Lewiston Industrial Track/Lewiston Lower Rd/Branch status

MEC 347 - MEC 354 and one empty crossed the Androscoggin River from Brunswick into Topsham, headed for Grimmel's at 13:45. Not sure what they will be bringing back. Also dropped several cars on the interchange siding for Maine Eastern, including three ballast-like hoppers with Conrail reporting marks. Unusual to see up here...

drcrf93 wrote:MEC 347 - MEC 354 and one empty crossed the Androscoggin River from Brunswick into Topsham, headed for Grimmel's at 13:45. Not sure what they will be bringing back. Also dropped several cars on the interchange siding for Maine Eastern, including three ballast-like hoppers with Conrail reporting marks. Unusual to see up here...

TRAINS should do an article on this and the SLR moves via Yarmouth.

What is the mileage? Something like 75 miles of combined roundtrip track for one to two cars at a time?

This post may have further information that explains the spate of recent moves to Grimmels. Scrap pile in Portsmouth is almost gone and last pickup is in progress. Could be the end.....

gokeefe wrote:

drcrf93 wrote:MEC 347 - MEC 354 and one empty crossed the Androscoggin River from Brunswick into Topsham, headed for Grimmel's at 13:45. Not sure what they will be bringing back. Also dropped several cars on the interchange siding for Maine Eastern, including three ballast-like hoppers with Conrail reporting marks. Unusual to see up here...

TRAINS should do an article on this and the SLR moves via Yarmouth.

What is the mileage? Something like 75 miles of combined roundtrip track for one to two cars at a time?

Waiting to hear what happens on the SLR front, but it sounds like they are going to accept the financing offer

It is 24 miles one way from Danville Jct to East Deering

I'm down in NY away from the action, but a non-railfan friend of mine texted me this phone cam grab shot from the Atlantic Regional Credit Union atm off Pleasant St in Brunswick of the job heading up the lower branch. Obviously low quality, but I find non-wye movements on this stretch track fascinating, so I thought I'd share.

PO-1 with GMTX 3005 is currently on the Lewiston Lower with two empties for Grimmel's. Crossed Cumberland Street at about 1:20pm headed west. Also of interest are more coal hoppers (seven of them) that PO-1 set off on the interchange track for Maine Eastern. I'll post pictures to the Maine Eastern thread on that later.

drcrf93 wrote:PO-1 with GMTX 3005 is currently on the Lewiston Lower with two empties for Grimmel's. Crossed Cumberland Street at about 1:20pm headed west. Also of interest are more coal hoppers (seven of them) that PO-1 set off on the interchange track for Maine Eastern. I'll post pictures to the Maine Eastern thread on that later.

Any day now I expect PAR to announce that they have landed a contract with Baxter Brewing Company to ship out boxcars of beer on a reconstructed LIT.

Nothing with PAR surprises me anymore......

drcrf93 wrote:PO-1 with GMTX 3005 is currently on the Lewiston Lower with two empties for Grimmel's. Crossed Cumberland Street at about 1:20pm headed west. Also of interest are more coal hoppers (seven of them) that PO-1 set off on the interchange track for Maine Eastern. I'll post pictures to the Maine Eastern thread on that later.

If I'm not mistaken, Dragon last received coal loads in 2002 from Safe Handling, (after a decade of coal shipments from Maine Coast).

gokeefe wrote:Any day now I expect PAR to announce that they have landed a contract with Baxter Brewing Company to ship out boxcars of beer on a reconstructed LIT.

Nothing with PAR surprises me anymore......

In the unlikely event that the state would pass a multi-million dollar bond to buy and rebuild the Lisbon Falls to Lewiston milage, I'd say the odds of a Baxter Brewing contract happening within the ten years could maybe even be as high as 20%!

dnelson wrote:In the unlikely event that the state would pass a multi-million dollar bond to buy and rebuild the Lisbon Falls to Lewiston milage, I'd say the odds of a Baxter Brewing contract happening within the ten years could maybe even be as high as 20%!

Careful Dan, you just used "state funding", "unlikely", and the "LIT" in the same sentence......lol....

If this retro industrial trend continues I don't see it being "unlikely" at all. You could start with loaded grain/flour shipments to LePage bakeries as an anchor customer.

Keep in mind there's a new shoe factory in Lewiston, Rancourt & Co., that is already occupying 60,000 square feet of space on Bridge Street and making almost 2,000 pairs per month of dress shoes.

A shoe factory? What use for rail would they possibly have?

newpylong wrote:A shoe factory? What use for rail would they possibly have?

None that I can think of. My point was that industrial activity is being revived in Lewiston and it is not necessarily very well understood.

But, since you ask, I could imagine the shoe factory using a team track to send out their products via intermodal containers.

So, yet another "critical" question, "What are the vertical clearances on the LIT?"......

Can't believe I was even able to ask that.......

Would take quite s few shoes to fill a container...

Mikejf wrote:Would take quite s few shoes to fill a container...

It would but Rancourt & Co. does a lot of wholesale work for men's clothiers. I think 40' units would be realistic or perhaps even 2 20' units going to different destinations. It's not a lot but it sure isn't 0.

Naturally Auburn is an obvious option. But this is the LIT therefore common sense cannot be allowed to prevail.

gokeefe wrote:

dnelson wrote:In the unlikely event that the state would pass a multi-million dollar bond to buy and rebuild the Lisbon Falls to Lewiston milage, I'd say the odds of a Baxter Brewing contract happening within the ten years could maybe even be as high as 20%!

Careful Dan, you just used "state funding", "unlikely", and the "LIT" in the same sentence......lol....

If this retro industrial trend continues I don't see it being "unlikely" at all. You could start with loaded grain/flour shipments to LePage bakeries as an anchor customer.

Keep in mind there's a new shoe factory in Lewiston, Rancourt & Co., that is already occupying 60,000 square feet of space on Bridge Street and making almost 2,000 pairs per month of dress shoes.

While I'd love to see a train running alongside Route 196......

- there is very limited potential for business when compared with putting money toward reopening Madison Branch or something similar
- there is an strong effort to turn Lisbon to Lewiston into a trail
- Guilford has previously refused to sell the final dozen miles of the branch to the state, made sure to maintain trackage rights on the state-owned portion, and not followed that by not running trains anywhere on the LIT for years
- it took over a decade of legal battles before the first train finally went up the LIT to definite customer Grimmels (I know Guilford has changed, but unlike back then, there are no confirmed business actively seeking rail service)
- RE-Baxter Brewing, the beverage industry's track record as a longterm rail customer isn't too strong (see Pine State Beverages on the lower road to Augusta)

Still, we all can dream....

dnelson wrote:- RE-Baxter Brewing, the beverage industry's track record as a longterm rail customer isn't too strong (see Pine State Beverages on the lower road to Augusta)

Still, we all can dream....

I agree with everything except this last point. I think brewers, as opposed to distributors like Pine State, simply have no record at all Maine. However, they most certainly do have a strong record nationally of shipping product by rail car. Baxter only packages in cans and, I think, kegs. Ideal for shipment by rail.

Of all the "craft" operations in Maine that could go national this could be 'the one'. They're mass production focused and have a large industrial complex that they could operate out of. Breweries that big almost require rail access not just for outbound packaged product but inbound shipments of malt, hops and other brewing stock.

It also probaby doesn't hurt that the available water sources are essentially limitless. Shipyard in Portland is actually somewhat constrained by water and sewer utility costs as well as the price of real estate.

If I wanted to take a step that would guarantee their presence in Lewiston for years to come, as well as that of LePage bakeries it would be rebuilding the rail head into the mill district.

There you have it, now we've really gone off the 'deep end'.