The Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division

I started a thread on the New England Forum to specifically talk about this, I suppose I could've mentioned it here but wasn't really putting that much thought into it at the time.

State owns the track in NH though, not Forbes or Mellon. No reason for them to do anything besides let things ride as is.

Maine Central restores service to St. Johnsbury via alternate route.

Finally! When does passenger service to Montreal start?

Wow, when the heck did that happen? (And yes I mean the real historic event of MEC over GT ...)

I apologize for being 45 years late with the post. The detour was after a March 1, 1974 derailment
when RY-2 dumped 22 cars on the ground at Hiram, ME. But it wasn't the first and only time. It seemed
as though from Fall 73 thru Late Spring 74 the B&M and the MEC were engaged in a wreck of the month
contest.

9-16-73 MEC RB-1 Monmouth, ME 19 cars
10-30-73 B&M 4 units and 1 car at Orange, MA
11-16-73 MEC YR-1 Willey House Later a roundtrip detour over GT Yarmouth Jct. to Groveton, NH
2-2-74 MEC RB-3 Cumberland Center, ME 13 cars- This caused MEC trains to detour over GT between
Danville Jct./Yarmouth Jct. and Portland and traveling the length of Commercial St. There was
a Portland Press Herald photo taken from the Million Dollar Bridge and reprinted in the 470
newsletter showing 256 leading BR-4 and 100+ cars as far as the eye could see to the east.
3-1-74 MEC RY-2 Hiram, ME 22 cars detours Yarmouth Jct.-GT-Groveton, NH-B&M-Whitefield,NH.
3-25-74 B&M JU-1 Near 2nd Moose River Bridge west of Gorham,NH with detours over GT Berlin to Groveton.
5-8-74 B&M UJ-2 derailed 7 cars south of Berlin with detours over GT to Groveton.
6-10-74 B&M UJ-2 derailed 2 cars in Berlin. No detour but GT moved a Berlin Mills Ry 70 tonner to
Groveton which B&M moved to Berlin to assist in clean up.

S1f3432 wrote:2-2-74 MEC RB-3 Cumberland Center, ME 13 cars- This caused MEC trains to detour over GT between Danville Jct./Yarmouth Jct. and Portland and traveling the length of Commercial St. There was a Portland Press Herald photo taken from the Million Dollar Bridge and reprinted in the 470 newsletter showing 256 leading BR-4 and 100+ cars as far as the eye could see to the east.

Holy smokes ... Must have made for an interesting ride for the engineers. Four man crews I would guess? (2 MEC + 2 GT)

S1f3432 wrote:11-16-73 MEC YR-1 Willey House Later a roundtrip detour over GT Yarmouth Jct. to Groveton, NH
3-1-74 MEC RY-2 Hiram, ME 22 cars detours Yarmouth Jct.-GT-Groveton, NH-B&M-Whitefield,NH.

Quebec Jct. to Waumbek Jct. was abandoned in 1976 correct? I would love to have been at Quebec Jct. to see those long trains make that sharp curve... The sound it must have made.

gokeefe wrote:

S1f3432 wrote:2-2-74 MEC RB-3 Cumberland Center, ME 13 cars- This caused MEC trains to detour over GT between Danville Jct./Yarmouth Jct. and Portland and traveling the length of Commercial St. There was a Portland Press Herald photo taken from the Million Dollar Bridge and reprinted in the 470 newsletter showing 256 leading BR-4 and 100+ cars as far as the eye could see to the east.

Holy smokes ... Must have made for an interesting ride for the engineers. Four man crews I would guess? (2 MEC + 2 GT)

Wouldn't it have been 6? Brakeman, conductor and engineer?

Wouldn't one GT engineer as pilot suffice?

While the detours via Commercial St. were going on I hitched a ride to Portland with GT conductor John Egan
to attend at 470 RR Club meeting and he decided to swing by the GT yard to see what was going on. What we
found was a long train stalled in the street with the head end near Deering Lumber and the rear still in the GT yard.
Driving along side the train we observed a brake beam down about halfway the length of the train. Up front we
found a very nervous young engineer and a RFE on the ground. He seemed relieved when John told him of the problem.
I still wonder how long they sat there. On the trip down RD-1 was just arriving at Danville Jct as we did with a GT
engineer and conductor getting off the train, so that would be two GT pilots in addition to the regular MEC crew. Later one
of the MEC Mountain Division conductors told me the ride down the GT from Groveton to Yarmouth Jct. was one of the
fastest train rides he'd ever had!

To better explain about the pilots- The Maine Central train would leave its originating terminal with its
regular 4 or 5 man crew ( 5 with a fireman ) who would stay with the train thru to its destination. The
pilots- CN/GT supplied an Engineer and a Conductor, some other roads supplied only an engineer- got
on the train when it entered GT track and guided its operation until it left GT track at which point the
MEC crew would resume operation and responsibility of the train. When a railroad has trackage rights
over another railroad the train crewmen from the visiting road are required to pass a rules examination
and make qualifying trips, which eliminates the need for pilots from the home road.

S1f3432 wrote:To better explain about the pilots- The Maine Central train would leave its originating terminal with its regular 4 or 5 man crew ( 5 with a fireman ) who would stay with the train thru to its destination. The pilots- CN/GT supplied an Engineer and a Conductor, some other roads supplied only an engineer- got on the train when it entered GT track and guided its operation until it left GT track at which point the MEC crew would resume operation and responsibility of the train.

Engineer, Conductor, Brakeman, Fireman ... Who was #5 when a Fireman was riding? Astonishing to think of these trains ... Of course I forgot that some of the crew would have been riding in the caboose.

Flagman

I came across this YouTube video on the Mountain Division including diesel and steam operations. There's lot's of great video of helpers working out of Bartlett, NH. It's a long video, I had to watch it in 3 separate segments while working out on the treadmill at the YMCA. It starts with a diesel powered B&M Mountaineer leaving North Station then changing to an MEC crew at Intervale, NH and continuing up to Crawford. Then they cover steam passenger and freight operations on the Mountain Division. Enjoy.

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