United Rail Inc.
 

United Rail Inc. has purchased the New England Southern Railroad.

CONCORD, N.H. — United Rail, Inc., said Monday that it has acquired the New England Southern Railroad in New Hampshire. NES operates a 22-mile rail line in the Concord, N.H., area, and interchanges with Pan Am Railways for southbound freight shipments. According to a statement from United Rail, the acquisition of New England Southern gives United Rail a new market in which to operate.

“Our plan is to consolidate the smaller and sometimes overlooked short lines and consolidate them under the United Rail banner,” said Michael Barron, CEO of United Rail. “We plan to aggressively grow our presence in other markets. With the inclusion of the NES under the United Rail umbrella, we now have a presence in the Northeast, an area where we feel there are great growth opportunities.”

According to its website, New England Southern operates between Concord and Lincoln, N.H., on the state-owned White Mountain Branch. When operating north of Lochmere, N.H., the carrier must coordinate with the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad, Hobo Railroad, and Café Lafayette Dinner Train operations

Financial details of the transaction were not made available, other than to say the deal was an “all-cash transaction.” The United Rail statement says the company is awaiting final operating authority from the state of New Hampshire to begin operations. United Rail operates U.S. Rail and several private-car and specialty train operations.

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire...UyvRX8.twitter

This is bad news for those that were hoping the rail line would be shut down in favor of the next 2 WOW Trail phases. I’m sure United did there homework and are confident use of that section of rail will not be terminated


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Yes, it's very rare that an active rail line can ever be terminated.

It's good news in that there is a railroad company that will aggressively try and grow the business north of Concord. Nothing against the previous owner, I hear he was always looking but sometimes being a bigger company will yield better results, especially with a proven track record. This should be a good sign for the Lakes region with potential job growth.

In regard to the WOW Trail, there's now a common carrier railroad with the financial backing that could request a declaratory order from the Surface Transportation Board (STB). I don't see it going that far, the state would have to try and toss out the railroads before that would ever happen. Not that the previous owner couldn't have done it, I just know filing gets expensive when you consider lawyer fees, filing fees, etc.

I do not see the the State ripping up the rails... especially if they are active. The WOW trail folks need to co-exist with the railroad.

Woodsy

.......... Thanks :)

https://www.concordmonitor.com/railr...ncord-23754971 today, Feb 27 ….. talks about this recent proposed railroad sale, and says this rr has only one customer north of Concord now, since all the other paper mills either closed or switched from rr to trucking. Seems like a lot of paper mills probably switched to the internet, and went from paper to email, and went paper …… less?

A specialty paper mill in Tilton is their only customer? That paper must be very special? Sounds like this railroad consolidator from Las Vegas wants to take a gamble here ….. and just likes the idea of owning a railroad as a hobby, or something ….. chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga- chooo chooo chooooooooo ……. and play with the choo-choos?

Or could be that the new owner is not so shortsighted and sees ROI potential long term for that rail being used for travel/commuting. As it is there has been much discussion about extending light rail from Boston all the way to Concord NH. If that's the case it leaves the possibility to extend that further north with the existing lines already in place.

This pending new railroad owner of New England Southern, isn't afraid to challenge those pushing to build rail trails. Not related to this state and much less the lakes region but it gives you an idea that they mean business and for this railroad company to be interested in New England Southern, there must be something that we the general public do not see or know about. If that company is willing to fight for a rail line currently not active, surely they will fight for this line in NH that is active.
https://www.progressiverailroading.c...c2O_Q3kee9rynk

Thank you very interesting read. As with many private business ventures I agree there is a lot the public is not privy to, there must be some underlying revenue stream to make both of these rail worth a fight


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If it can be profitable to move freight from Concord to Lincoln, I would hope that more efficient engines etc would make it possible to move people from Concord to Boston, and stop the continuing cycle of ever expanding highways. If hybrid and all electric cars will be dominant in the future, I expect something will improve upon diesel trains.

That's already happening but you will never see it on the smaller regional railroads or short line/terminal type railroads for a very long time if ever. The new engines are too expensive so they will alway buy 2nd hand and in some case 3rd hand. It will be another 30 years before you start to see an EPA teired compliant locomotive reach the hands of a short line railroad. As for the scenic railroads like the Winnipesaukee Scenic, you will never seee a change over. Part of the nostalgia of a scenic railroad is to re live a bygone era of old fashion railroading. The same reason the Conway Scenic operates a steam engine.
Here's a little tidbit on the EPA's requirements for new locomotives.
Non-road engines, including equipment and vehicles that are not operated on the public roadways, are used in an extremely wide range of applications, each involving great differences in operating characteristics and engine technology. Emissions from all non-road engines are regulated by categories.[17]

In the United States, the emission standards for non-road diesel engines are published in the US Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40, Part 89 (40 CFR Part 89). Tier 1-3 Standards were adopted in 1994 and was phased in between 1996 and 2000 for engines over 37 kW (50 hp). In 1998 the regulation included engines under 37 kW and introduced more stringent Tier 2 and Tier 3 standards which was scheduled to be phased in between 2000 and 2008. In 2004, US EPA introduced the more stringent Tier 4 standards which was scheduled to be phased in between 2008 and 2015. The testing cycles used for certification follow the ISO 8178 standards.

I have to presume that the WDW Monorail, if not profitable, at least, does not detract from the ticket price. Maybe Mag-Lev?
If the Dept of Transportation focused on transportation instead of the "we build roads"philosophy, we'd have a different infrastructure. "We build roads" goes back to Eisenhower and 1952 as a response to moving troops in WW II. Way outdated. 20% of the interstate system has to be runway suitable? Today's planes are way too heavy and wingspans are way too wide. Maybe all rest areas should be missile bases? Ridiculous.
The road building lobby needs to find something new.

Paper Mills are back!
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/b...cardboard.html

Perhaps the North Country has life after all!

Rail could be used to transport finished product or raw materials. Are there any mills in the North Country, abandoned or still operating?


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Gorham has one. The one in Groveton was partially demolished and sold to NSA, a metal fabrication business.

The north country suffered tremendously when the mills closed one by one. The pain was just as bad, when those buildings were razed one by one. I completely understand that leaving an abandon building left to decay and vandals, is not any better but demolishing those buildings, also demolished the hopes and dreams of a brighter future, for those that call or called northern NH home. Aside for BAE Systems who has facilities in Nashua, Merrimack and Hudson, this state will never be able to lure in the high-tech industries like Massachusetts has. The only other option is for manufacturing and for manufacturing to pay decent, you need a railroad that can move large volumes of product in and out faster and for a lot cheaper, than what trucks could ever do. It would be nice to see some type of manufacturing come in and spring new life but sadly it hasn't happened. Maybe with Untied Rail in the picture, there's something cooking behind closed doors, and as a resident of NH and someone who's got a lot of pride in this state, I really hope something is in the works, not just for this the region but for the entire state.

www.onecedarlane.com, located in Ashland on the Pemigewasset River, close to Rt 93-Exit 24 is something like the biggest maker of shoe trees in the country, turning natural cedar wood into shoe care items. You know there's a single railroad track that goes immediately close to this Ashland factory, and I've never seen a train in the area, so all their items must come in and go out on a truck.

Up in Groveton NH, there was a double factory that made 8 1/2 x 11" white paper on one side of the factory, and made corrugated cardboard on the other side, and absolutely everything came in and out, all on trucks. The railroad lost out to trucking here in NH, many years ago.

The freight train done left that NH-factory mill a long time ago, and it ain't no com'n back ...... chooooo-chooooo-chugga-chugga-chugga!

www.hoborr.com/ and www.hoborr.com/winni.html and www.clarkstradingpost.com and www.conwayscenic.com and www.thecog.com/ in Lincoln, Meredith, North Woodstock, Conway and Bretton Woods are all very happening tourist railroads that carry people, maybe mostly tourists, and are all a super ride with super views.

If only there was a market for northern New Hampshire snow, you know that white stuff that falls from the sky and piles up on the ground in the winter, snow could get railroaded down to wherever, for whatever ...... whenever ....... a snow train!

The railroads got away from the small shippers a long time ago, there's no money in it for them, the money is in the big volume moves, those shippers you mentioned are better served by trucks and don't think for second the railroad dumped them completely. They still move a lot of freight for the small shippers, but they go to terminals like that of Worcester and Ayer, where freight is transloaded to trucks to bring to the final destinations and vice versa. A perfect example of the size and scope you would be looking at, look at the Ossipee Aggregates, each car load of earth moved by the railroad, would take 3 trucks to move what one rail car can do. New Hampshire Northcoast moves anywhere from 25 to 45 car loads 4 days a week, now do you think those same companies that you mention could load 25 rail cars 4 times a week. Your talking peanuts, I'm talking watermelons. We need a watermelon size manufacturing (like the old Berlin Mills), in this state again.

Just thinking, that with many cities starting to ban single use plastic bags and plastic straws, there is a chance that the paper mills might have a future

I hope your correct. That would be a huge boost to the economy. Also as we move forward Rail is becoming a cheaper and faster forum of transporting bulk raw materials.


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It looks like the deal fell through with the current owner of New England Southern
https://www.rtands.com/freight/sale-...HBa22SiGum345w