CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways

newpylong wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 1:14 pm The financial transaction occurred 6 months ago. CSX was not going to get the railroads and all of its assets with a hand shake.

I am not exactly sure what is meant by "integration to CSX system" but there are many levels of integration that still have to happen. Many have already taken place.

Messrs. Newpy and Moderator, Maine Central, for clarity, I am captioning this post in its entirety as such appears on the preceding page.

Now it was my understanding that a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or SPAC in newspeak, was organized in order to effect the transfer of the assets between Timmy and Chessie.

The process could well have started during the timeframe you note, but as Mr. Neman observed, not to be completed until the end of this month.

But as you and others here have noted, operational changes have been occurring over the past six months.

neman2 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 1:37 pm Does anyone know the status of the new Iron Horse MBTA Operations Center in Billerica? I believe it was supposed to be completed by now. It is supposed to have dispatch space for present Springfield Terminal/ future CSX operations. The architect for the project, Taylor & Burns, has some pretty good pictures (some look concept-type), on a website here---- https://www.taylorburns.com/work/mbta-i ... rol-center

Not quite complete but getting there. And I agree the place looks great. Comparing it to the working conditions of the Operations area at Iron Horse, the ex-ST people are going to feel like they've moved into heaven.

I know nothing about the level of EPA compliance that Pan Am's active roster of EMD and GE locomotives meets but I wonder if given the recent consent decree between G&W and DoJ/EPA where G&W must scrap or upgrade approximately 80 mostly EMD locomotives at a cost of $42M (including $1,350,000 as a civil penalty), G&W might be reluctant to acquire some portion of the PAR fleet?

Here's a link to the 45 page consent decree: https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-relea ... 6/download

Excerpts:

To mitigate excess tons of pollutants that EPA contends are associated with the violations alleged in the Complaint, Defendants shall implement the Mitigation Project as set forth in Paragraphs 23-29 below. Defendants shall permanently remove from service each of the 88 Locomotives listed on Appendix A in accordance with the following schedule:

Phase and Date of Completion:
Phase 1 (12 Locomotives) 12/31/2022
Phase 2 (17 Locomotives) 12/31/2023
Phase 3 (28 Locomotives) 12/31/2024
Phase 4 (31 Locomotives) 12/31/2025

See attached documents listing the 88 locomotives in question.

Defendants shall not operate any Locomotive that it adds to its fleet to replace a Locomotive listed in Appendix A unless the replacement Locomotive meets the higher of:
(1) Tier 0+; or
(2) the required Tier for a Locomotive that was repowered, refurbished, or remanufactured.

Very interesting.

Notably, the only GEs on the list are Dash 7s, which might imply that Dash 8s (such as the MEC 5000s and 7000s) are acceptable.

Also the units they are getting for PAS will not replace anything they are existing. It should be a non-issue.

Another possibility is that CSX could retain ownership of the MEC locomotives and lease them to G&W for use exclusively on PAS, which G&W does not own, and therefore would not be subject to the consent decree.

Apparently an SD50-3 and an SD40-2 are headed to Waterville on M426 for a rehab program at the shops there, according to the Train Log maintained by B&M Live.

Here are a few pictures capturing the state of NS rehab of its Albany Main connection to CSX Selkirk main at Voorheesville as of Monday 1/30/23. As was reported earlier, CWR has been dropped across School Rd (but I didn't see any CWR around the west end of the Albany Main at Delanson). Clearing brush at the S Main crossing in Voorheesville hasn't been started and there's no evidence of CWR or a new turnout being staged yet. The red line veering off to the right in the east view of the CSX main shows where the connecting track (buried in snow and mud) runs - pretty close to that building. It looks to me like NS stack trains are going to have to enter/exit the CSX main at pretty slow speed given the Albany Main curvature and grade crossing. I don't know if it's going to prove to be consequential or not for NS stack train operation but heading east on the CSX main from the Albany Main connection point there is no crossover to the other main until Feura Bush, the west end of Selkirk yard, about 5 miles further east. In the not too distant past, eastbound CSX trains used to be held on occasion between Voorheesville and FB to wait for an invitation into the yard. Having said that, about a quarter mile west of the Albany Main connection, there is a Control Point with a set of universal crossovers that could let CSX trains pass NS stacks entering/exiting at Voorheesville.

I think the crossovers get moved or another set added
Otherwise there is a bottleneck

In the STB filing, it was mentioned that a new crossover would be installed west of the VOR tie in with NS footing the bill.

And yes the interchange track is still likely going to be 10 mph but they are going to get rid of that little dogleg/s curve in the old one because the existing track will be removed and the grade rebuilt. It will be a 90 degree turn as wide as they can make it. Even if the track was good for better it wouldn't matter because there likely is either going to be Yard Limits ending in a home signal entering CSX or an Approach Restricting distant signal to the home signal. Not likely either party will pay to integrate a distant signal into the Selkirk Sub's CTC.

In regards to the G&W court case, they entered a tax credit program with the EPA and as part of that they agreed to rebuild the 88 units. However, they either didn't rebuild the units mentioned in the agreement or the ones which were rebuilt had incomplete paperwork. Which when the EPA followed up, they noticed the discrepancies and sued G&W.

Shame they messed that up... there's a GP28 on that list. Only 16 of them were built for US railroads, and just a few remain in service. Thankfully Mass Coastal has one of the survivors.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 7:52 pm Mr. Newpy, might this procedure you immediately outlined have to do with Chessie wishing to avoid exposure to whatever claims, such as FELA personal injury cases are pending against a predecessor company?

A like situation of which I gained knowledge involved the conveyance of the Northeast Corridor properties from the Penn Central Estate to Amtrak. The properties were conveyed to Conrail for one nanosecond at 120001 (remember, there's no midnight on the railroad) April 1, 1976. The properties were then conveyed by Conrail to Amtrak a nanosecond later. Therefore, Amtrak avoided having any transaction for the properties with the Estate so to avoid the potential liability of claims against the Estate.

Possibly this same plan was in place to convey properties with the Pan Am/CSX transaction.

With CSX taking over an ongoing operation, including employees and reporting marks, and with Mellon having no ongoing railroads, unlike Contrail, CSX *should* be on the hook for anything PAR is liable for.

The gears of PAS are slowly moving with the date of April still a possibility. Now the word is that B&E wants to use the old B&M offices at IHP for their HQ because the $1/month deal would be theirs if the ST deal transfers through. Cheap rent but you'd think they would want to be near the middle of their railroad and not well past the far end of it. However if you're just the contracted operator it's probably a hard pill to swallow to expend capital for office space.