Downeaster Trackwork & Upgrades

NHV 669 wrote:link isn't working anyhow. I'm assuming this is from a private post?

Link is fine but I guess membership in that FB page is required. Apologies..

From NNEPRA: Downeasters #683 and #684 will be cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday,
May 22 and 23 due to track work at Plaistow NH.

Fosters.com article is not really related to Downeast/PAR trackwork but it does indicate the line has a recurrent below the rail clearance issue at Dover:

http://www.fosters.com/news/20180805/do ... -and-again

From the article:

"A truck driver says he didn't even see the notoriously low-clearance Broadway rail bridge when he attempted to drive his 53-foot-long big rig underneath it."

[emphasis added]

It's a huge-@$$ bridge with big yellow signs and a flashing yellow light. It's not camouflaged. You've got to be pretty distracted to not even see it...

Yet people get up in arms about trains... would you want to share the road with a trucker who couldn't see a goddam bridge?

I drove for UPS for 9 years out of the Dover center. One year a Christmas Temp. tried to go under the bridge after picking up at Red's. Oddly enough, he didn't work after that.

newpylong wrote:...would you want to share the road with a trucker who couldn't see a goddam bridge?

I'd definitely prefer not to.

If this had been a grade crossing, would he have seen that? If yellow signs and yellow lights and a HUGE BRIDGE don't get your attention, it's unlikely that gates and red flashers would get your attention either. We've all seen what happens in situations like that (e.g. the dump truck vs. Downeaster in North Berwick). Imagine if that dump truck, or this 18-wheeler, had crashed into one of the loaded Bakken crude oil trains...

On a different note Royal Siding appears to be "moving right along". 7,000/21,000 feet reported to be complete as of July 2018. Grade crossing panels are expected to be installed in August. Happily completion is expected to occur at the end of this year.

As best I can tell this will mark the single largest track re-installation project undertaken on the former Maine Central in many years (if not ever).

This RR Bridge is NOT listed in the Trucker's Road atlas as low clearance, NOT listed on the Restricted route list for NH as well.
Unless he was from the Dover area,the driver would not be aware of this low bridge.
Granted,he should have seen the warning lights and stopped right at that point!

Most of the Major Fleets now provide routing instructions created by Rand-Mcnally routing software.

gokeefe wrote:On a different note Royal Siding appears to be "moving right along". 7,000/21,000 feet reported to be complete as of July 2018. Grade crossing panels are expected to be installed in August. Happily completion is expected to occur at the end of this year.

As best I can tell this will mark the single largest track re-installation project undertaken on the former Maine Central in many years (if not ever).

Probably the most useless too! (Unless we count the 5 miles of CWR out in the woods in Westbrook/South Windham area)

We shall see about that. It certainly will be seeing more trains than almost anywhere else in Maine.

Is the wye to the station in Portland still on the table?

gokeefe wrote:We shall see about that. It certainly will be seeing more trains than almost anywhere else in Maine.

That doesn't really take much... I am fairly certain any of the double iron south of Rigby sees just as many.

BM6569 wrote:Is the wye to the station in Portland still on the table?

Yes, however other projects that address bottlenecks are considered to be a higher priority. Also the reverse move into and out of Portland is very smooth.

Any chance of more double Iron between Wells and Scarborough? seems to be a chronic slowdown area for the DE