Calais Branch Rail Removal Approved

I cruised down from Ellsworth to Cherryfield, back via the Franklin Woods Road today, stopping to take a few pictures of the line. SOme of that rail is quite heavy duty, and though minor washouts were in evidence, one would be hard pressed to say the line was a basket case. I noted that somebody had recently passed through on a motor car or high rail vehicle, as the crossings were scarred and the sand freshly grooved by shallow flanges. The rust was lightly scraped away. I do hope artifacts from the line will be auctioned of or sold, rather than simply dumped into scrap hoppers. The entire line has abundent plow flange boards, switch stands, crossing signs, etc. I haven't traveled the line inside the woods, but mile posts and whistle posts most remain in there. It was all quite interesting.

The real crime, beyond taking up the rail, is the state intends to use the proceeds from scrapping on trail construction.

The money approved to buy the line was to preserve rail, and they aren't even going to put the money back into rail.

Next thing you know they'll want to sell the state's liquor business to a company from Massachusetts, oops, they already did that!

What could we sell next? I say the Blaine House.

In all seriousness, putting the money into the trail will be a good thing from the perspective of preserving the ROW for future rail use. Washouts will be repaired, the subgrade will be maintained, and trestles/bridges will likely be preserved/repaired.

If you want rail to come back to Washington County, your time would be better spent trying to get a natural gas terminal and a petrochemical plant or two built around Eastport... that rail line ain't never gonna be relaid for nostalgia's sake.

I'm inclined to agree with you. Ideally, a containerport located at Searsport or Eastport would be a huge boon to trade of merchandise and might help get alot of heavy truck traffic off the highways and back on the rails, where freight belongs! The MMA and NBS would be ideal routes for moving fast freight around Guilford's scandelous track and crawl speeds.

does eastport still ship out much forest products?you can bring woodland's traffic to eastport and be shipped world wide from eastport and routeing the traffic via the nbsr.

whats the chances of guilford being removed of their duty at woodland and nb southern taking control from calais/woodland to eastport?

Last I knew, GP already moved a lot of export woodpulp over Eastport... by truck.

Richard, I'd be skeptical of a containerport ever taking hold there. Sandwiched between Halifax and New York, it would never have the scale to compete. Even Boston and been relegated to a small-scale feeder port. Containerization and massive ship sizes have forced wholesale port consolidation.

The last I knew, MOST of the output from Woodland went out via trucks to Eastport for export. Not sure what this equates too, but it can;t be anything to sneeze at. In other words, if the Eastport branch had just been left in place for a few more years it might today see more traffic than it had in a looong time! But hindsight is 20/20, and today even with all that truck traffic, totally rebuilding the entire 18 miles or so of the Eastport Branch and upgrading teh Calais Br. from St. Croix Jct. to Ayers Jct. is an expensive proposition.

But then again, couldn't we say the same for the entire Calais branch? Like as not, 10 years after all the rail and related infrastructure is permanently gone out the window, something will change in the local or global economy and there will be a steady stream of trucks running up and down Rt. 1 or the Airline that COULD have taken the form of loads on the Calais BRanch....

On Saturday, August 2nd my girlfriend and I were heading home from are vacation in Bar Harbor and when passing Beals Ave. in Ellsworth, we saw 4 or 5 big trucks two of which were on the tracks, one was in the process of crossing Beals Ave the others were off to the side. My girlfriend asked what they were doing and it looked to me like they were replacing ties and removing soil from the sides of the track but I also know it’s not far from where the rails well be removed. So is Beals Ave going to be the end of the line or will it be part of the trail? Does anyone have information on what was going on in the area this past weekend?

Hello B&M 1566, That was our group, the Downeast Scenic Railroad you saw. We are preparing to rebuild that crossing in a couple of weeks. Our line goes east another 3 miles to Washington Junction, which is the end of our lease. Last year we rebuilt Wyman Road crossing, which is just west of Washington Junction. Other accomplishments this year include receiving 2 donated coaches from Conway Scenic Railroad, the purchase of a caboose, flat car and hopper car from the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad. Track and right of way improvements this year include filling a washout, replacement of a box culvert, replacement of a stock rail on one of the many turnouts in Washington Junction and reactivation of a set of crossing signals. We have also begun to replace signage at some of the crossings. Visit our website at http://www.downeastscenicrail.org/ . Thanks for your interest.
Leverett Fernald

>>"negative nabob of negativity"

In the interest of historical accuracy: Spiro Agnew's remark was actually "nattering nabobs of negativity" .

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program.

PBM

bml1149 wrote:Hello B&M 1566, That was our group, the Downeast Scenic Railroad you saw. We are preparing to rebuild that crossing in a couple of weeks. Our line goes east another 3 miles to Washington Junction, which is the end of our lease. Last year we rebuilt Wyman Road crossing, which is just west of Washington Junction. Other accomplishments this year include receiving 2 donated coaches from Conway Scenic Railroad, the purchase of a caboose, flat car and hopper car from the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad. Track and right of way improvements this year include filling a washout, replacement of a box culvert, replacement of a stock rail on one of the many turnouts in Washington Junction and reactivation of a set of crossing signals. We have also begun to replace signage at some of the crossings. Visit our website at http://www.downeastscenicrail.org/ . Thanks for your interest.
Leverett Fernald

Thanks for the information. What’s the deal with the tracks east of Washington Junction? Are they going to remove them or is that just something the state is talking about doing.
When could we see the first train west of Washington Junction?

Cowford wrote: If you want rail to come back to Washington County, your time would be better spent trying to get a natural gas terminal and a petrochemical plant or two built around Eastport... that rail line ain't never gonna be relaid for nostalgia's sake.

This would be the most logical reason. IIRC, other than the typical Downeast local opposition, the only problem with the Pleasant Point LNG terminal is routing the pipeline through the Moosehorn to connect up with the line in Ellsworth.

In response to an above post, Eastport only ships pulp from the Woodland(read Baileyville) Mill. Up until the mid 90s, GP also shipped whole logs out of Eastport, and had a debarking facility near where the new pier is located. The coolest part though were the massive LASH ships that came in the late 80s/early90s. They brought large barges in, and filled them with the pulp at the downtown pier. The tugs would then ferry the full barges to the LASH ship, and a hoist system on the rear of the ship would lift the barges out of the water and stack them onboard. Cool stuff for a kid to watch!

A little trip down memory lane on the Calais Branch.



Cherryfield railroad bridge from Cable Pool.



Wreckage of some of the Calais Branch in Machias yard 8/1/08



Pile of rail from area. Lot of that rail is still pretty good as you can tell from the end profiles.

There is a nice little weekly paper published in Cutler, ME every Tuesday, the Downeast Coastal Press. A regular columnist is Herb Cleaves. Herb's dad, Sandy Cleaves was a long time section foreman on the BAR and MEC also I believe. Herb grew up alongside railroad tracks. He was a section man for MEC on the Eastport branch at one time. Herb has made the claim that much of the Calais branch rail was useable to rebuld the line someday and should have been left right there. He contends that the main reason for tearing it up is to ensure that no railroad will ever be built there again. I believe he is right on.You can see in the pic that a lot of it is useable. In fact it is going to Germany to be used in a rail line. So much for the "rusted away in the weeds" lie that MeDOT officials are continually spouting.

There is a movement afoot to halt the scrapping with a one year moratorium. I support this movement. Many of the old deeds, from when the line was built, contain the phrase that "if the line should ceased to be used for rail purposes the land is to revert to the landowers. When DOT officials are questioned they say "oh, those are just old deeds that mean nothing." All the State owns is what the railraod owns and no more. This legal question is being studied at the moment. The line should be left where it is for now until we see what our future transport needs are going to be considering the increasing costs of maintaining roads and buying fuel for trucks.

Herb said a few weeks ago that everyone should see a railroad scrapping at least once in his life. I stood in the Machias yard that friday with a great sense of both history and opportunity lost.

Dealing with politicians is so frustrating!

Cost of leaving it alone would have been nothing!

Downeast Scenic making progress.

Photos by Nathan Pitts


Restored 1918 MEC boxcar.



Track looking towards Ellsworth.



Some equipment.



More rolling stock!

Pictures were all taken at Washington, Jct on 8/1/08. This is where the Washington County railroad branched from the MEC Bar Harbor line to Ferry Point in Hancock. The photographer has some personal memories of this spot. Right behind the old boxcar are some side tracks. Pulpwood used to be handled here a lot. I had a part time job helping a friend of mine truck 4 ft wood from all over. We loaded a lot onto rr cars in this yard. It was winter of 1964-65 and we were just finishing loading some wood on a bulkhead flat car. I was on top with my hook strightening out the sticks. it was snowing and before I knew it I went over backwards onto the ground on my butt. Big snow banks saved me. I can't come to this place without thinking about it. It will be great to see trains roll here again soon!

I used to wotrk in those buildings in the last shot, belive it or not, before I joined the Navy.
IINM, that's Allen's Blueberries freezers over there.
When I lived and worked in that area I was amongst those who watched those tracks daily longing that one day someone would do something with them.
Finally that dream takes life!
Go figure,...
I move from Portland and MNGRR moves in,
I leave Ellsworth and DESRR comes in!