Eastern Railroad Discussion > Pan Am unit air train

It seemed that Pan Am didn't operate an SEPO (CSX) train out of Ayer on Friday 9/23/16 but Poland Springs needed empty Eimskip containers back in Maine. So the single working Pan Am unit in Ayer, 616, grabbed four 5-pack spine cars loaded with 20 Eimskip containers containing presumably nothing but air, called themselves train AYPO, and trundled northeastward toward Rigby Yard in Portland, passing a not yet crewed 287 empty auto rack train at Willow Rd. The last photo is taken from the rte 119 overpass at Littleton. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/16 05:17 by JPB.

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Enjoy the Pan Am Railroad as long as you can, as it looks very likely that Norfolk Southern is going to acquire it.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> That'd be AYPO, not AYMO.

Ooops! It's corrected but I should know better than this - especially since my photos are all labelled AYPO! Thanks for catching this.

seaboardc30-7 Wrote:
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> Enjoy the Pan Am Railroad as long as you can, as
> it looks very likely that Norfolk Southern is
> going to acquire it.

We New England fans have been hoping for this ever since Pan Am Southern joint partnership was created 8 years ago! As has previously been discussed, NS has done a terrifc job rehabilitating the D&H South lines after 12 months of owenrship. The NS Geo train that came north to PAS this past Thursday found zero new speedos on the refurbed A&S line between Binghamton and Schenectady (I heven't read what new defects the Geo train found on PAS yet...). A rehab of the PAS track and operations that anchor the D&H South's intermodal, auto, ethanol, and coal traffic, and half its manifest business would be a huge benefit to New England shippers. Return max track speed to at least 40mph from today's 10mph / 25 mph; stop parking trains everywhere and taxiing crews from train to train; replace Pan Am's museum fleet of 50 year old diesels; maintain the locomotives; ....

Where are these containers actually loaded with water by Poland Spring? Are they run as unit trains southbound?

Posted from Android

Replace the old Deisels??!!    Heresy!!!   Bring back the GP7's, SD-26's, U18b's.   Long live the D-L.  Yes, virginia, u can run a railroad without wide cabs.

A pvt group should by it and change the name  to....a....how about something like...".the  Boston and Maine Railroad" .  P&W shuda bought it before they got swallowed up.   haha

mp208 Wrote:
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> Where are these containers actually loaded with
> water by Poland Spring? Are they run as unit
> trains southbound?
>
> Posted from Android

As I understand these operations, each weekend 20 containers are drayed by Poland Springs to the Portland, ME dockside intermodal terminal and 20 are drayed to the Waterville, ME intermodal terminal. Generally these water container spine cars run as part of road freights with empties headed to Maine on EDPO and/or SEPO and loads to Ayer on either POED or POSE. I think it is rare that these containers move in dedicated trains.

seaboardc30-7 Wrote:
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> Enjoy the Pan Am Railroad as long as you can, as
> it looks very likely that Norfolk Southern is
> going to acquire it.

And what is your source of that tidbit? 

I wouldn't be so sure NS even wants it - buying out Pan Am would buy them a lot of liabilities for payroll, maintenance, property taxes, etc, and would gain them little or nothing over the current arrangement.  I also wonder if Pan Am's current management would insist on selling the entire railroad, including the lightly-trafficked former MEC, as a package deal that would probably be a lot less attractive to NS.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/16 08:53 by pennsy3750.