Eastern Railroad Discussion > Lehigh Railway

Twice this week I was in Athens, PA to catch the Lehigh Railway as they made their pickup from NS at Sayre. Monday had sun and blue skies but this morning the clouds had rolled in.
1. & 2. LRWY 5700-5721 Athens, PA October 27, 2014
3. LRWY 5700 Conductor on board and ready to roll east from NS Sayre interchange. Athens, PA October 30, 2014

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LRWY 5700 Walnut Street Athens, PA October 30. 2014

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Thanks for the pictures.

Looks like there could be a lot of frac sand in the consist.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Thanks for the pictures.
>
> Looks like there could be a lot of frac sand in
> the consist.


That's pretty much the Lehigh Railway's staple traffic. They may also still switch at the Charmin plant in Mehoopany, but I don't know that for sure. Until the fracking boom started, the Lehigh was a very sleepy operation.

Frac Sand on head end with the pulp cars for Charmin on the rear. Today nothing for Dupont.

where is the DuPont facility

Posted from Android

I believe the Reading and Northern switches the Mehoopany plant. The LR moves empties to and loads from Mehoopany to interchange with R&N.
Go

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
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> where is the DuPont facility
>
> Posted from Android


Towanda, PA

Frac sand from W&W NJ ?

nj sand is for manfacturing and industrial ... it's not a good product for hydrualic fracturing

Posted from Android

I'm pretty sure most of the fracking sand used in PA comes from Wisconsin, but would be interested to hear of other sources.

Nice pics!!!

toledopatch Wrote:
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> I'm pretty sure most of the fracking sand used in
> PA comes from Wisconsin, but would be interested
> to hear of other sources.


Wisconsin provides the vast majority of frac sand for use in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc. But there is some sand coming off the W&W out of Cumberland county in NJ. I think it originates with Whidco.

The frac sand industry is largely dominated by US Silica and Hi-Crush partners. There are dozens of smaller players in the market, supplying sand to most major drilling areas.

Frac sand has been coming out of the Unimin plant in Dividing Creek NJ for YEARS. It's located at the end of Winchester & Western's C&M branch. Former CNJ line. Ship's 15-20 frac cars a day from there. Also,they ship some glass sand loads,too. I believe that the Lehigh receives some of the frac sand. Almost all of the frac goes to Pennsylvania. Btw...Unimin Corp is a huge player in the frac sand business. They have facilities across the USA, Canada,even Mexico. Many of Unimin's plant's use WW car's,Unimin lease pool car's,or the local RR which the plant is connected to.

The Railburner



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/14 14:44 by railburner.

railburner Wrote:
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> Frac sand has been coming out of the Unimin plant
> in Dividing Creek NJ for YEARS. It's located at
> the end of Winchester & Western's C&M branch.
> Former CNJ line. Ship's 15-20 frac cars a day from
> there. Also,they ship some glass sand loads,too. I
> believe that the Lehigh receives some of the frac
> sand. Almost all of the frac goes to Pennsylvania.
> Btw...Unimin Corp is a huge player in the frac
> sand business. They have facilities across the
> USA, Canada,even Mexico. Many of Unimin's plant's
> use WW car's,Unimin lease pool car's,or the local
> RR which the plant is connected to.
>
> The Railburner

maybe you have info other than their OWN website which states they're an industrial sand mining company ... no mention on their website of ANY use of their product for hydraulic fracturing ...

http://www.unimin.com

http://www.unimin.com/unimin-daily-life.cfm

Posted from Android

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> railburner Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Frac sand has been coming out of the Unimin
> plant
> > in Dividing Creek NJ for YEARS. It's located at
> > the end of Winchester & Western's C&M branch.
> > Former CNJ line. Ship's 15-20 frac cars a day
> from
> > there. Also,they ship some glass sand loads,too.
> I
> > believe that the Lehigh receives some of the
> frac
> > sand. Almost all of the frac goes to
> Pennsylvania.
> > Btw...Unimin Corp is a huge player in the frac
> > sand business. They have facilities across the
> > USA, Canada,even Mexico. Many of Unimin's
> plant's
> > use WW car's,Unimin lease pool car's,or the
> local
> > RR which the plant is connected to.
> >
> > The Railburner
>
> maybe you have info other than their OWN website
> which states they're an industrial sand mining
> company ... no mention on their website of ANY use
> of their product for hydraulic fracturing ...
>
> http://www.unimin.com
>
> http://www.unimin.com/unimin-daily-life.cfm
>
> Posted from Android

The other side of that coin is, Fracking is controversial. Unless you're the Koch Brothers, would you necessarily acknowledge involvement in that industry if you don't have to?

railburner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frac sand has been coming out of the Unimin plant
> in Dividing Creek NJ for YEARS. It's located at
> the end of Winchester & Western's C&M branch.
> Former CNJ line. Ship's 15-20 frac cars a day from
> there. Also,they ship some glass sand loads,too. I
> believe that the Lehigh receives some of the frac
> sand. Almost all of the frac goes to Pennsylvania.
> Btw...Unimin Corp is a huge player in the frac
> sand business. They have facilities across the
> USA, Canada,even Mexico. Many of Unimin's plant's
> use WW car's,Unimin lease pool car's,or the local
> RR which the plant is connected to.
>
> The Railburner


I'll have to take a closer look at this company and its Belgian parent. I know there's some frac sand coming out of south Jersey from Whidco, but I was unaware that Unimin produced frac sand. I know they're a player in glass and in some solar panel applications.

Most of this sand comes from the Midwest as it arrives on NS 310 into Elmira then the H12 delivers it to Sayre.

Not to belabor the point but, looking at the Unimin link under Applications; Energy Production, it talks about fracturing, etc. Interesting, same page, click the PropZone link there and read the "About Us" states Worlds largest producer,250 mines & plants, in 41 countries on 5 continents, bla-bla-bla....

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The other side of that coin is, Fracking is
> controversial. Unless you're the Koch Brothers,
> would you necessarily acknowledge involvement in
> that industry if you don't have to?

As US production starts to drop the price of crude oil (and natural gas) I suspect the answer is becoming yes.