"Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

petahgriff8316 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 9:48 pm Currently sitting at Forest Avenue waiting for POWA to cross. I was really excited when I saw the gates down because I realized I was going to get my first POWA since moving to Portland. Then it freaking stopped in the middle of the intersection for five minutes and is now crawling 5 miles an hour. I know stuff happens but somebody goofed I’m guessing. I like trains but not enough to be waiting at a crossing while one is stopped in the middle of the road. Crazy thing was it wasn’t even that far into the train, four lead units and it was probably in the first 10 Eimskip containers that ended up blocking the road.

Addendum: Maybe I am missing something/an entitled Millennial (apologies/guilty as charged) but I just couldn't work out what they were doing. Is this more common than I realize? I saw the block was green a few minutes before when I crossed and they definitely weren't down as far as Read St., let alone CPF 194, and IIRC Amtrak isn't running through this weekend.

I lived in Deering for many years a couple hundred feet from Lincoln st crossing, certainly that grade can be killer with a heavy train and ailing power. The Slurry tanks on PORU would usually make a big challenge for those guys if they had a good slug (plus coal) and any one of the GP40s was ailing. POWA is usually majority empties, so maybe they had a problem with the train. I’d recommend the Read St crossing if you are hanging, it’s off the busy Forest Ave and you can see the signal which is lit only when something is in the block. Park by the tracks right in the Shipyard parking lot no one will bother you.

Thank you both for the perspectives! I knew there was a grade but didn't think it was that significant, but you both know more than I do. As someone who lived at various points on the Downeaster service (from Medford, MA to Freeport, ME) I was excited moving to Portland at the prospect of having both passenger and freight comparatively out my front door. Duly noted about Read St. and yes you are correct that signal is only lit if there's something in the block (which is why, when running an errand up-and-back down Forest, I wasn't surprised to see the gates down on my return). Hopefully the next one I see doesn't have the same issues, although interesting to know that PORU is more likely to have those issues than POWA. My grandparents used to live in Readfield right by the detector at 134 and so I am more intrigued by POWA/WAPO for that reason, but certainly won't complain seeing PORU/RUPO.

RUPO/PORU is an every-other-day (one goes up and the next day it comes down) schedule at the moment with extras as needed. WAPO/POWA is daily, pretty much clockwork with POWA departing about 9-9:30ish. WAPO gets in early, unless they hit a snafu somewhere. The past month I've seen WAPO a few times, off hand one was late morning and the other was hitting Rigby about 6pm which was exceptionally late. My hope is CSX brings us some more daylight operations in D1, even 3 years ago WAPO was pretty consistent in the early-to-mid morning with a POED early-to-mid afternoon. Right now the best option is POAY which usually has a big train and big power (compared to the Rumford jobs).

I occasionally see small 2-5 car cuts of refers on POWA/WAPO and it feels like I've been seeing them more over the past few months. Anyone know where those cars are going?

PORU last Tuesday 21Dec2021- one shot crossing Mine Meadow in Greene, ME and another at Leeds Jct. An old
local legend says a locomotive and several cars disappeared into the quicksand at Mine Meadow back in the 1800's
but no one as ever found any trace of them. It is a wet spot known for flooding in the spring. Happy holidays!

Cosakita18 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 9:59 am I occasionally see small 2-5 car cuts of refers on POWA/WAPO and it feels like I've been seeing them more over the past few months. Anyone know where those cars are going?

Potato move out of Van Buren? that nobody seems to have any intel on, other than that they're moving to Washington state.

Picked up some intel during Christmas discussions from people who work in the growing and picking side of the industry. 2,500 pound bags of potatoes are being shipped out of Van Buren, Maine packed in box cars as they discribed them.. The ones that gave me the info said they thought that they were going to Washington. They had no idea of the routing. I am wondering if CP is taking them over the top to the State of Washington? Who ever would have thought that they would be shipping potatoes by rail on the old BAR again.

If those cars were going to Washington State, they would almost certainly be going to eastern Washington. There's a very large agricultural processing industry in the Tri-Cities / Columbia Basin part of Washington, in which case it would seem that MNR-CP-BNSF would be the best routing for those cars. Maybe there are other potato loads going to points on the east coast via PAR-CSX/NS?

Interesting if true. Why would Washington State want Maine potatoes with Idaho potatoes so nearby? If I recall correctly, Burger King tried using Maine potatoes in the 80s and it didn't work out so well. Idaho potatoes just taste better. Sorry Maine.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/22/busi ... -lift.html

Maybe the growers in Maine have come up with a better tasting potato but the shipping expense makes this sound questionable.

240 carloads total... original routing was via CP-UP but the new routing is ST-CSX-UP. There were posts on FB made on the Bangor & Aroostook as well as CP International of Maine groups including photos and videos of the cars spotted and loaded.

Might be a foolish question, but does that 240 carload number mean that it's a temporary / trial arrangement? I know that the Idaho / Eastern WA potato crop was poor this year, so maybe processors there are trying to source potatoes from elsewhere temporarily?

Given their destination and the fact that it is a specific-sized order, they are likely seed potatoes, which is a large portion of Maine's crop. Most of the remainder are processed into fast food fries (McCain), premade mashed potatoes (Pineland), or chips (FritoLay).

I read somewhere that if you ate a french fry at McDonalds east of the Mississippi River there was a good
chance it came from McCains in Easton and apparently as part of that contract McCain paid the farmers a
premium for potatoes over a certain size. I think that was in a newspaper article back when I was working up
there several years ago.

On a different note, I went out today expecting to run across PORU somewhere and found POWA instead-
shown here crossing Hill Road in Greene at 1410 with 7552, 7575 and 76 cars. There were 6 units parked at
Leeds Jct- two on the siding east of the junction switch and four more on the branch. POWA stopped for
awhile then cut of the train and went up to pick up some all all of the units. Clouds had moved in and was
loosing the light so I didn't hang around, otherwise I may have followed them further east.

There is an article in the weekend Bangor Daily News about the involvement of Maine DOT in the movement of reefer cars loaded with potatoes from Van Buren, Maine to the state of Washington. It also describes the routing of the cars.

fromway wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 10:13 am There is an article in the weekend Bangor Daily News about the involvement of Maine DOT in the movement of reefer cars loaded with potatoes from Van Buren, Maine to the state of Washington. It also describes the routing of the cars.

Yes. First time in 40 years it says:

https://bangordailynews.com/2022/01/15/ ... oam40zk0w/