by Hamhock
Curious if anyone can tell me about a seldom-used freight line in Saco that travels directly behind my condo building. The track splits off from the shared Downeaster line about a mile or two south of us in Biddeford, then meanders for another couple of miles through Saco and abruptly ends in the Industrial Park area.
Everyone in the building enjoys seeing the freight when it sporadically passes by. Our building is an old converted shoe factory built in the early 1900s, so the train really ties in well from that aspect; I assume long ago that cargo was once loaded/unloaded from the factory building, since it's only 50 feet from the tracks.
It's usually only 2 or 3 cars at most, and traveling very slowly, as 500 feet north of us it needs to cross a busy street at grade without a barrier (someone jumps down and waits for traffic to clear, then gives the go-ahead to the engineer to proceed across the street; pretty awesome to see at night or during a snowfall!)
Here's an overhead view of where I'm talking about:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&hl= ... 3&t=h&z=18
Anyway, just an odd question from a quasi-yuppie who would like to see the tracks near his home used *more* often.
Everyone in the building enjoys seeing the freight when it sporadically passes by. Our building is an old converted shoe factory built in the early 1900s, so the train really ties in well from that aspect; I assume long ago that cargo was once loaded/unloaded from the factory building, since it's only 50 feet from the tracks.
It's usually only 2 or 3 cars at most, and traveling very slowly, as 500 feet north of us it needs to cross a busy street at grade without a barrier (someone jumps down and waits for traffic to clear, then gives the go-ahead to the engineer to proceed across the street; pretty awesome to see at night or during a snowfall!)
Here's an overhead view of where I'm talking about:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&hl= ... 3&t=h&z=18
Anyway, just an odd question from a quasi-yuppie who would like to see the tracks near his home used *more* often.