The Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division

Cowford wrote:

Reading some of the same reports you have I didn't get the impression that it was all that frequent. It also wasn't clear at the time whether this was being done as a state function or 'off-duty'. If I had access to that line and a track car I might ride it everyone once in a while myself on weekends. I'm sure in the fall it must be beautiful.

I can't state as fact, but understand it's ~ bi-monthly.

Either on- or off-duty, it's a state vehicle burning taxpayer-funded fuel that should be for official business only, not for foaming or leaf peeping.

It wasn't clear to me whether or not the track car was in fact privately owned or not.

Post deleted by user

Here are some photos from the NERail Photo Archive. The first one is of an MDOT group tour of the Mountain Division, per the caption by the photographer. Notice the apparent lack of any state owned equipment. The second one is of a hy-rail truck identified by the photographer as MDOT prior to a special excursion on the Augusta Lower Road in 2008. Although the white hy-rail truck is identified as being from Maine DOT I believe it may have actually belonged to Maine Eastern. I was on the special excursion trip and remember seeing a white pickup of similar make, model and body with ME markings on it.

Given how well photographed and watched the Mountain Division is I'm very surprised there aren't any photos of DOT personnel on the Mountain Division in the last ten years. I'm not saying it hasn't happenned, I am saying I find it difficult to believe this would never have been photographed, especially when you consider that almost every single speeder tour of the Mountain Division in the last five to ten years has photographs of the trip, including from photographers who weren't even on the trip, on the NE Rail Photo website.

"DOT Tour of Mountain Division. April '99" by photographer, John Bay, on the Mountain Division at MP P 21.
MDOT Mountain Division Tour, April '99

Hy-Rail Truck identified as "State of Maine Dot truck" by photographer, Bernard Cole II, on the Augusta Lower Road, prior to special excursion train in 2008.
MDOT Augusta Lower Road Tour, May 2008

It wasn't clear to me whether or not the track car was in fact privately owned or not.

We're talking hi-rail here, not speeder. The thread is entitled "Hi-railing the MEC through Brownfield?" (Sorry, I have no idea how to link a thread.)

I'd be willing to bet that the speeder trip pic is miscaptioned. If that's an official DOT trip, I would laugh out loud! Among other things, antique, privately-owned equipment is being used, the hearty soul in the BAR speeder is wearing shorts (and it was April?), only one guy has a safety vest, and it doesn't appear that eye protection was issued...

In the spirit of your Montreal train naming, maybe we should have a caption contest for this pic: My entry: NNEPRA's new passenger train, the Oxford County Cannonball, detrains commuters at Rich Millpond east of Steep Falls on a placid April morning. Judging from the second section impatiently waiting in the background, the service is proving the naysayers wrong.

Going out and chasing a pick-up truck to get pics? I suppose that would take the hobby another level..

Going out and chasing a pick-up truck to get pics? I suppose that would take the hobby another level..

I used to run clear patrol for CSRR and I saw it all the time, people taking pictures of me in my hi-rail just looking at them in amusement/mild pity.

There is a possibility that annual inspection trips may be performed for legal reasons - i.e. to establish a level of use that prevents "adverse possession" by adjacent landowners and/or other legal problems.

Cowford,

I have included a link to the topic you were referring to below. There is no question that these were MDOT personnel performing their official function in official transportation.

New England Rail Forum, Topic: "Hi-railing the MEC through Brownfield"
Topic Link

I am always inclined to give any civil servant the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. As mentioned already perhaps there are legal reasons why these inspections are being performed. Given the incident in West Baldwin last year it is certainly reasonable for MDOT to be concerned about the continued security of the line itself. However, again, based on the thread there is no question that these track runs are in fact taking place.

The only other possibility I can think of would be that the stimulus funding applications required MDOT to go out and reinspect the line but the posts from the other members seemed to indicate that this activity had been occurring on a regular basis for some time now. I would still maintain that even despite this level of activity one should 'follow the money', in particular discretionary appropriations, these are being spent elsewhere, while the Mountain Division continues to slide into disrepair. One other telling indicator, has the rail that was illegally removed been replaced? Even a simple piece of maintenance like this should be easy enough to accomplish for less than $500, as MDOT has plenty of stick rail available. If they won't even spend this small sum of money on the line that should tell you enough about their current priorities.

I believe the rail was stolen from a siding and had no effect on the main line whatsoever. While, I'm sure maintenence of the main line itself is low on MDOTs priority list, maintenence on an old helper siding in Baldwin is even lower.

4266 wrote:I believe the rail was stolen from a siding and had no effect on the main line whatsoever. While, I'm sure maintenence of the main line itself is low on MDOTs priority list, maintenence on an old helper siding in Baldwin is even lower.

That would certainly make sense to me as the thought had occurred that they would use rail from an old siding to make the repairs!

Don't you guys remember this thread? http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... rail+theft
and this one about the rail theft-
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... in#p668585
Jeez talk about short memories!

EDIT- once again I missed the link on G'OKs earlier post.

Short memory indeed...I read both of those threads. I certainly didn't remember the photos though.

I suppose all's well that ends well. At least for the rail line that is.

I noticed in the rail theft thread second photo that there appeared to be a wire from one piece of rail to another. I believe these are used for some type of signal circuit continuity possibly in an approach circuit either for a grade crossing signal or an approach lit signal.

Were there grade crossing signals at the Depot Road in Baldwin that have been removed?
Map of Baldwin Depot Area

On another note I have no idea if the Mountain Division was ever signaled at one time. Or if it was only signaled in certain places such as in Bartlett, NH. I've always noticed the distinctive horizontal signal there and wondered where that came from and what type of system it was working in, isolated system for the Notch or ABS for the entire Divison. I searched railroad.net forums and wasn't able to find an answer.
Photo of Barlett Signal, by Matt Menzi, posted at NERail Photo Archive
Photo of Barlett Signal, by Christopher Blaszczyk, posted at Rail Pictures.net

From Maine Central timetable no. 15 dated April 24, 1938 the Mountain Subdivision was signaled as follows:
Westward from signal M 846 at Willey House to M 988 west of Carroll
Eastward from signal M 853 east of Bretton Woods and signal M 711 Bartlett.
Now that we know this, lets forget about restoring this piece of basically nothing, no servicable track except the portion in
New Hampshire and maybe Vermont and more important no customers and probably no potential customers and concentrate
efforts on preserving the former Bangor and Aroostook in Northern Maine which still has customers and servicable track as
well.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:From Maine Central timetable no. 15 dated April 24, 1938 the Mountain Subdivision was signaled as follows:
Westward from signal M 846 at Willey House to M 988 west of Carroll
Eastward from signal M 853 east of Bretton Woods and signal M 711 Bartlett.
Now that we know this, lets forget about restoring this piece of basically nothing, no servicable track except the portion in
New Hampshire and maybe Vermont and more important no customers and probably no potential customers and concentrate
efforts on preserving the former Bangor and Aroostook in Northern Maine which still has customers and servicable track as
well.
Noel Weaver

Thank You, Mr. Weaver.

I doubt anyone here will disagree with you unfortunately there are individuals elsewhere, who apparently have considerable sway, that are pushing this process forward and have been doing so for years now. We can only hope that common sense will prevail.

Noel beat me to the click...

In the 1970s, the Mountain was signalled as far west as signal M-65 west of Cumberland Mills... it was dark west of Cumberland Mills. About that train order signal... and anyone jump in if my memory's bad: I believe that dates back to the late 70s when Bartlett was (temporarily) reopened as a train order office. It was reopened due to work trains involved in a state-subsidized track rehabilitation program (that's why you'll see rock ballast and 100lb rail in NH, but gravel and 85lb rail in Maine). At that time, the only other open train order stations on the Mountain Sub were Cumberland Mills, S Windham, Gilman, and St J.

As for Noel's last paragraph... Amen!

Cowford,

Thanks for the informative response. That would explain why the signal appears to be somewhat newer than most comparables elsewhere on the MEC.

Here is a link to the Greater Portland Council of Government's Mountain Division project website:
GPCOG Mountain Division Project

As long as community organizations are dedicating resources such as these to this project I think we will continue to see this project resurface time and again. As noted in earlier posts the communities on this line are actively debating this issue in particular with other parts of Western Maine along the St. Lawrence & Atlantic RoW.