Portsmouth Branch Activity

I wonder how the fire started. Did a train pass over the bridge before the fire started? Other than a spark from a passing train, vandalism and wildfires are the usual culprits when wooden railroad bridges catch fire, and I haven't heard of any wildfires in the seacoast NH area recently.

I can't remember if it was mentioned on a Facebook post or if one of the MOW guys I know mentioned it, but someone said they were welding something earlier in the day there. When I get a minute I will dig around to see if I can find it again.

My money is on the welding….

We started several fires welding this fall due to the drought conditions. Had to keep a water sprayer with us at all times.

A better photo of the damage.

Nice photo. Wow. Here is some drone footage. https://youtu.be/ror4LlAtjyY?si=mkur9QFPzpoGc8Bx

Well that's porked.

As you noted, csx has the resources and engineering capability to easily remedy this
See what they are doing to reconstruct the clinchfield in TN and NC post Helene- orders of magnitude worse destruction for miles

F74265A wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 8:49 pm As you noted, csx has the resources and engineering capability to easily remedy this
See what they are doing to reconstruct the clinchfield in TN and NC post Helene- orders of magnitude worse destruction for miles

Given how CSX has been bagged digging in the riverbed for rip rap and fill out there, they will likely be under close scrutiny on this project. Those tidal waters may be under federal jurisdiction too. It will be interesting to see if the local propane demand can be met without the Newington terminal. I don't think you can just park a truck next to an LPG tanker and offload. Maybe you can. I am sure someone will opine.

you can load a truck with the pto pump that is used to unload them alot of the smaller bulk plants dont have a pump set up so thats how they load them it would be the same for a tank car just you would need some sort of hose set up to match the fittings on the car

CPF66 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2024 11:00 am you can load a truck with the pto pump that is used to unload them alot of the smaller bulk plants dont have a pump set up so thats how they load them it would be the same for a tank car just you would need some sort of hose set up to match the fittings on the car

You are correct, it (railcar to truck transfer) can be done, but not without some amount of regulatory oversight. https://mm.nh.gov/files/uploads/fmo/rem ... il-car.pdf (at least in NH).

If the transloading occurs on railroad property it's not as black and white as that document suggests. The railroad is exempt from much local regulation.

If I recall correctly, PAR was doing exactly that at Rigby Yard. Maybe CSX still is. This was several years ago when a company called NGL, in concert with MaineDOT, wanted to build a propane storage facility at Rigby. (This facility would've replaced an existing NGL facility located on Commercial Street in Portland, which MaineDOT needed to remove in order to build the intermodal yard for Eimskip.)

Amazingly, neither NGL nor MaineDOT did their homework regarding their preferred site at Rigby; if they had, they would've known that South Portland had an existing ordinance prohibiting the construction of new tank farms. NGL isn't a railroad and neither is MaineDOT, so they were not exempt from the ordinance, and PAR only wanted to lease space to them, not sell them part of Rigby Yard. Long story short, the facility was not built. The propane transloading operation began at Rigby not long thereafter.

We did it at Iron Horse Park and the town was throwing a hissy fit that they never went to the Planning Board, etc. Basically, as long as the fire department was on board with handling any situation at the facility, that's all the railroad needed.

Sea-3 still gets propane ships along with railcar delivery. I think there were 4or 5 ships last winter.