Busy Rigby

Things definitely seem to have picked up these days, with switchers often working both ends, including most nights now. Over the past week they've even been switching frequently on the west side of the yard, including kicking cars at times, haven't seen that at all up to now. Maybe they'll rehab the storage tracks for use once again. Recently arrived trains that had previously sat for 2-3 days are now being switched within a day, somethings definitely up. Been seeing quite a bit of MMA stock rolling in/thru as well, which I hadn't noticed much of prior. Another new occasional sight is the presence of Golden West Service (ssw) insulated boxes amongst the other beverage service cars, which have generally been limited to bnsf, cryx, csxt, cr/nyc, hpjx and hlmx's. Nice to see those rare west coasters showing up, have probably sighted 3 or 4 so far in the past few weeks.

Anything unusual as far as visiting power, either in amounts or companies?

Nice. If they can just recrew trains in the black hole known as Lowell in a more timely fashion things should be moving right along.

....[/lurk]

So just exactly how long has it been since Rigby last had a regular second trick switcher?

Jaymac, i did see a couple csxt units roll in last week. Gokeefe, i'm not certain of those details but definitely remember many quiet nights last year, and especially most weekend nights being dead, now they seem to have 1-2 jobs working 7 nights a week !

That's great to hear that the're switching so much again. I've noticed that the yard appears to be very full of cars from both ends again as well. For the last two years or so I've seen them do alot of switching from the west end. It's the east end that seems to be kind of quiet; at least during the afternoon/evening.

Another thing I have noticed as of lately is that westbounds often leave their consists east of CPF 199, and have a switcher pull them in later. I think it's due to limited space in the yard, and maybe to save crews time? Just kind of thought it was interesting.

Yeah I've been seeing lines stored all around the area, out in Scarborough, along the cemetary, along St.John St., Route 1, etc. It seems like they are assembling jobs in Rigby and then bringing them out to some of those sidings for holding until they're ready for departure, most likely to free up some yard space.
Spotted a 40-50 car line running thru on the main this morning with 2 csx units, looked like a mix of Waterville/Bangor traffic.

It's good news that Rigby seems to have -- temporarily, at least -- escaped redevelopment. Can't help wondering if there's any connection with Rigby's upgrading and Fink the Senior's downgrading.

Was at Rigby on 8/31, for a few hours, and saw the most power I have seen in a long, long time. About 15 engines total by the time I left, and at least 4 switchers working in the Yard and Portland area. DO-1 or PO-1 seem to do alot of local work around Portland lately during the week (Deering Switching, Westbrook runs) and also trips to the Maine Eastern Interchange in Brunswick, and PO-2 does alot of night switching as well as switching Yard 6 and Yard 8. There was also a PO-5 and I believe PO-3 working the other day. Not a tons of cars from the east end, but looked pretty full from the west. Here are a few pictures:

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20110 ... RING=rigby+
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20110 ... RING=rigby+
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20110 ... RING=rigby+
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20110 ... RING=rigby+

One thing I haven't seen for at least a month is CSX power. Was an almost daily thing in the spring and early summer it seemed. An EDPO and RUPO even arrived after I took those photos!

Ok, so we all know the story that in theory the railroad has shifted some of its overhead traffic from PAS to CSX....but I have to say in all the time that I have either listed to or watched PAR in person or in these forums I have never heard of anything more than PO-1 or DO-1 locals, which rarely if ever operated at the same time. How did we get from there to now PO-3, PO-5 etc.?

drcrf93,

Were all of these switching jobs that you mentioned working simulaneously? Were there actually more than two locals working out of Rigby at the same time? Otherwise we might just be seeing different crew symbols for what is essentially the same job.

DO-1 arrived while PO-2 was preparing to switch Yards 6 and 8, and PO-3 worked the west end throughout the afternoon, came back to the east end, got a new crew a few hours later and went back to work at the west end as PO-5. So no more than two switchers at one time. I think you are right about seeing different crew symbols for one job.

drcrf93 wrote:DO-1 arrived while PO-2 was preparing to switch Yards 6 and 8, and PO-3 worked the west end throughout the afternoon, came back to the east end, got a new crew a few hours later and went back to work at the west end as PO-5. So no more than two switchers at one time. I think you are right about seeing different crew symbols for one job.

I should have been slightly more specific. I didn't properly distinguish between local jobs and yard switchers. Three jobs on at once, to include any combination of switchers and locals, in this case DO-1, PO-2 and PO-3 is still news to me. There have been anecdotal reports of high activity levels in Waterville as well.