Bucksport Branch activity & news

There is a line of about 15 loaded AIM hoppers sitting next to River Road in Bucksport as of today. They're on the old, outside arrival track, and the tail of the cars stretches out through the South switch. It looks like two empties are still waiting to head into the complex, but they are the last on site as of now. I thought someone said PAR won't be down the branch again until Spring. I'd guess if that's the case, work will cease for a while. Otherwise, someone(PAR) is going to have to bring in some empties fairly soon.

Both Friday and Saturday had moves over the Bucksport Branch with NM-1. 515s+315n had the honors. They supplied a new string of empties on Friday and brought half the loads back. Yesterday, they came down light power to retrieve the rest of the loads. It's anyone's guess when the next string of loads will be filled and removed. Nice to see some Winter action, but there's something incredibly sad about watching carloads of the mill itself being taken out over the same rails that supplied it for close to a century!

cvrr5809 wrote:Both Friday and Saturday had moves over the Bucksport Branch with NM-1. 515s+315n had the honors. They supplied a new string of empties on Friday and brought half the loads back. Yesterday, they came down light power to retrieve the rest of the loads. It's anyone's guess when the next string of loads will be filled and removed. Nice to see some Winter action, but there's something incredibly sad about watching carloads of the mill itself being taken out over the same rails that supplied it for close to a century!

It's sad to see one of Maine's largest paper producing mills rolling out of town in scrap cars. Here's a clip of the train heading back to NMJ. Thanks to Hermon Train Chaser for the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHtcRI-Bv4k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are these scrap loads heading north on CMQ?

doublestack wrote:

cvrr5809 wrote:Both Friday and Saturday had moves over the Bucksport Branch with NM-1. 515s+315n had the honors. They supplied a new string of empties on Friday and brought half the loads back. Yesterday, they came down light power to retrieve the rest of the loads. It's anyone's guess when the next string of loads will be filled and removed. Nice to see some Winter action, but there's something incredibly sad about watching carloads of the mill itself being taken out over the same rails that supplied it for close to a century!

It's sad to see one of Maine's largest paper producing mills rolling out of town in scrap cars. Here's a clip of the train heading back to NMJ. Thanks to Hermon Train Chaser for the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHtcRI-Bv4k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Could very well be some of the last trains on the branch as well.

fogg1703 wrote:Are these scrap loads heading north on CMQ?

They will be once they reach the interchange with CMQ at Northern Maine Junction

I didn't get to see the move, but Tuesday had another NM-1 come down and pull scrap loads at Bucksport. Don't think they brought any new empties. There are still a handful of empties from the last block that came down nearly two weeks ago. With the way they're clearing things at AIM, it could be early next week when we see another move.

Video by MaineRailFanner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBpxDW1NQOo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

more gondolas coming up on POWA for Orrington. Looks like they'll be re-starting site remediation for the season soon.

Those gondolas have actually been coming and going this winter.

http://bangordailynews.com/2016/05/09/b ... f=comments" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Article from the BDN about the prospects for Bucksport as a transloading facility for woodchips, oil, and natural gas.
Perhaps the Bucksport branch isn't as much of a "dead man walking" as previously thought.

Article in today's BDN about possibilities for the use of the Bucksport harbor and the mill site. The article boosts about the Natural Gas line that goes to the property and also that the site is accessible by rail. It talks about what could be built on the site. If they think that the rail access is a positive, they need to take a look at the condition of the line and think about how much would be needed to upgrade the condition to an acceptable level. I wish them the best of luck and I sympathize with them in their search of a solution for the use of the land and the water side of the property.

fromway wrote:Article in today's BDN about possibilities for the use of the Bucksport harbor and the mill site. The article boosts about the Natural Gas line that goes to the property and also that the site is accessible by rail. It talks about what could be built on the site. If they think that the rail access is a positive, they need to take a look at the condition of the line and think about how much would be needed to upgrade the condition to an acceptable level. I wish them the best of luck and I sympathize with them in their search of a solution for the use of the land and the water side of the property.

Looks like we posted the same thing at the same time

They mentioned woodchips / wood waste coming in by rail as well. To me that seems like the most viable cargo on the branch, since LNG wouldn't move by rail most of the time.

I'd surely be skeptical if BDN interviewed an industrial development executive for a piece on ship operations. For the same reason, "opportunities" proposed by a ship's pilot should be taken with a grain of salt. Wood pellets? That's the "go-to" pie-in-the-sky commodity. So add Bucksport to the list (that already includes Eastport, Millinocket, Baldwin, Burnham Junction, Winterport and the Rockland area) of wood pellet mill sites.

Not just a grain of salt; a train of salt.