east with the inbound containers, for a meet with 121 at Kirby. 908 will report the next morning and will relive the 121 crew at Siberia, running east and meeting 907 at Bancroft. That's what they did last time so it should work this time, minus the drop at Knights.
As for 910, they could make that an evening job out of Millinocket, running down grab the fiber and MNR's from Knights before heading back north. 909 could follow 120 out, do their switching moves at Knights, then run to Mattawamkeag meeting 121 at either Hardy Pond or Kirby. Then do the work at the CSX interchange, and run back to BVJ, setting the MNR traffic on the west end, and tacking the traffic from CSX onto the fiber loads on the east end.
I am guessing with the stack trains they will want to keep Kirby clear since its the biggest siding currently on the railroad at 8597 ft. Knights will be 10,000 ft when its done, but the intent for it was to be used to store MNR and CPKC traffic. They might extend Bancroft, since a lot of the ROW is already there. It used to be a 8,000 foot siding in the MEC era, but EMR moved the switch away from the main road crossing and cut it back to 7,800 something feet 30-35 years ago. MEC had a siding at Wytopitlock which ran east a few thousand feet, which the ROW is still there, so they could connect the two pieces of right of way without too much work. That should add 2,000-4,000 more feet of siding for them.

That would either be the AL5 service (which already calls SJ going EB only) or the ATA-- potentially a combination of both trades. The new Gemini Cooperation is no doubt spuring this, since Maersk split the 2M with MSC (which has grabbing massive capacity) and Hapag has divorced THE Alliance.

AL5 will be changing from its current form, since it uses ONE line vessels and that again that THE Alliance is splitting with Gemini. I suspect that this is the likely swap from Halifax which it hits sometimes first on the WB from Europe.

No much room for expansion from India / Suez until the red sea crisis is resolved, so Transatlantic is the most likely source of new volume. This probably would also have Maersk traffic if I had to guess.

Fun fact, Gemini was supposed to have started last week but the FMC (sort of like the STB) did not bless it until a revised application was put through. They expect this to only delay it a few months.

120 was into Greenville Jct. at 16:19 with 9378/KCS 4582/KCS 5011, 67 mixed freight (12 loaded autoracks), 22 empty wells, 39 wells/62 containers.

We will see how long this contract lasts...

EMR is plugged right now from Brownville Junction to McAdam and have been storing traffic at Millinocket since CPKC hasn't been keeping up. Kirby is the only clear siding.

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 08:32 with 9378/KCS 4582, 97 wells/199 containers, KCS 5011 (DPU), 83 wells/164 containers, 15 mixed freight.

CPF66 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 8:12 am We will see how long this contract lasts...

EMR is plugged right now from Brownville Junction to McAdam and have been storing traffic at Millinocket since CPKC hasn't been keeping up. Kirby is the only clear siding.

Capacity is relative to the entire network as a whole not just one piece. For example in recent years BNSF had 30+ Chicago bound stack trains parked in California without ability to move them for a variety of reasons (crews, sidings, terminal utilization and labor).

East coast US ports have been a mess so again compare the network at large and SJ via CPKC might not be the worst option.

No 120 yesterday, no 121 this morning.

120 was into Greenville Jct. at 16:28 with 8809/KCS 4765/KCSM 4533/3015, 47 mixed freight (2 loaded autoracks), 62 wells/98 containers, 6 empty wells.

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 08:35 with 8809/KCSM 4533, 57 wells/115 containers, 17 mixed freight, KCS 4765 (DPU), 37 mixed freight (one autorack), 35 wells/62 containers.

[Edited at 00:22, 7/22]

120 was into Greenville Jct. at 13:06 with 8799/9803/KCS 4582, 86 wells/119 containers, 57 mixed freight.

EMR 910 and 909 will be reworked in almost the same fashion I discussed. Not sure what is going on at Knights right now, I just saw one loader and a dump truck there with no additional track laid. I know they had to cut back some of the places they made cuts because the land was unstable and at risk of causing a slide onto the tracks.

In semi-related news the Millinocket Sub has been bumped back up to 25 aside from a section between Cedar Lake Road and where the CWR starts down by Packard. I am guessing once they redo the crossing at Cedar Lake, from there to the crossing at West Seboeis will be 25 again since CMQ did new rail in that section back around 2017-2018. From there to Packard will likely stay 10 MPH for the time being until new rail is installed. Its nice to see the sub get back to 25 after CP let things go.

Further north MOW season is in full swing. MNR has a tie gang at Sherman, which is redoing every 4th tie and they have a rail gang which is replacing 100 LBS stick with new 115 LBS stick about 10 miles out of Oakfield heading south. New ties have been laid out as far as Ashland and it looked like they are unloading more in the near future. I think they have so far redone all the rail which hadn't been done in years past, between Fort Kent and where they are at now. MNR rented a Herzog train which is being loaded several times a week at Millinocket and has been working with a surfacing gang on MNR and on the Millinocket Sub. The grand plan is for Fort Kent-Millinocket to be up to 25 by years end, as well as the Millinocket Sub aside from that stretch of 10 MPH I mentioned. Fort-Kent to Madawaska will be on next years agenda, as will the PI, Fort Fairfield, and Houlton Subdivisions.

Once the rail gang is to Oakfield they are hopping south and doing rail on curves between Sherman and Millinocket, and are then heading to NBSR to replace some rail around Freddy Jct, and Rooth. Likewise, the southern 10 miles of the Saint Stephen Subdivision will be back to 25 by October, which will allow 506 to make a round trip on two crews instead of two plus a recrew at McAdam. Long term, they will be undercutting quite a bit of track and doing a rehab on the northern portion of the line to get it back to 25 entirely over the next few years, to accommodate the increase in tissue from Woodland.

Some developments are being made on the abandoned line front too. The East Millinocket Sub, which hasn't seen a train beyond Dolby since MMA days, has had some minor MOW work done up to where CMQ used to load logs. Currently they are storing the new MNR chip cars just south of there, but I am wondering if the branch will be rehabbed this year since they redid the crossing at Dolby last week and the renovation of the rail barn at the warehouse wrapped up recently.
I was told yesterday MNR brush cut the line to Caribou and that they have a few customers looking at locating to that area. The main obstacle is the big bridge in Presque Isle which needs structural work and a new deck, which would allow them to load ballast at Lane and transload asphalt emulsion there. Last time they ran there was around 2017. The last train to Caribou ran around 2011-2012 and serviced Dead River before they moved to Presque Isle and AIM scrap. If the information is true, my guess is they will get grants this winter for the bridge and track rehab. I know there were some articles last fall about the biofuel plant at Loring which wanted to bring raw materials in by rail and ship them out via pipeline, however I haven't heard anything on that recently. I sent an email to them a few months ago but haven't heard back yet.
Link to the website they have: https://www.loringenergy.com/

As for more on-topic stuff, EMR is also going to replace some culverts after the washouts a few weeks back. They have also been working with contractors to armor up causeways with rip rap to prevent more washouts.

121 was into Greenville Jct. at 07:39 with 9803/8799, 19 wells/31 containers, 68 mixed freight (11 autoracks).

I forgot to add that the bridge that Thomas Brook flows under at Oakfield Yard on MNR is also being replaced. Currently the yard is shut down while Sargent redoes the bridge. Once it is replaced, Sargent is replacing the bridge on the east leg of the Oakfield Wye.