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Keep those damn leaf blower '20Ds outta NMJ! 2003 was paired with 2558 this past week on the Searsport and Brownville runs.

YTD, building products down 25%; agricultural products down 60%; "finished wood" down 20%; pulp and paper down 30%. Propane and chem are definitely paying the bills. Searsport Branch has been quite brisk at times this year. Saturday's "down" train had 31 cars, which nearly 50% w...

The Searsport jobs are numbered #211 or #210 sometimes. I hear them called the latter probably 10 times to 1 over the former. I've never heard a #212. They normally run Sun and Wed. In fact, one ran today with 3812 and 2004 going down. They can sometimes be off a day like a Sat or even Mon on one en...

Not trying to step on what Kevin said, but #211's "norm" is Sunday and Wednesday. Last week was more of a fluke with the Mon-Thursday bit. They just ran yesterday to back up the Sun side.

MP 9 is the Lane siding in lower Stockton. You can see it from the Southernmost crossing of Muskrat Farm Road. The funny thing about Mosquito Mountain is that there is a sign for it in two different locations. One is straight out across the Thornton's pit in Prospect while the other is between the &...

I remember coming up in the Summer 0f 1999 just before they closed the roundhouse at Northern Maine Junction, and the 502 was sitting shoved into a pile of dirt outside. I'll try digging up my slide of it. It was a damn shame. I wanna say the bell and possibly it's light were already taken off. It's...

This is sad news about the Co-Op for sure. We used to go up to Bolton Notch and imagine eastbounds still hitting that 2% grade on their way to Willimantic. All sorts of rumors have flown over the years of reconnecting to Willimantic, but why really? Anyway, back in 2000, I would begin what was a 7-y...

Bucksport looks at the "NOW" benefits of almost anything they see financially. I've worked on and seen my share of small businesses come and go on Main Street in the past 9 years of working out of its borders. Small in size, perhaps, but beneficial to the tax burden where the mill no longe...

This is starting to feel like "the end". I wonder if they are in negotiations for acquisition as we speak. It does feel that way, doesnt it? Displaying a lot of the behaviors typical of companies about to sell. Trying to make the books look better by minimizing purchases (like oil)... If ...

Sprague loads go to Saint John, NB. They travel North over CMQ to Brownville Junction and get handed off to NBSR/EMRR where they head East. GACs are always loads going down and empties back. Irving has been taking more as of late. I hate to say I haven't paid much attention to those because the numb...

We caught a very good size Searsport run as it left Hermon/Bangor yesterday morning. They had a block of 20 slurry empties for Sprague, 5 for Irving and 5 for GAC for a total of 30. The leader, CEFX 6537 seemed to have a bad batch of fuel or something since the GP38-3 chugged some pretty good smoke ...

kilroy wrote:Who knows, maybe there'd be more female railfans if someone painted all their motive power pink.

A nice, even simple uniform company image would be nice for people(customers, general public, etc...) to be able to refer to when telling others about it. It brings a sense of security and consistency, especially to potential customers. NS black and white is one of the most boring on the planet, but...

Another Saturday, another CMQ Searsport job. I like the almost predictable weekend moves again! The difference today is they ran South with only the 3803 doing LHF on the way down with 12 tanks. Nice to see a GP38 in command again, no matter what direction it faced!

Another beautiful yet cool morning this Saturday had CMQ's Searsport job back on the somewhat older schedule of leaving Bangor/Hermon around 11. Pumpkin Power was in control yet again with 2006 and 2003 leading around twenty tanks down to the shore. They began the trip by pulling empties at Dead Riv...