Eastern Railroad Discussion > Closely watched train: Pan Am's 1st Coal Train for 2016

In December 2015, Pan Am had hauled a bunch of coal trains to stockpile the Eversource Merrimack power plant at Bow, NH for the winter. But as this winter was thankfully mild compared to the previous winter, coal deliveries weren't needed until May so on April 30, Pan Am's "Loaded Coal Train" as the dispatcher calls it (symbol 532 on NS) made its first appearance of the year. Historically this train, which originates at Shire Oaks, PA, runs on NS by way of Buffalo on the Southern Tier line but this edition came by way of Harrisburg/Scranton up the Sunbury line.

In photo collage 1, LCT is approaching and heading away from the Main St bridge at Orange. It then crawls around the parked 28N at Gardner as it nears the summit of the grade (28N has a healthy chunk of P&W freight to interchange along with loaded autoracks today). In collage #2, LCT is coasting downgrade past the new MBTA commuter rail layover facility at Westminster, MA and new signal bridge at Wachusetts. Following LCT by 30 minutes or so was the weekly loaded slurry train, also seen at Wachusetts - I believe the dirt path to the left will become the platform track for the new T station.

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While not directly related to the subject here is a good article about problems some companies, like Kinder Morgan, are having getting much needed natural gas to the northeast.  Maybe this will keep the coal going to Bow longer than expected but I defer to someone who knows the area and the situation better than I do.  I'll refrain from making a comment on the situation for now, other than to state, per the article, there is a possibility (not a remote one) of not enough natural gas to go around in a few years:

https://rbnenergy.com/one-step-up-and-two-steps-bac-a-new-england-gas-pipelines-update



Allen



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/16 07:08 by bradleymckay.

The problem won't be the needed quantity of natural gas but the lack of capacity of the pipeline infrastructure to move it where it is needed. That is one of the problems with natural gas replacing other fossil fuels. All others can be moved by rail in required quantities. Will be interesting to see how this plays out when we have a really long cold winter and pipeline capacities are stretched to the limit.  ------- Ken 

Interesting on this train headed up the Buffalo line from Harrisburg. I chased a coal train south on the line in February with Ed Kaspriske.

Sharon Evans
Glen Allen, VA

Kemacprr Wrote:
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> The problem won't be the needed quantity of
> natural gas but the lack of capacity of the
> pipeline infrastructure to move it where it is
> needed. That is one of the problems with natural
> gas replacing other fossil fuels. All others can
> be moved by rail in required quantities. Will be
> interesting to see how this plays out when we have
> a really long cold winter and pipeline capacities
> are stretched to the limit.  ------- Ken 
Despite the so called war on coal, natural gas prices have been the environmentalists biggest ally in the campaign against coal.
However, they have now shifted their attention to opposition to fracking and pipeline construction.
Will indeed be interesting to see how this plays out.