New Hampshire Central Railroad (NHCR) Discussion

216 thru Lancaster at 0920AM 4 covered hoppers . Presby getting their Pellets delivered to Hazen again perhaps? Sounds like they went past the tank cars and kept on going. The tankcars are on both sidings in Lancaster with the spacer boxcar still hooked to it. The cars look loaded they have Haz mat placards on them.

Video of yesterday's move by Coos County Rail Videos:

https://youtu.be/UjFoRFvEfyc?si=biaWK36xYgGGlPSy

Has Presby ever explored getting direct rail access? Viewing their location with Google maps shows it could be feasible with especially with federal TIGER funding and/or CDBG grants. Just curious.

Where are they located?

Here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8VDGvRMuGzJrjQ2W9

Sure, they could build a spur, but that would be quite a bit of track and at least two grade crossings to maintain for a few cars a month. No idea how long it takes them to use up 3 cars, and call for more these days; their last three were just picked up in Berlin the other night by SLR.

Yes it would take a fair amount of track and, you wouldn't have to look too far away to see another industry that has an unusual long lead to their facility. Of course I'm referring to 3M in Tilton. Right now the cost of transloading which is a form of drayage that has to be factored into every delivery they now take. Part of that cost is the time that is spent having to move the trailer -truck back and forth and then, subsequently loading and unloading that truck multiple times.

TIGER Funding and/or CRISI funding could cover the bulk of the cost. Whatever money Presby may have to put up would be amortized fairly quickly with the permanent removal of the current drayage operation they now use. I say may because sometimes the cost can be completely covered.

Do they use the runaround track at Whitefield to get around the cars when they pick them up from Hazens?

They went from trucking it a half mile to trucking it almost 30 for 5 years, the difference being that the longer distance involved one less railroad.

Regardless of who pays for it, it's a major expense for a menial amount of carloads. The Presbys are involved with the business in name only, considering it was sold to Infiltrator Water Technologies over 5 years ago.

The new ownership decided it was worth it to cut out a railroad in favor of a longer truck haul. Neither of their larger manufacturing facilities located along Class Is have direct rail service either, so I doubt the transload is a factor to them.

VRS must have done something to get them to switch over, despite the fact that they're the shortest haul of the 3 roads moving these cars.

The only active track in Whitefield is the B&M side, given the heavy brush that covered the MEC side the last 15+ years until recently.

NHV 669 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2024 9:12 pm Here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8VDGvRMuGzJrjQ2W9

Sure, they could build a spur, but that would be quite a bit of track and at least two grade crossings to maintain for a few cars a month. No idea how long it takes them to use up 3 cars, and call for more these days; their last three were just picked up in Berlin the other night by SLR.

Thank you for pointing that out to me.

As far as a spur is considered, it would probably have to be cleared by the airport first since I believe they own the property, but they could relay track down the original Berlin line ROW (now labeled as Localized Dr on Google Maps) to reach the location of their factory.

318 is back down at Groveton as of this morning.

318 deadheading went south thru Lancaster around 1030AM this morning .

A chronicle of 318's journey to N. Conway from Groveton, by Coos County Rail Videos:

https://youtu.be/nEJ-kWFEPPE?si=9FJGSfi4R-2rKb2D

Nice videos. Thanks to all involved for recording and then posting them.

Regarding the spur, railroads always try to make spurs as short as possible, avoid grade crossings if possible and, there would only be 1 grade crossing if it was built off the Conway Scenic trackage.

You would be surprised at how uninformed people are when it comes to issues like drayage , grants etc. I know this first hand as my employer I can't name is a fortune 100 company that is worldwide yet, our transportation planning personnel were not aware of the grant funding sources until I passed the information along through channels. Unfortunately, people who make decisions aren't always completely aware of all the details surrounding what they are considering.

Pellet cars are high dollar items for railroads which is why they are very happy to transport them even for considerable distances with the point being that the high value lessens the need for delivery frequency.

New Haven 1 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:01 am Regarding the spur, railroads always try to make spurs as short as possible, avoid grade crossings if possible and, there would only be 1 grade crossing if it was built off the Conway Scenic trackage.

They're an NHCR customer, so it makes little sense to build a spur off the Mountain Division that would require two directional changes in a span of under a mile. The idea is a non-starter to begin with, given the wetlands between the line and the facility amongst other challenges.

Not having traveled to the location, I wasn't sure if those were wetlands so, that wouldn't fly coming out of the gate.

Having said that, a spur off of the NHCR is do-able grade crossings and all. It would have to be put in front of the right people. Once built, there are funds that can be obtained to help with maintenance.

Where to start? a simple search brought this up:
https://www.dot.nh.gov/projects-plans-a ... -rail-plan

This is an initial POC with the state. From there groups like Go Rail etc. Would it take effort, absolutely.
Is it impossible! Absolutely not.

I've gone as far as is practical here in the forum as this is just a discussion site. I wish I had time to invest but, I don't.
Time to go back to reading movement posts and watching videos.