Eastern Railroad Discussion > Franklin, Va. papermill to close

This is completely devastating news for the City of Franklin, Counties of Isle Wight & Southampton. NS's Franklin District(ex-NF&D) and CSX's Portsmouth Sub.(ex-SAL) both serve the large facility. Many of us have been wondering about the old NF&D and if NS will continue to operate the line or maybe selloff to a shortline. Here are the articles below:

http://www.tidewaternews.com/news/2009/oct/22/paper-mill-close/

http://www.tidewaternews.com/news/2009/oct/22/local-officials-taken-aback-news/

Thank you for the heads up on this-- what terrible news! Could you provide a list of what trains for both railroads serve this plant? Also, is in plant switching handled by one or the other, or by a contract operator? Appreciate any further info.

Mike Derrick
http://www.shortlinesusa.com

mderrick Wrote:
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> Thank you for the heads up on this-- what terrible
> news! Could you provide a list of what trains for
> both railroads serve this plant? Also, is in
> plant switching handled by one or the other, or by
> a contract operator? Appreciate any further
> info.
>
> Mike Derrick
> http://www.shortlinesusa.com

CSX [SAL] and NS [NF&D] alternate switching the plant every other day; at least that's what they were doing a few years ago. ALSO: a sub-contractor switching service has a yard (former ACL) on the south side of the plant; look up Franklin, Va. on MapQuest (or any similar map-search-engine) and see the dozens of tank cars down there....

Everyone's talking about this tremendous loss all over Virginia, today -- it's an extreme economic blow to the entire region: 1,100+ jobs going bye bye -- and that's NO laughing matter.

With this papermill closing and papermills in Maine closing, are we simply using less paper in our society, or have new more efficient mills been built, or are we exporting the paper, or ??

The US paper industry uses a lot of recycled paper. Many companies have cut their use of liner board / cardboard packaging. Newspapers use far less paper than they once did.

Industry statistics: http://www.statmill.org/

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> The US paper industry uses a lot of recycled
> paper. Many companies have cut their use of liner
> board / cardboard packaging. Newspapers use far
> less paper than they once did.
>
> Industry statistics:

It's amazing that the companies don't bother to (or at least don't REPORT they are) studying changeovers in the plants, instead of just closing them: i.e., the suggestions that they CONVERT them to all-recycle paper, even to the point of somehow keeping them open in a condition that would allow restoration of full-blown paper creation from pulpwood at a later date, if necessary. (??)

rbx551985 Wrote:
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> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The US paper industry uses a lot of recycled
> > paper. Many companies have cut their use of
> liner
> > board / cardboard packaging. Newspapers use far
> > less paper than they once did.
> >
> > Industry statistics:
>
> It's amazing that the companies don't bother to
> (or at least don't REPORT they are) studying
> changeovers in the plants, instead of just closing
> them: i.e., the suggestions that they CONVERT
> them to all-recycle paper, even to the point of
> somehow keeping them open in a condition that
> would allow restoration of full-blown paper
> creation from pulpwood at a later date, if
> necessary. (??)


Agreed.

Although I'm not an analyst, it's possible that the accounting treatment for closing a plant is better than holding it as a non-income producing asset for a while. I know the Media General recycling plant here in NJ closed, in part, due to the decline in newspaper purchases of recycled paper. The papers prefer to consume virgin pulp for their diminishing sales.

I think there was a court case in CT when that state required that newspapers sold in the state had to use 25% recycled paper. Recycling lost, unfortunately.

I worked in the paper industry for 30 years. This is a fairly old mill and old mills are on the endangered list all over North Ameirca.

You also have to look at what the plant produces, in this case they have three machines that produce "uncoated freesheet" which I believe is the industry term for newsprint. With the shrinking of the sizes of the surviving newspapers and many going out of business there is a lot less demand for this product. The fourth machine at the plant produces coated paperboard, I am not sure what that is used for.

SOO6617 Wrote:
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> (snip) The fourth machine at the plant
> produces coated paperboard, I am not sure what
> that is used for.

I believe that's the thin cardboard which is used for packages of soap, cereal, etc