new track in USA

[banjobenne1]

Hello, is anyone building new industrial track in the USA not trailer/container related?

[mudchicken]

Plenty, most common is expansion of grain elevator tracks to accomodate 110 car unit grain trains (for lowering shipping rates)...

Industries do not tend to build COFC/TOFC facilities, railroads do. Industries do not tend to have the transloading, mechanical inspection and lading/billing expertise to allow COFC/TOFC traffic out onto the national freight railroad/ common carrier network.

Beyond grain, have seen new track built to accomodate lumber, plastics,heavy equipment, liquid fertilizer, chemicals for industrial processes, refined oil & gasoline (where pipelines dare not go like Grand Junction, CO), coal-fired power plants
, scrap metal recycling, trash, glass and beer.
(beer and glass being the only commodities shipped in boxcars on the list)

Somebody trying to sell the old wives tale about freight railroading being a dying industry again?
-mudchicken

[banjobenne1]

Hello mudchicken, re. second paragraph I know all that. Here in the mideasten states it looks much different than what you see. For excample there is a short line, The Stewardstown, near bankruptcy, yet there are at least 5 building supply companys along its track not one of them has a spur. Its connecting railroad, the Northen Central has shut down. A local water front terminal operator is being squeezed out by marinas and condominiums. Just 3 miles from my house in the last 5 years 6 big warehouses have gone up next to or very close to working track and no spurs. I drive around following working track when I can, there are no cars parked at loading docks. A drywall factory just put up a huge new addition with no track. I could go on and on but it makes me so sad. Ben

[Anonymous]

How about the DM&E. They are building new main line to the Powder River basin. They don't haul coal on intermodal trains.

[Anonymous]

Recycling is the fastest growing boxcar revenue today. Recycler's are alway's looking at new sideing.
TIM A

[JoeKoh]

A group wants to break ground for a new ethenol plant here in defiance county starting this fall. They are going through the permit process now.
stay safe
joe

[csxns]

New industrial tracks in North Carolina also.

[csxns]

New industrial tracks in North Carolina also.

[csxns]

New industrial tracks in North Carolina also.

[csxns]

New industrial tracks in North Carolina also.

[mudchicken]

This year, have designed 2 industry tracks in IL(lumber & resins), 1 in IN(beer) and 1 in AL(plastics)....much further east is usually not economically justified for our company, but others are over there doing the same.

DME has yet to start on its project. little or no construction happens there until the permitting processes & the courts finish. Coal is the driving force there and I hope it happens (competition is good for all and the taxpayer supported truckers need a good wake-up call in the communities that DM&E would serve)

[DTomajko]

NS has recently recieved state and federal approval to construct a new 5 mile line to serve a Pennsylvania Power & Light coal-fired power plant in west-central Pa.The line would connect the Conemaugh Secondary at Blairsville to a former B&O line(?) near Saltsburg.The new route would eliminate a rugged and long-way-around route via the B&P and lengthen the trains and allow use of six-axle locomotives.Good luck & enjoy yourself,DT Pa.[:)]

[mrconrail]

BNSF had a press release today on a new customer.

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jul 9, 2003 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Union Carbide Corporation, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (DOW), and The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF), a subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (BNI), today celebrated the completion of a 7.85-mile rail line in Calhoun County, Texas, and the first shipment of products from the Seadrift (TX) facility.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010719/BNSFLOGO )

The new line connects Dow's industrial complex at Seadrift with BNSF's rail network near Kamey, Texas. Construction began in February 2002 and was completed approximately 15 months later in May 2003.

[jsanchez]

In North Eastern PA, a new spur was built to deliver steel coils to a factory that makes heavy duty steel cables, Reading & Northern is building a new spur to deliver plastics to a processing plant, Reading and Northern also reopened part of a long closed branch to serve a new brewery. I know there are some other projects in the works. The Delaware and Lackawana in the Scranton area has had a lot of new customers locate on their booming lines, Grain, Lumber, recycling, propane, plastics.

[Anonymous]

In Traverse City, Michigan Tuscola & Saginaw Bay Railway recently added several hundred feet of new track to make a longer siding for Integrity Iron & Metal. Including a track scale just installed a few weeks ago. The place went from shipping a car or two a month to now about 15 to 20 cars a week.

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of new industrial track being built in many areas of the country. The Northeast unfortunately, is close to last as industry flees high taxes and workers' compensation for states with better incentives. Also, lumber is often sent to large reload sites where it is trucked to itrs destination. Thus, many local lumber yards no longer have rail spurs for the 50+/- cars they get each year and they save the cost of maintaining the track.

LC

[Anonymous]

I say the DM&E is a pipe dream. To think that the UP & BNSF will not underbid them is a dream. They both have to much to loose and are not about to loose it.

A banker will think more than twice about investing money in this venture. They are facing to many RED BLOCLKS in this venture.


Tom
God Bless the GREAT NORTHERN

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by banjonbene

Hello mudchicken, re. second paragraph I know all that. Here in the mideasten states it looks much different than what you see. For excample there is a short line, The Stewardstown, near bankruptcy, yet there are at least 5 building supply companys along its track not one of them has a spur. Its connecting railroad, the Northen Central has shut down.

Hey Ben, the Stewartstown RR had just purchased a larger engine because of several new customers when Hurricaine Agnes hit in '72. The SRR wasn't heavily damaged, but the connecting PC line was wiped out in numerous places. The PC route south was removed, while the New Freedom-York line was left "in suspenders" as PC fussed about repairing the washouts and SRR and its new customers were hollering for the connection to be reopened. A 100 year old stone culvert had been blown away; it was replaced, at taxpayer's expense, with a brand-new steel girder bridge and new concrete abutments. But rail service had been absent for 14 years! The SRR's new customers had made long-term arrangements with truckers. The SRR's freighting days were over; the revived NCRY hauled precious little freight and ran a jerk-water excursion operation. (By the way, to give you an idea of the potential lost because of Agnes, the SRR had eleven cars trapped on its line that had to be low-boyed out after it was evident the shut-down would last a while.) Go up and walk around on the new bridge. Shoot, we all paid for it. What a waste of money. If the bridge had been quickly replaced in 6 months instead of 14 years, southern York County might still have had some viable railservice.

[kevarc]

1. Geismar LA, a line is being built to the chemical plants in the Geismar area to give a second RR, KCS, access. At this time it is captive to IC(CN).
2. A new line is being built in the Houston area to give some chemical plant a second RR, BNSF in this case.
3. San Antonio - A second line will be built to give BNSF access to a new car assmebly plant that is going to be built there.
4. There is a possibliity that a new line will be built to give the Rodemacher Power station a second RR. KCS, it is captive to UP now. Studies have shown that the money spent on the new track, including a bridge over the Red River, a navigatable waterway, can be recovered in 5 to 7 years.
Do you see a trend here? I hope so, with the mergers of the last 10 or so years many plants have become captive to a songle RR. Studies in PRB burning coal plants that an average of about $5/ton delivered can be saved when a second RR has access to the power plant.