Current District 1 operations

Good afternoon.

I may have an opportunity to visit District 1 next month. I've done my best to research the various threads to see what I can find ahead of time, and hopefully we can just do a consolidated update here outside of the sightings thread. Here's what I see as a rough schedule based on various posts over the past couple of years, but some may be dated and I would greatly appreciate any updates.

PORU/RUPO-- Both trains starting at their origins around 0700. I can't tell if this is 7 days or not. If there are off days, please advise. I have been told these trains often meet at the Fairgrounds siding out on the branch. I'll have to do some searching to find that, but I'm not that far into planning at this point.

SAPPI-- Still roughly 1000 for this one starting at the mill and coming to Waterville?

NMWA/WANM-- I found a post a couple of years old stating 0800 at NMJ for NMWA, and 1800 at WA for WANM. Is this still accurate?

Danville Jct-- Looks to be a switcher based here. Any known days/OD times for this one?

I do plan to stay mostly north of Portland. However, time permitting I may head south of there if there is a reliable (yes, I realize that is often an oxymoron on this railroad) departure or inbound which typically operates in favorable light. I assume this would be POAY/AYPO at present as far as symbols go? Any others I'm forgetting?

Any and all replies are welcomed and greatly appreciated!

I would suggest staying around Portland, where there is the most freight traffic as well as Amtrak. I think the Rumford job goes up one day and comes back the next, so really only 3 road trains per day North of Rigby, whereas there are 4 a day south of Rigby. There's a fairly frequent local that runs south to Dover, NH and there's also some local activity heading North out of Rigby that goes to Westbrook, Deering Jct and/or Brunswick. I'm pretty sure there are yard switchers operating around the clock at Rigby. The Rt 1 overpass offers a vey panoramic view of the East end of the yard, but definitely not a relaxing, rural type setting.

Thank you, Robert. Yes, I did quite well around Portland last visit (2008...wow, time flies!). Here is my favorite photo from that trip, other than some of the last GP9s operating on the Madison Branch.



This visit, I am hopeful to get at least out on the Rumford branch. If things go according to plan, I'll schedule 4-5 days up there for this trip. Vacation time to burn and just not much going on at home that time of year.

Railfannng east of Portland can be pretty frustrating. Lately I've caught RUPO leaving Livermore Falls 1-2 PM
a number of times and so I usually head up the branch from Leeds Jct checking for sightings at side road crossings
along the way. Today they were early and I found them at Alden Rd- about 4 miles north of Leeds Jct- about
12:20 PM. Had I not taken that little side trip I would have driven right by them. There is not a lot of radio
traffic to help and the slow speeds coupled with slow orders can make progress seem glacial some days while
at other times they can move right along. The engineer today apparently wanted to get home- I got a shot across
the meadow approaching New Gloucester with the assumption I had time to get down to the Penny Rd overpass
ahead of then only to arrive in time to see the last car disappear around the curve! Judging by the time of day
I've been seeing them, including seeing RUPO tied down on the main at Livermore Falls In the AM, they're
probably leaving Portland late in the afternoon for a mostly nocturnal run east. Not sure how Rileys to Rumford
is being handled. I've seen WAPO around Lewiston early in the AM- POWA is nocturnal. No particular days for
the Danville Jct switcher but when they run it often seems to be in the afternoon.