"Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

I believe carload freight was always there IF the class 1s were willing to provide regular and reliable service. The service meltdowns following the mergers over the past 20 years didn’t help nor did the chaos from the introduction of psr. On the other hand, psr once properly implemented could really improve carload transit times

New posting on You Tube of Ballast train with frozen ballast and also of Herzog equipment. It is about 24 minutes long showing all of the activity related to this project. Titled: Ballast train Chase & herzog at Mattawamkeag.

The end of November is a good time to start trackwork in Northern Maine. It never gets below freezing .

Par (no pun intended) for the course.

Does anybody know if the Augusta IT is still in use? I drove by last week, and it looked like the rails were pretty rusty, and the flangeways didn't look like anything had passed in a while. Personally, I don't think I have seen photos of a move since sometime in 2018. It also appears a customer is unloading grain at the unloader in Waterville, so it could be possible that Gold Star is now transloading it there.

Is there anyways and why road freights are going so slow through Portland now? I've caught a few PORU's / WAPO's over the past few weeks and they are all barely crawling through the woodford's corner area.

Is there any activity on the track work between Keag and Old town or are they done until spring.

They are going to start running to keag again by the start of next month. The herzog train I think is working over the winter, but NBM has moved the tie gang to Oakfield for the winter.

Any updates on how much rail ND Paper is doing up at Old Town these days? Thanks.

Nothing has really changed up there. Levels are still what they have been over the previous year or so. They've had a lot of teething issues with that mill. Might be up a little, they get a switch about 6 days/week.

To answer an earlier question, it looks like the lower road / Augusta industrial track is still in use. Caught a Waterville local by chance this morning moving through Winslow with 4 hoppers and 4 empty bulkhead flatcars.

Seasons greetings to all and hope everyone is well and safe with a better new year ahead!

Am curious how many active customers Pan Am still services on the former MEC North of Portland that aren't paper or warehouse related? I can come up with the following list heading South to North:

Schnitzer @ Auburn
IP @ Auburn
Hillindale @ North Leeds
AIM @ Oakland
Cives @ Augusta
Goldstar @ Augusta
DownEast Emulsions @ Bangor
Holtrachem @ South Orrington (not really an active customer, more of a one time clean-up)

Is that really all that is left?

Northeast Agricultural in Detroit takes loads of feed and fertilizer if I'm not mistaken.

Also PS would count as a fairly major customer.