Northern Maine Junction design

Who designed Northern Maine Junction and how intoxicated were they at the time? I honestly can't wrap my head around all the loops and their purposes. It's just a hodge podge of tracks in every direction.

Well, you have got to think about the traffic at the time. All those potatoes coming off the BAR, plus passenger trains. Elevation changes also dictated how they laid the track out. And this was not done all at once. Over time. So traffic changes, storage, etc. could factor into the design. Lots of changes took place.

Looking at a satellite view it's crazy to see the loops on the BAR side - there looks like there was an older loop inside the existing north to south loop.

If you look at old maps, one leg of one y was connected to what looked like a stub ended yard, making that loop. It happened gradually. Between the 30's and 60's. Must have been some reason to turn the whole train

For one thing, it makes it easy for them to swap power around with all the loops!