Maine Northern Railway (ex-MMA lines operated by EMR/NBSR)

Crossed over the Island Falls yard today. Lots and lots, I mean lots of chip cars and wrapped splinter cars waiting to head south. Two long lines of cars north and south of the I95 bridge. Should keep them busy over the weekend.

Is the rebuilt LP plant at New Limerick shipping their new product line by rail?

A couple of weeks ago I spoke with someone who had been working on that project and he
said at the time that construction was winding down and almost complete. I would expect
that there will be a few weeks of programing, calibrating, and working bugs out of the
machinery and there are always some changes to be made. Start-up is almost never a flip
the switch and go process.

There is an article in todays Houlton "Pioneer Times" about the completion of the $150 Million dollar expansion of the LP(Louisiana Pacfic) plant in Houlton for the production of Smartside Trim and Siding along with the current oriented strand board . The plant is switching from a 5 day a week operation to one that will be working 24/7. The article states that availability of wood to produce the engineered materials, as well as the DISTRIBUTION VIA RAILWAY were also key reasons for choosing the Aroostock County facility for expansion. They expect to produce 220 million square feet per year of the new product. I guess we will be seeing more that a once a week switch operation on this branch.

could that be related to the EMR purchase of the line from grindstone?

No, that has been in the works since 2020, since CP has no interest in operating up there.

Looks like MNR could start working the Presque Isle branch a bit more in the future...

https://thecounty.me/2022/09/30/news/ci ... rail-spur/

Dead River is looking to increase volume of propane into its Presque Isle terminal

The Industrial Council has worked out an agreement with Dead River Co. for an additional 1,700-foot rail spur section — not exclusive to Dead River — to add to the two rail spurs already in the mobile yard. An extra spur would allow the company to increase propane shipments from once to twice a week.

Looks like they purchased the section of the Millinocket Sub that they only had Trackage Rights over?

https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... 305605.pdf

The Eastern Maine Railway Company (“EMR”) filed a Notice of Exemption (“Notice”) in
the above-captioned docket on October 6, 2022 regarding a planned acquisition and
operation of a rail line owned and operated by the Central Maine & Quebec Railway US
Inc., d/b/a Canadian Pacific (“CMQR”) between approximately MP 109 Grindstone, ME
(Penobscot County) and Mile 72.43 near Brownville, ME (Piscataquis County), including
branch lines and other associated track between the end points, as well as incidental trackage
rights. The subject rail line was described in detail in the Notice. With this letter, EMR is
notifying the Surface Transportation Board that the transaction was consummated today, on
November 8, 2022.

Yes, CP stopped serving the remaining two customers up there in 2021 and refused to serve the log load outs after the takeover. I am glad to see EMR grab it, since CP let the track go and atleast now there is a railroad in town which actually wants to serve customers. Now only if they could snag the Bangor Sub before CP runs all the business out of town.

Irving took over the line just in time for this to happen....

The site of the former Great Northern paper mill in Millinocket could get new life producing industrial-grade wood pellets that would be sent by rail to Searsport for shipment and sale overseas, under a proposal announced Monday.

The PPH article also links here, I don't know if that's specific to the proposed mill operation or the "Millinocket, Not Just a Place to Gas Up on the way to Baxter, Economic Development Team".

Now, granted, this is Yet Another Pellet Mill Proposal, but hopefully something comes of it. And apparently the railroad is now calling itself NBM Railways?

NBM Railways is the name of the parent company that owns and operates the New Brunswick Southern, Eastern Maine, and Maine Northern railways. The three individual railways still have their own identities, but I imagine it's easier (and less confusing for potential customers) to refer to the entire system by one name, as opposed to three names.

There is talk about a new Bio-Fuel facility being build on the former Loring AFB. This facility has a proposed 4.4 Billion price tag and will make Jet Fuel out of bi-mast. They are proposing to build a 200 mile pipeline from Loring to Searsport to transport the product that will eventually be used at airports on the east coast. Along with the pipeline they are also talking about constructing rail facilites to transport waste to the proposed plant and also to transport finished product to those airport facilities not along the ooast. It looks like they will have to rebuild the branch through Presque Isle to LOring and also in the proposed plant. I do not know how much of the branch has been active north of the Cavendish plant in PI. It will be intersting as they will need to bring materials in for the construction of this plant and also to buid a new 200 mile piipeline. But, don;t look for this to be right around the corner. They have to secure the funding for this project and we have been there before with projects for the Loring facilty and they have fallen through. Good Luck and llets keep our fingers crossed.

What is going on in northern Maine? Today, another article in the BDN about the NMR/EMR being involved in a new project. This one will be in the Millinocket area with a new industrial grade pellet plant with the product to be sold globally. The article says that the railroad and the local development agency are applying for a 56.8 million dollar grant to upgrade the rail line from Millinocket to Searsport. I don't know if this implies that CP will be selling the branch to Searsport or just ignorance of the reporter. But it sure looks like the Irving group are going to be busy if the two new projects get off the ground.

They are definitely planning on being very busy. They recently bought or leased a dozen more SD70M-2s.