NS Peavine talk

[midland sub]

While the stone season is running there should the Mon-Fri train from Undercliff to Melvin and back on the Midland. Depends on who the broker is for the pig iron for where it ends up loading on the I&O/CIND. Seems hit or miss if they are loading pig iron down by the boat house when I drive by. I was told they like to use what's left of Undercliff to stage overflow traffic instead of jamming up McCullough and Oakley.

Getting back to the CCET. Allegedly some of the grain coming out of Winchester at some point is supposed to end up either on the I&O or one of the river terminals on the CIND. G&W just leased 100 old grain cars for the I&O so if you see some IORY marked cars you know what's up with them. I don't think it's happened yet.

[heypal6878]

Interesting and correct! I know trains on running on the side of Riverside a few days a week with iron. The Ag is really getting busy now as NS is dropping off cars several times a week at Clare. I figured another rail company might be hauling gain as well and not all getting moved by the CCET

[midland sub]

I'm confused by your last sentence. I'll explain a bit more on the potential grain traffic going to the I&O. The CCET would still move it between Clare and Winchester. The discussion I had with someone never got past that and into how it would get interchanged between the two. The DJJX storage off the CIND and now on the CCET went to Sharonville via the I&O and then NS took it to Clare.

[heypal6878]

Just found this on a forum page on Yahoo. Kind of interesting. I would think anything related to Clare Yard is paid from by NS yet any repair along the line is the responsibility of the CCET.

"Noticed today that they lined railroad ties along the tracks starting at the Oasis and Clare yard/Peavine junction down past into Clare."



Is NS playing nice or is CET working on maintaining or even upgrading the line?

[heypal6878]

The Peavine has been a very busy rail the past few months. The CCET is storing cars and tankers on the rails up east. At one point over 100 cars were being stored. This past week some were pulled. NS is bringing cars sometime three times a week for the busy Ag. Harvest time just about over yet the CCET is bringing cars back two or three times a week. With winter setting in the CCET will most likely continue to store cars as not much going on up east after December.

[midland sub]

Winchester is shipping soy beans to Alabama. The lease on the DJJX grain cars that are being used goes until the end of December which goes right with what you said. Grain prices are horribly low so maybe after the first of the year it will pick up again from Winchester.

I was told they at one point had over 700 cars in storage back in the early summer but it hand dwindled down to under 300.

[heypal6878]

Correct at one point over 700 cars with some tankers. Now not as many but NS brought some out on Tuesday. My buddy lives out in Loveland said the I&O is very active five to six times a week. I even heard the I&O on Thanksgiving day moving though Madisonville in the mid morning. Looks like that line is very active.

[midland sub]

The I&O was shut down entirely on Thanksgiving. The 40-50 cars the Wash CH Turn brought back from Sprinfield on Wednesday are still sitting north of the yard at Fayne. The only thing running today was the Melvin stone train. Next train coming up the Midland will be Saturday night with the R2 going to meet the Wash CH Extra at Midland.

For the time being the stone train is still running to Melvin during the day but should be done in the next couple of weeks. The R2 is a Sun-Thursday night train. Sometimes every other Saturday

[heypal6878]

Maybe what I heard on Thursday was the power coming up from eastern ave over past Red Bank. When the wind is blowing just right I can hear the horn from where I live. I was raking leaves and I know it wasn't coming from the Peavine direction.

[heypal6878]

I don't know Midland pal but from what I have been told there was movement on the I&O on Thanksgiving. Power was moving cars on the line from Madisonville to Oakley in the morning. Guy I work with lives by the tracks said they were moving some cars over to Oakley small load.

[heypal6878]

Midland what frequency does the I&O use?

[midland sub]

No one was supposed to work but if it was anything it was probably the Melvin stone train. It's not much of a train.

161.230 maybe?

[heypal6878]

Thanks will try!

[heypal6878]

Last Saturday if anyone noticed 67 cars were going east on the Peavine. All headed for storage. Another two hundred cars are set to go east in a few weeks. Longest train on the Peavine for years.

[midland sub]

What type of cars for storage? Supposedly there's a new customer for next year, but details are still vague at this point.

All this gibberish with NS and CP should shake out the future of Plum Run to Vera next year.

[brc0227]

What all have you heard Midland? The railroads full of rumors right now. Just curious what someone outside the rank and file like yourself might know?

[heypal6878]

Looks like grain cars all the same. More set to arrive in a few weeks. Haven't heard anything about a new customer on the line. Not many companies that use rail transportation on the Peavine anymore. The Plum Road operation is a possibility I suppose.

[midland sub]

The lease should be coming up on the leased 100 DJJX grain cars Winchester Ag was using. They're mostly former AGP cars that should be going in storage with quite a few other ones just like it.

Sounds like Evans is going to do something, but nothing solid on what yet.

As for the out of service part. Read into NS dumping 1,000 plus miles from last Friday's response to the initial CP offer. Secondary lines are the target for that, but there's a lot of talk the out of service Peavine east of Plum Run and Saluda Hill are going to offered to local or state purchase with the threat of total abandonment and removal if they aren't saved. Who knows how it all shakes out. Desperation on NS part or if Ackman and EHH get control can lead to many bad things on the horizon.

[heypal6878]

Do you really think CP is going to merge with NS? I can't get my hands around that one. I know CP wants them really bad but the red tape involved is tremendous to say the least. Total approval is unlikely on the entire package deal, shareholders will not go along with the new deal, and there are just too many questions. Will it even work? CP wanted CSX really bad and that deal fell though. I really don't see CP buying NS on the deal they are offering now.

Evans in Newtown is on the move. Place is really busy and they have gravel pits that are expanding in that area. I can see maybe they may be thinking about moving gravel by train. That guy is in a little trouble from earlier this year with the government when they came in a closed the place down. Not sure what is going on with that. It will be interesting to see how that materializes. Meanwhile at Plum Road it would be nice if that company would begin using rail transportation.

[midland sub]

It's nothing more than a redistribution of wealth. Some people are going to increase their wealth. More than likely it's Ackman trying to figure out a way to swap his interest and control from CP where they have wrung every drop of savings and cost from the operation to NS where there's plenty of cash to gain from cutting the fat and selling off assets. The actual merger is secondary to Ackman and would just be the cherry on top. The wrong people are losing their minds about it. If you work for NS you have every right to say what you want and be worried. The foamers worried about meaningless things like the steam program and the endless American Chopper special locos need to get a life. When you're dealing with the amount of money involved who knows what will happen.