Stone trains 2011

P&W just left town with empties from Maspeth. Not sure if they brought loads in last night, or there might be runs out east.

They came down with 44 loads the previous evening.

Came in with more loads late last night, left just now with some empties. Stone trains seem longer so far this year overall.

One of P&W's "new' ex BNSF engines was a trailing unit. Still in full BNSF paint except for the roller 'PW' slapped on the hood.

P&W ran 3 times this last week. In on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, out on M, Tu, F. Inbound is always around 12-1am over hell gate (closer to 12 generally), outbound is 6-7pm

Last night's train had the other two ex bnsf units trailing, both still in bnsf paint. It was a bit too cloudy for pretty photos.

Cars were generally a mix of lirr, tilcon, sky (gatx). Maspeth yard now has a sign on it saying 'supreme aggregates'.

CSX has also had JOGX hoppers that D&H used to haul. At it's peak last year they seem to be running 30-40 cars at least once a week. This bump in traffic has csx using 4 SDs more often, instead of the old standard of 2.

If this week has been any indication for the rest of the year, I'd say stone traffic is going to be up quite a bit from last year.

Where does the southbound P&W crew originate?

Cedar Hill yard, New Haven.

Worth noting: it's November and P&W is still bringing rocks into town. Also CSX had a large cut of cars inbound yesterday morning (the rocks that used to move via the D&H run). Stone train season just keeps getting longer and longer. I first started paying attention to this traffic in the early 90s, and it was mostly a march-September operation. The traditional winter break is vanishing...

In years previous there was also only one or two customers. Now with the what, half dozen at this point it just keeps going. I think last year they kept moving as well through the winter. I guess the figured a good way to unthaw cars..

It's supposed to be 60 degrees this weekend. No need to unthaw the cars yet. If there's a market for it (and there is), run the trains.

Stone train season must be upon us. I'm riding the Acela this morning...saw P&W working a long cut of GATX cars at Groton, and there are two long strings of TILX cars at Branford awaiting pickup.

With the abnormally warm winter, it will probably start sooner than usual...

Jay

P&W came in last night around their customary time, and left this evening around 6pm.

They also made a run or two in the previous month or two when it was warm out.

Stone season doesn't really end anymore. if it's warm enough to run the quarry, the trains roll. Previous winters, even if there was a few warm days, nothing ran...

Is there a link to the thread that explains the entire operation of the quarry and the train?

There are a couple different operations. Some stone comes from CT via P&W, and some comes from upstate NY via CP/CSX.

Jay

And when it gets to Fresh Pond, some of it goes west to Maspeth, the rest goes east to Holtsville.