In the case of bringing oil in from North Dakota to Saint John, NBSR only has trackage to Brownsville jct ME and also to mention the NBSR and IRVING OIL are owned by different IRVING family members and from what I heard they have no bearing on each other's profits. Contracts were tendered to all railroads (CN, CP, MMA, PanAM, CSX, NS) in order to haul in the oil from North Dakota. The 2 most ideal routings are: BNSF from Eland, ND to Eola Il, interchange to CN...CN routing to Saint John and interchange to NBSR switch crew in Saint John. (the fastest but, more expensive route for IRVING OIL). Another route which is being used as well is; CP RAIL from North Dakota to Montreal via (Chicago-Windsor), interchange to the MMA in Montreal and then interchange to NBSR at Brownsville jct, ME. This train runs maybe once a week (CP trains 606 and 607). The other routing which was discontinued due to 2 derailments on some pretty sub standard track was : BNSF to Chicago...CSX to Waterville, ME., Pan Am Rail to Northern Maine jct and interchanging to NBSR to Saint John. This was apparently the cheapest routing but it took nearly 23 days for a tank car's cycle (to and from ND.) 15 day cycle is preffered, CN's routing took 12 days and I don't know the cycle on the MMA/CP. The best routing (not sounding biased because I work for CN) is obviously CN...its the fastest and also CN has the capacity to store oil trains if required...operations wise, NBSR prefers to see the oil trains arrive on the east end of Saint John, allows for a quick and easy transfer to the oil terminal which is located off the CN yard in Saint John. When the trains arrive from Macadam, they have to be reduced in size and then hauled across the city before pushing back towards the oil terminal. I know the Pan Am is suppose to upgrade their tracks along the route to handle these trains...each train was bringing in 200K in profit! you better believe they want these trains back
the problem was they had very lite and old rail on the northern portion of the railroad..near Mattawamkeag, Me. prior to Christmas each train had to be split into 3 at Waterville, Me and then hauled through Maine using smaller 4 axle locomotives (former CN 9400-9600 series engines, 3000hp). After Christmas, without any upgrades done..the powers to be decide to run these trains with the same locomotives which were hauling these trains from North Dakota..right through to Saint John. These locomotives were the newest and the heaviest engines ever seen from Boston to Saint John including the CP tracks from Northern Maine jct to SJ.
I myself am a railroad photographer and videographer and was truly excited to see these trains coming in from ND. I usually go to midwest Minnesota to see these trains and now they were in my back yard
...hopefully they'll be back by the summer. The engines used on these trains were GE ES44C4's, GE C44-9w's, EMD SD70Mac's and EMD SD70Ace's. go to google if interested and see the specs on these locomotives, some of these are more modern than any of CN's engines..definitly more advanced than CN's engines.
As for the Newcastle sub to Miramichi, I expect Moncton-Miramichi line and from the west to Belledune to stay. The line between Belledune to Miramichi is uncertain. Too much politics going on with that line. Its very foggy!!!
MJR
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