Calais Branch

What Richard spoke of is old news. There will be no more rail taken up on the state owned portion. It is still the plan to rebuild to Green Lake.
Leverett Fernald
DESR

With the oncoming sale of Pan Am, is there any plan for Downeast or the state to purchase the remaining Pan Am owned portions of the branch?

There are no plans at this time for us, or the State to purchase the remaining corridor.

Did access to this branch from the west (from Rigby, Waterville etc) always require changing ends on the east side of Bangor or was there at one point another bridge allowing direct access from the west?

Yes, for trains that originated out of Rigby, or Waterville, access to the Calais Branch required changing ends. When trains were made up in Bangor Yard, they were made up in reverse, so they had to back east out of the yard past Calais Jct., then proceed east on the Calais Branch. There was no other bridge.

Thanks
I had searched all my new england railroad history books and could find no evidence of a 2d bridge. On the other hand, it seemed very odd that passenger service to bar harbor, such as the Bar Harbor Express from Washington and NYC would change ends just east of bangor. But that must have happened

Changing ends on a passenger train at Bangor wouldn't be a big deal if they did it during the station stop (I assume they were smart like that) - it would not have been a long "backup" move from Bangor Union Station to Calais Junction.

Back in "old" Maine Central days pre Guilford when Bangor Yard was active trains to and from Bucksport and Calais didn't change ends. Eastward trains backed out Bangor Yard until the train was clear of Calais Jct., then once the switch was thrown pulled forward onto the branch and proceeded eastward. Westward trains pulled down the ramp off the bridge and proceeded eastward on the Vanceboro Main until clear of the switch, then backed into the yard.

Bangor Yard wasn't quite gone but was certainly a remnant by the time I was old enough to have a driver's license and self-propel from where I lived "out in the sticks" on the other side of Ellsworth in the late 1980s. By then of course all that was left was the Bucksport Branch; my memories of the Calais Branch are limited to happenstance encounters in Ellsworth and Franklin and even once in Harrington. Even when I was independently mobile, railfanning was an investment of time I didn't have a lot of (high school girlfriends don't like sitting trackside hoping for that one train a day to pass by). I moved out of state in 1990 and although I revisit the area fairly regularly, it is to visit family and not to spend lots of time railfanning the little that remains.

I can see trains that originated at Bangor Yard just shoving east to Calais Junction and then reversing direction and proceeding, well, east again to the branches. But for trains from Northern Maine Junction and points west, they'd still have to stop in Bangor and run around their train to shove east to Calais Junction before going across the river, right? There looks to be about 2500 feet of multiple track to work with between the Kenduskeag Bridge and Calais Junction.

Living in western Maine I'm not able to observe Bangor area operations often. I was under the
impression that the local based at Old Town was handling the work at Bucksport. If their routine
required running directly from Bucksport to NMJ or vice versa then a run-a-round would be
necessary while Old Town to either Bucksport or NMJ would not. Given the 10 mph nature of
the operation I've got no idea how much ground they could cover in a day. Now that the mill at
Old Town is closed again and with the CSX reorganization I've no idea how this work is being
handled.