Danville Jct. to be "reconfigured"--finally!

Reconstruction tidbits:

An electronic traffic control sign is set up by the Danville Jct. office, flashing an alert to motorists that the railroad crossing will be closed to traffic on Tuesday, July 21. Presumably this means some major work will be done that day.

Perhaps related to that, the west switch to the Danville Siding (“Danville West”) has been pulled up. I believe this is approximately where the new crossover from SLR will join in.

The loading dock along the “wharf track” (where boxcars of brick for Morin Brick used to be unloaded) has been torn up and the ground graded.

Contrary to some other reports, Danville Jct. Road has NOT been finally or officially closed off. It is only closed off to the public when railroad crews require it. In light of my first note above, however, that may be coming soon. But still no rehab has been done to the horrendous Black Cat Road crossing which is the only other available crossing in the immediate area.

Lots of ballast has been piled on the ground near the diamond. 7 SLR ballast cars are in the yard. Numerous strings of rail are laid on the ground along the access road beside trk. 237.

-Alan S.

Now it looks like the grading has begun for the SLR "Passenger Main". There are two switches being assambled next to Station road, along with a couple sections of what appears to be about 90' each of completed track. I took a couple of pics of the switches and the excavator on the SLR side. All from the road of course, which I'll post eventually on NERAIL.
Mike

Here are links to a few of my photos, which I have put on NERAIL.
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... ate&page=1
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... ate&page=1
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... ate&page=1

2 months have gone by. I was camera less when I happened by today so I took some so-so pictiures with my phone. View them on NERAIL.
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20091 ... 716181.jpg
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20091 ... 815686.jpg
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20091 ... 315406.jpg

Mike

Here is a recent Photo that I noticed on NERail yesterday. This shows the new interchange track (still under construction) to the SLR.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20100 ... 412369.jpg

There was a ribbon cutting ceremony at Danville Junction today for the "Danville Junction Gateway Project" with the PAR OCS and SLR 804 at the crossing. In the photo you can see the 804 sitting on the new rail laid across Station Road. I'll have to go down this weekend and get some photos, but it seems this project is now complete?

WMTW seemed to be the only TV station with a camera there. Probably since their main studio is just up the street.

http://www.wmtw.com/news/25476974/detail.html

I'm assuming that when all the work is complete, PAR will abandon the section of their main from the diamond west about 4000' to where the cutover was placed. Is this correct? If so, why didn't they place the cutover further west in order to eliminate additional redundant trackage? I don't recall grade elevation between the two lines as being a significant factor.

Google Maps updated this year. Some of the reconstruction efforts can be seen.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 6&t=h&z=14

Mike

There is an article about the Danville Junction project in the Q1 2011 issue of the Pan Am Clipper newsletter:

http://www.panamrailways.com/xpress/2011q1.pdf

Drove through Danville today finally. Still scratching my head at what I saw. The SLR was on the old Pan Am Main on the Auburn side, with someone by the switch close to where the diamond was. The yard looks neat now, all tracks connecting to the old Pan Am main by the switch I just mentioned. The Diamond has been removed, but the old SLR main leading to it is still there, out of service.

No camera today, I will have to start bringing it with me to work. Always find interesting things while on the road.

Mike

I knew we had a thread for this.

New pic:

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=209190" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Danville Junction Rail removal

I noticed today that the area around Danville Junction in Auburn, Maine was surrounded by signs saying "Road Closed at Railroad Crossing". After work I got curious and checked into it. The Old SLR (St. Lawrence and Atlantic) Main has been removed and the ground prepped for pavement. Dugas Excavation from Yarmouth was doing the work.

Photographed by Mike Fox, June 10, 2013.

Bing has the old junction:

http://binged.it/12mFMDT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Google has the new layout:

http://goo.gl/maps/OgjRP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;