Activity on the Mountain Branch (Portland to Westbrook)

That is very interesting. Thanks for the perspective!

I went by the Mill today on the way home from Portland and noticed there is a demolision crew on site. I did not notice if they had taken something down, or if they are getting ready to take something down. An excavator with a shear head and a long reaching excavator with a grapple were in one of the lots off of River Rd.

There has been a plan to take down the roof and upper floor of the building fronting River Rd. north of 9 Paper Machine ( the section with the hip
roof behind the parking lot ) because the roof trusses are deteriorating and there was the fear it would collapse under a snow load. There are areas
inside barricaded off and a crew has been relocating equipment since last year. Demo was supposed to start last fall but then the Mill put it on
hold with other projects taking priority. The area is not used for much besides storage but the is a lot of piping and electrical that passes thru.

Saw this recent video from Rob Selberg showing a Portland local bringing a few high cube boxes (and other cars) off of the Mountain division. High cubes are a very unusual cargo on that branch and it has me wondering if SAPPI Westbrook has started outbound paper shipments by rail again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPNcZkIEwPc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nope, nothing boxcars off the Mtn. What you see if PO-3 kept their boxes from NEPW in Deering and just brought them along for the trip to Dead River (Which needs buffers anyways for haz)

Anyone looking for a photo opportunity on the Mountain...Sappi is scheduled for a switch on Wednesday mid morning.

Cross posted from "District 1 Gawkings" ...

hh660 wrote:At about 11:00am, this morning, Pan Am switcher heading west to Rigby, pulled 12 or 13 propane tanks off the Mountain Branch. It also had 3 slurry tanks.
Downeast Energy in Westbrook, was the origin of the cars. Is this the new location for the now vacated Commercial Street propane distribution facility?
S

gokeefe wrote:That would have to be one of the biggest trains coming off the Mountain Branch in quite some time ...

Does Pan Am have any active customers besides propane at the branch that comes off Deering Junction? Not sure what it's called.

gokeefe wrote:Does Pan Am have any active customers besides propane at the branch that comes off Deering Junction? Not sure what it's called.

I think Blue Linx, formally Georgia Pacific Co. on Warren ave. is still receiving carloads of plywood.
Here's the location;
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6859367 ... a=!3m1!1e3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes. There is a lumber distributor at the end. Box cars are visible against the building.

513 Warren Ave 513 Warren Ave, Portland ... urn false;

Not sure if rail would have been involved in moving wood pellets to a converted Gilman Paper Mill to generate electricity.

http://www.wcax.com/content/news/Plans- ... 15341.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Quite possible. Too bad it fell through.

This mill was going to produce pellets, not electricity. Considering raw forest products are usually sourced fairly local for mills like this the only likely rail use would have been outbound loads of finished pellets. The article quotes 30,000 tons of finished product a year. Not sure if that would be worth rebuilding 20 miles of track for? Less than a car/day over a calendar year.

Not sure if newpy means 20 miles on the Maine end or Vermont end, as it is]
20 rail miles from Gilman to St. Johnsbury. On the other hand, it is just eight
rail miles from Gilman to Whitefield. The NHCR could then interchange the
traffic with the SLR at Groveton.

It should be noted that a railroad needs 100 cars are per mile to be sucessful. At 8 miles should be 800 cars. Wouldn't be sucessful. I would agree it's too bad the deal didn't go through.