WJED/EDWJ

Just wondered if there is an fact any frquency or regularity to these moves? There was much hubbub a while back but haven't heard or seen much about it for several months now.

Pan Am does still operate as far as WRJ. The real question is why? Pan Am must still have trackage rights to serve some customers along the Conn River line, but I do not understand the logic for this. Occasionally, I will see freight cars on the wye in back of the WRJ Amtrak station that I know where delivered by Pan Am. A couple of months ago there were two boxcars that sat on the wye for weeks that I believe were set out by Pan Am. No one around heere knows when Pan Am will show up with WJED/EDWJ. It is a mystery.

moxie13 wrote:Pan Am does still operate as far as WRJ. The real question is why? Pan Am must still have trackage rights to serve some customers along the Conn River line, but I do not understand the logic for this. Occasionally, I will see freight cars on the wye in back of the WRJ Amtrak station that I know where delivered by Pan Am. A couple of months ago there were two boxcars that sat on the wye for weeks that I believe were set out by Pan Am. No one around heere knows when Pan Am will show up with WJED/EDWJ. It is a mystery.

The logic for Pan Am having trackage rights, or the logic for Pan Am serving customers, or the logic of why the customers stay with Pan Am?

For the first one, that's how it worked out through various mergers.

For the second, they are a business out to make money. Customers pay to ship.

For the third, they may be captive shippers. Some goods are either too dangerous or too expensive to ship by any other means.

At the time the Conn River between East Northfield, MA, and Windsor, VT, was conveyed to the Central Vermont (in 1988, in response to an Amtrak lawsuit stemming from track conditions), the Guilford organization retained exclusive rights to existing on-line shippers. The CV could handle only through business and any new customers it developed, as well as Amtrak. I believe that the Pan Am entity retains those historical rights today with respect to New England Central.

Not to drag up this dead thread but is there any update to the EDWJ-WJED schedule? I only go back home to visit once a year but I'm hearing reports of more regular Pan Am traffic north of Claremont NH. Are they still running "as needed" or is this now a regular freight with a weekly schedule?

There is a turn job based out of E. Deerfield (EDBF/BFED) and a local based out of Bellows Falls (BF-1). Both jobs work 5 days a week, with extras called as needed on weekends. The ED crew is on at 1630, and the BF-1 crew is on at 1800, both Monday through Friday.

Is Pan Am doing any interchanging at WJ (perhaps the south B&M yards)?

bumthum wrote:Is Pan Am doing any interchanging at WJ (perhaps the south B&M yards)?

Not to get off topic, but to add to the above question: I used to be down in WRJ frequently in the 90's (grandparents live off sykes), and I'd never seen any mass amount of cars there ever. Usually no more than 3-4 hoppers south of the crossing on the far track; even those were infrequent. The visits I've made in the last few years have led to seeing cars all over the yard, on several tracks. Where is all this coming from/going to?

Not to get off topic, but to add to the above question: I used to be down in WRJ frequently in the 90's (grandparents live off sykes), and I'd never seen any mass amount of cars there ever. Usually no more than 3-4 hoppers south of the crossing on the far track; even those were infrequent. The visits I've made in the last few years have led to seeing cars all over the yard, on several tracks. Where is all this coming from/going to?

In recent years a lot of that is NECR traffic or, pretty commonly, VRS traffic to and from Newport. Newport was an interchange with MMA (now gone) and I don't know if Central Maine and Quebec has begun taking traffic in Newport or not (in know that VRS traffic to Newport had been down since MMA went bankrupt).

I only get back home once a year but I am told that there have been pretty long strings of cars to the south of the station in recent weeks and that is why I was wondering if Pan Am did interchange there.

thanks. I haven't been around to see PAR there in years; WJED's used to have 2-3 engines and 8-12 cars parked on the VRS track when I did see them. Never seen switching in the south yard, but when I made trips between fall 2013 and last June to visit family, there were almost always at least 2-3 strings of at least 10-15 cars sitting around.

As for the VRS/now CMQ interchange, that still occurs in Newport, (per the VRS Yahoo Group) although CMQ has had issues showing up at all, leading to VRS serving CMQ customers in Newport on more than one occasion.

Pan AM does bring a small handfull of cars up to CCR in WRJ every couple of weeks, they are currently not doing any interchange with VRS in WRJ, Most traffic in WRJ B&M yard is for CCR (Claremont and Concord) Including propane, road salt and cement. CCR is actually busier then the VRS's WACR. CMQ is currently not hauling much traffic at all on this route. Their service has been terrible. This traffic goes to NECR only. NECR will typically delay the traffic (VRS) 3-5 days in WRJ before picking it up. Likely on purpose to add to transit times. As far as I know, talk of Big traffic on this route has stopped. Not looking too promising at this point...