New England Central Railroad (NECR)

Hello everyone. I'll be vacationing on the Champlain Islands this week and looking to do my usual visit to St. Albans at some point. From what I understand the CN usually comes down to St. Albans late morning and heads back north early afternoon (I was lucky enough to catch them heading north around early afternoon last year). Is this still the case, and is it daily or only on select days?

I also read on the VRS FB page that the NECR also got hit with some washouts with that recent storm. Any news on that and if it's affecting traffic south of St. Albans?

Any info is appreciated. Thanks in Advance!
---Bill

It's still 2 or 3 days a week, times have changed a bit due to work on the south end of the line to Palmer (pre-flooding).

Traffic has been moves around WRJ to serve local customers, the line was basically shut down north of there/Roxbury. 323 (from Thursday) and 324 out of SAB today are meeting this afternoon/evening at Roxbury, so it sounds like the line is back open.

NHV 669 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 2:45 pm It's still 2 or 3 days a week, times have changed a bit due to work on the south end of the line to Palmer (pre-flooding).

Traffic has been moves around WRJ to serve local customers, the line was basically shut down north of there/Roxbury. 323 (from Thursday) and 324 out of SAB today are meeting this afternoon/evening at Roxbury, so it sounds like the line is back open.

Sounds good. I plan to head out to do my railfanning tomorrow as the weather is looking pretty good. Thanks for the info!

I believe it's still M/W/F for the CN 323/324 combo.

Some tie replacement underway on the NECR south of White River Jct. Tie bundles dropped over the last couple of weeks have had their contents distributed. The Vermonter is running as a bus north of New Haven until Monday 7/31 to allow for this work and work by Amtrak on its New Haven Line.

Currently enjoying class 1 speeds south of WRJ on today's Vermonter. Even on new ties. It's going to be a long trip...

4 ex-CSXT Dash 8's dropped at Palmer this morning for the NECR: GECX #s 7324, 7712, 7715, & 7740.

Another, GECX 7660, is northbound on tonight's 606 to Brattleboro.

Last night's 606 had GECX 7313/7318. Believe that's the last of the "new" power.

Essay question: what prevents G&W from combining the P&W, CSOR, and NECR RRs into one operating railroad entity given they each connect to each other? I'm guessing that each individual RR has separate labor agreements for its union employees but it that in and of itself shouldn't preclude a "merger". Are there formal operating agreements in place with the RRs from which these three entities originated that preclude them from combining and running interline operations?

And, if P&W+CSOR+NECR were to become a single RR, the same question applies to BERX, the operator of PAS lines. Seems to me there could be efficiencies by exploiting a decent sized network in southern New England.

If G&W wanted to merge the separate railroads it would have to get permission from
the STB; it would be simpler to just coordinate operations between the different properties.
There are already restrictions in place regarding what it can do with B&E in conjunction
with NECR, P&W, et al.

Note that G&W also has incentives to keep railroads below a certain revenue threshold as regulatory reporting requirements increase as total revenues exceed certain amounts (I forget what the actual thresholds are).

The first widecab is out of the paint booth; former CSXT/GECX 7712 has been renumbered as NECR 4066.

7318 is out of the paint booth as NECR 4063.

7324 is out of the booth as NECR 4064.