"Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

Rumors floating of a ND purchase of Jay. Who knows.

It's going to be very interesting to see if Pixelle will actually sell to another paper company. Oftentimes these companies are looking to take capacity out of the market when they close plants down.

Now that Pixelle is owned by an investment group I’m sure they have no issue selling a “dead asset”

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only thing the Jay would need to become fully operational again is a new digester. The rest of the pulp mill is intact?

On a personal note, I loved Tiffany Bond's idea of turning the Jay mill into an insulin factory. It would serve a huge (and steadily increasing) need in our society, and would provide good paying, extremely stable jobs.

Probably won't happen, but a boy can dream...

What, if anything, became of the plan to move the nbsr interchange back to keag? Reports over on the cp thread show that cp appears to continue to move a reasonable amount of manifest over the moosehead

It won't be until next year sometime as they still have track work to do

Went for a ride this afternoon and caught PORU leaving Rileys just as I arrived so drove over
to Whitney Brook where I took this shot of them crossing LaPlante Road with 319-306-512
and 42 cars at about 1420. Half hour later with the sun down below the hilltops and clouds
rolling in the gloom precluded any chance of getting a decent shot heading towards Rumford.

That's a great photo... six months in, and still no indication that this is now part of one of the largest Class Is in the country. In fact, were it not for the PAR blue 500 at the rear, it could have been 20 years ago. Time moves a little slower up theyah in Maine...

506 is looking pretty rough these days and has spent a fair amount of time as the
Riley yard switcher, almost as to keep it out-of-site, out- of mind.

Here is a retro look back at Maine Central with WB1 engine 334 crossing the Kennebec River
on a -10 degree Saturday morning in January 1979. Followed the train to Pittsfield then made
a loop through Bangor to Bucksport and back to Northern Maine Junction where at about 2 PM
we found 334 struggling to lift 50 cars out of town and back to Waterville. Happy holidays
everyone.

GMTX 205 at Danville Junction this afternoon.

I'm told 426 and 427 will be extended to Waterville as early as next week replacing WAPO/POWA.

Still a rumor that Nine Dragons wants to buy Jay for just pulp production. Guess they'd have to rebuild the digester too

How many crews Selkirk to WVL? 1 or 2?