Downeast Scenic Railroad (DSRX) Discussion

bml1149 wrote:Good afternoon,
The ballasting job I refered to earlier was the recovery and replacement of the shoulder ballast on about 1 mile of track on the south shoulder. Over the years the railroad was abandoned, there was heavy atv usage and this caused much erosion of the shoulder ballast. All together, we put out about 300 yards of ballast. We also lined and surfaced about a half a mile of track near Washington Junction and half way between Ellsworth and Washington Junction.
Leverett Fernald

Leverett,

When you mention "recovery" are you indicating that you pickup ballast on the sides of the track and poured it over the tracks again or did the DSRX buy new ballast and insert/dump that on the tracks?

Hi GOK,
When I refered to recovery, what we did was to use the ballast regulator to pull back what ballast we could that had migrated down the side of the roadbed. Where this was not possible, we had to add new ballast and used the regulator to dress the shoulders.
Leverett Fernald

Approximately how much ballast in total was new?

Approximately how much ballast in total was new?

About 300 yards.

bml1149 wrote:Approximately how much ballast in total was new?

About 300 yards.

Wow. That's really fantastic. I wasn't sure if the 300 yards figure included recovered ballast or not.

I can't say enough how great it is to see the railroad starting to be able to leverage their revenues and success for increased capital projects work.

I know its just the beginning but the DSRX continues to be a very very promising development both economically and for railroad preservation in general.

A friend of mine has told me he'd heard mention of some equipment recently enroute or perhaps already at Northern Maine Junction to be loaded onto lowboys and trucked to Washington Junction for DSRX.

True? False? Details?

Good afternoon Mr. White,
DSRX does not have enroute any equipment, and there are no immediate plans to bring in any more equipment at this time.
Leverett Fernald

Thank you, Mr. Fernald. That's kinda what I figured, and I'll notify the guy who told me that the rumor is false.

As always, best wishes on DSRX's continued success! I'm still disappointed that my planned ride in August was preempted by the approaching hurricane...

Sounds to me as if they've got it confused with equipment headed to Derby for CSRX/470 RR Club.

Just wanted to say a BIG congrats to Mr. Fernald on another awsome season. You guys are doing some great work up there, loved the ride! Keep it up!

Just found this on the State of Maine Website

http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/att ... 35259&an=1

Tried to quote but it must be protected. It says tie replacements on the Wye and other parts of the Railroad that are designated by the railroad. Click on the link and read for yourself.

Mike

From North Street (Ellsworth Falls) to Washington Junction is the portion of the railroad already in service, which I believe has been restored to operable condition almost entirely so far by the hard work of volunteers. Bringing a contractor in to do this tie job and futher improve the eastern end could possibly allow the volunteer corps to focus elsewhere - like maybe west of Route 179 toward Green Lake? One can hope... and perhaps send a donation (I did!).

Or if the ties are in good shape on the section in service, they could use this State funded work to extend the in service track.

I'm curious to know what the plans/projected timeframe is for work on the bridge south of Ellsworth Falls.

Good afternoon Mr. White, Mike, Cosmo, and all,
The work we have planned for this year, as most of you know, is to rebuild the wye to make it usable and we intend to make it part of the train trip as soon as it's done. This will also give us the ability to turn our equipment. The remaining tie work on the mainline between the Falls and Washington Junction will be done to supplement the 2000 new ties installed in 2008 which is just part of maintaining our in service portion of the line. As far as going west of the Falls, that is still a ways off. DOT is in the process of doing some highway reconstruction in that area and this needs to be resolved before we start dealing with the crossing at route 179 and the Union River bridge.
Leverett Fernald