Activity on the Mountain Branch (Portland to Westbrook)

BM6569 wrote:Mountain Branch, got that from a daily speed restriction report I found in the ground at Danville several years ago. Ironically, none were listed for it at the time (November 2009)!

That would be the tracks that extend from the PTC which the Downeaster calls home.

We're asking about a spur of sorts that comes off the Freight Main Line north of Congress Street in the Deering area.

Right; it is the line that cuts west at Deering Junction, crosses Forest Ave. by McDonald's and then proceeds west, paralleling Warren Ave. until it ends somewhere near Joker's. Originally it continued out to Westbrook and Gorham, and from there to Sanford and Rochester; the ROW is still visible in quite a few places on Google. The ETT I downloaded shows it as "Bishop St.", with no further description that I could find anywhere in the document.

Interesting.

Oh yeah, I know what's you're talking about now. The speed restriction list mentions Deering Yard but that's it. I wish I could remember what disp called it on the radio.

markhb wrote:Right; it is the line that cuts west at Deering Junction, crosses Forest Ave. by McDonald's and then proceeds west, paralleling Warren Ave. until it ends somewhere near Joker's. Originally it continued out to Westbrook and Gorham, and from there to Sanford and Rochester; the ROW is still visible in quite a few places on Google. The ETT I downloaded shows it as "Bishop St.", with no further description that I could find anywhere in the document.

There are names for the tracks around Deering Jct. that the railroad uses,even though they're not in the timetable.The old WN&P track that branches off at Bishop St. is called the "B&M Side",another switch just west of there at Read St.goes to a small yard on the south side of the main known as the "Maine Central Side".I beleive it was called the B&M side because into the early 80's the B&M RR still owned the track from the Bishop St. switch to the end of track and the Portland Terminal RR did the switching.

Thanks! That makes sense; my understanding had been that the Bishop St. side was old B&M property, so that lines up with my conceptions. Incidentally, that line was originally cut off from Westbrook by the Turnpike construction in the early 1950's. Tracks still exist from the Mountain Branch to nearly the Portland side of the city line in Westbrook, but I doubt you'd want to put anything heavier than an old movie-style hardcart on them.

I found a video on YouTube of activity on the Mountain Branch. It is nearly identical to the more recent one and ironically is from 20 years ago. It could very well be that in that span these are the only two published recordings of this particular area.

#13 was the 574 in MEC days. One thing is different between the videos. The speed was faster in the older video.

I dont have a copy of the newest time table but my guess is back then you could get paper for the branch whereas now it's a running track and thus restricted speed. My guess is there are also probably special instructions in place on those crossings since they don't go there that often anymore.

Some new traffic on the Mountain: 26000 gal STYX tankers. they made the 15000 Gal Clay and Limestone cars look tiny on their way through Westbrook this morning.

festis wrote:Some new traffic on the Mountain: 26000 gal STYX tankers. they made the 15000 Gal Clay and Limestone cars look tiny on their way through Westbrook this morning.

Great to hear!

festis wrote:Some new traffic on the Mountain: 26000 gal STYX tankers. they made the 15000 Gal Clay and Limestone cars look tiny on their way through Westbrook this morning.

Did these cars go to Sappi I'm assuming?

yes, that was their destination. AFAIK, other than occasional car of Ballast out of Pike, Sappi is the only active customer on the branch, getting a switch maybe every 7-10 days.

festis wrote:yes, that was their destination. AFAIK, other than occasional car of Ballast out of Pike, Sappi is the only active customer on the branch, getting a switch maybe every 7-10 days.

I didn't realize it was that frequent.

as a rule of thumb, yes, 7-10 days. Due any day now, but no sign of clearing the 4-5 foot snowbanks at the grade crossings yet...