Lewiston Industrial Track/Lewiston Lower Rd/Branch status

When Maine Yankee was being disassembled it was not unheard of for 50+ car consists to be seen on the branch. Most of it was gondolas full of hazmat materials with the gondola covered. Search the NERail you should find some pictures.

CN9634 wrote:When Maine Yankee was being disassembled it was not unheard of for 50+ car consists to be seen on the branch. Most of it was gondolas full of hazmat materials with the gondola covered. Search the NERail you should find some pictures.

Sure, that makes sense, but although each movement in of itself would have been "routine" I'm more impressed by the fact that an ongoing business, with no prospect of future shutdown is in fact able to take advantage of the service.

Here's another angle to consider. When this whole "shipments to Grimmels" got started all it looked like to me, and perhaps others as well, was that a local business on an isolated branchline had successfully prevailed upon PAR to provide them service under common carrier obligations. This was a big deal in many respects as GTI/GRS/PAR had really been trying to get away from an incremental branchline traffic generation model to something that roughly focused around the idea of getting major shippers to relocate close to one another. Part of this was based on very long ongoing litigation dating back into the 1990's between Grimmels and GTI/ST.

So on its face the "5 cars here three cars" there service seemed to be simply Grimmels getting from PAR what they had wanted all along.

Now comes along the prospect of an apparent significant increase in business by Grimmels which makes me wonder if something in the above model has changed. Specifically, whether or not PAR is now suddenly interested in generating incremental car traffic on its local branchlines again and is doing something either through changes to freight tarriffs or service improvements that is making rail attractive for Grimmels.

So the question remains modal shift, model shift or business increase?

gokeefe wrote:Watchman,
I'm assuming this would be the largest train you've seen or heard of ever getting interchanged to Brunswick by PAR?

Well, in recent memory, anyway. As CN9634 said, the demolition debris from Maine Yankee made for a lot of "unit trains." Back in the Nineties, before Dragon Cement changed their process, I recall seeing 20+ cars of coal going eastward on the RB.
This is kind of an "uptick" in traffic from Grimmel after some months with nuthin' goin' on. I assume it's connected to the current prices for certain metals.
Maybe on Monday I'll find out how many of those 38 went up the LIT and how many are going to BIW and beyond.

Just a minor correction.
The waste from the Maine Yankee did not come down the Lewiston Lower Road it came out the Rockland branch to the old MC Lower Road (old main) and interchanged at Brunswick with PAR.
The Lewiston Industrial track / Lewiston lower road are seperate from the MC lower road (main line) which was not originally a branch and meets the old MC lower road at the west leg of the "Y" in Brunswick.

You enter Brunswick from Portland on the lower road (old main) take a left on the "Y" you are on the Lewiston Industrial track / Lewiston lower road. If you continue straight you are still on the lower road (old main) you will then come to a switch if you go left you go up the lower road (old main) towards Waterville if you go right you head to up the Rockland.

Peter

While driving through Lisbon Falls this morning, I saw a high rail truck accessing the rails at the Celotex mill. Further down the road, I noticed a big group of guys working on the tracks down by the Park and Ride. From my angle, they looked to be adjusting the switch. In the parking lot was a truck marked with the "Belfast and Moosehead Lake RR" seal.

Anyone know the backstory?

Not sure what's going on on the rail in Lisbon, but I saw them the same day you did and when I drove through around 1PM today they were back at the switch past the old Lisbon depot which is now the Railroad Diner. If they were more accessible I would have asked them what was up. Very curious myself.

pinwizard1971 wrote:Not sure what's going on on the rail in Lisbon, but I saw them the same day you did and when I drove through around 1PM today they were back at the switch past the old Lisbon depot which is now the Railroad Diner. If they were more accessible I would have asked them what was up. Very curious myself.

Wow, well, is there some kind of a "quiet" restart underway at Knight Celotex?

One other possibility is that someone up in Lisbon wants to ship using rail. I didn't think the Worumbo mill (?) was even operational or interested in rail.

The other possibility is routine maintenance either as funded in the last transportation bond or just general appropriations to MDOT.

Still, I agree highly unusual activity. Even for maintenance purposes the State will leave rails alone for years or even decades at a time (see Lower Road, Augusta).

Re-start of a building products facilty is unlikely, given the current housing market. Given how long it's been shuttered, it would take a lot more work to get the mill operational than the rail. Maybe looking to see if anyone is working on the plant itself will provide a clue.

Well, I don't think it's regular maintenance, because the State tends to use established firms with heavy equipment. This appears to be a gaggle of volunteers?

Unrelated yet related: The Celotex plant is not totally abandoned. Trucks regularly cart out (manufactured prior to shutdown) materials, the access roads are plowed in the winter and I've seen at least one worker regularly doing light repairs and yard work. It gives the appearance, anyway, that the Celotex mill will open again when demand rises.

Cowford wrote:Re-start of a building products facilty is unlikely, given the current housing market. Given how long it's been shuttered, it would take a lot more work to get the mill operational than the rail. Maybe looking to see if anyone is working on the plant itself will provide a clue.

I'll agree with the above any day of the week.

I still think any activity above Grimmel's is entirely out of the ordinary.

According to the crazy people on the internet, Area 51 has been moved to the Worumbo Mill in Lisbon Falls..


http://www.downeast.com/node/14383



Hence the track repairs upstream of Grimmels. Obviously the government is going to use rail to ship supplies to the little green men therein, such as hoppers of alien chow, flatcars with crashed flying saucers to scavenge parts from and of course dilithium crystals in open gondolas.

;^)

Is that Blanket operation still in business?

Nope, I'm pretty sure that the blanket operation shut down a while back. There's nobody there but those aliens.

Furthermore, the crossing adjacent to the Worumbo Mill is still paved over leaving everything west of the Worumbo Mill inaccessible to rail traffic.

bwparker1 wrote:Is that Blanket operation still in business?

Accoding to the article apparently yes.

The only conspiracy I'm even willing to consider is that MDOT may have some kind of plans for additional rail service in that area at some point in the future.

Of course to be fair to MDOT that's not a conspiracy that's just public policy making.

MaineMG wrote:Nope, I'm pretty sure that the blanket operation shut down a while back. There's nobody there but those aliens.

Furthermore, the crossing adjacent to the Worumbo Mill is still paved over leaving everything west of the Worumbo Mill inaccessible to rail traffic.

Furthermore, is it correct that a large portion of the complex burned down at one point, and the buildings that remain were just part of the ancillary mill buildings?