Lewiston - Waterville 'Back Road'

Second northbound freight of the evening just came through at Readfield Depot. Normally we get one northbound and one southbound in the evening. Very long train travelling slow, maybe 10mph. Lots and lots of boxcars many of them littered with graffiti. It looked like some kind of 'bridge' or through freight or a unit train restocking the GRS yards with freight cars or cars that were headed into the shop for service and painting. The car count was upwards of 75+ Anybody have any idea what this train was, and where all of those boxcars were headed? Many of them had their doors open as well which I thought was somewhat strange for a GRS train.

Probaly either SEWA or EDNM. Both of those trains supply empties to some pretty big mills (i.e. Sappi, Madison, Verso, Irving, etc), so nothing strange about there being a lot of empties on that train you saw, especially when you consider that the inbound flow of empties isn't always exactly the number of cars being loaded on any given day.

Freights run anytime, and can be any length. They aren't operated on schedules like passenger trains. Nothing is really unsusual when it comes to a freight train, really!

Numerous MOW assets in Winthrop these last few days, mostly parked on the siding by the Main Street crossing. Looks like they're doing routine maintenance and targeted tie replacement.

Trains seem to be running 25 mph even through downtown Winthrop lately where previously they would only travel 10 mph or less. Big Hook was parked on the MOW siding a few weeks ago. What a surprise to see that.

Very busy on the line these days. In the evening the trains appear to be coming through almost every hour.

Not unsual at all to see empty boxcars with the doors open.

I always wonder if I'm going to see a bum riding along but I never do. Probably too short of a journey for their purposes, not to mention extremely cold.

I'd be willing to bet some $$ that if the economy gets really bad that kind of thing would make a come back. I would be even less surprised if some professional got caught hopping trains to commute to work. The savings would be substantial assuming you'd never get caught, $$ for gas, $$ for maintenance, $$ for car/car payment, $$ for insurance, $$ for registration, $ for inspection/annual repairs, $$ for time lost in traffic etc. Not that Guilford would be anymore reliable but still an interesting thought. Scary to think we would be returning to something not seen regularly in 25-50+ years if that.

gokeefe wrote:Trains seem to be running 25 mph even through downtown Winthrop lately where previously they would only travel 10 mph or less. Big Hook was parked on the MOW siding a few weeks ago. What a surprise to see that.

Very busy on the line these days. In the evening the trains appear to be coming through almost every hour.

District 1 should be pretty quiet up there. At best maybe two sets of road freights a day.
BTW, the timetable direction of travel on the main line in Winthrop is eastward towards Waterville, and westward towards Portland.

Two sets of road freights?? As in through trains?

I don't have scanner so I really can't tell the difference between what's going by and what's not. I can say that there are somewhere in the range of three trains a day in both directions, for a total of six, passing through Readfield Depot every day. It's not completely consistent but two a day is definitely not right. There are definitely times where the trains are either coming through in opposing directions fairly close together (40-60 minutes apart) or they are travelling one behind the other (30-50 minutes apart).

Not sure what to make of it other than the railroad seems to be doing well.

And that 6 a day you are counting doesn't include the two Rumford trains, RUPO and EDRU. Those are usually in the 50 car range, with some days heavier than others.
Mike

Sounds like a healthy Class II to me, especially when you consider "District 1" is only a very small snap shot of the entire system.