"Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

Supposed to run till around Christmas. It's got another month and a half or so. Its fate following is undecided.

I don't know how much more pulp Old Town will be making, if any. They have to get rid of the pulp that is there as well as their chemical and wood stock. Woodland has been buying some of both. I had to wait a few days ago for a Superior Carriers truck to unload before I could unload my caustic. Also H.O. Bouchard has not brought any chemicals to Old Town in awhile.

The IMT in Auburn is now being largely used for utility poles and Portland isn't a great place for an intermodal facility... the end result of all this effort is very disappointing from my perspective. However, I know it is a phased project that will be expanded upon, I really just wish that they hadn't done the usual State of Maine 'good 'nuff' effort. They rebuilt all the track in there when honestly they could have focused on shoring up the existing track and building more than 1 loading track. Now you have to live load the thing and have a crew sit there and switch out. Also, what kind of run around is there?

Waterville would be an ideal location for an intermodal feeder as Poland Spring could pull product out of Kingfield pretty easily. Also, Pan Am would have the opportunity to market the train to mills and trucking companies for TOFC... given the driver shortages these days, they could very much work on a local/regional model which is what most trucking companies are working on anyways. At the least, you could get Hunt on board and get some drivers to go as far east as Woodland with a daycab...

Wonder if that's the reason they got Waterville to Royal back to 25mph.

They want 25 from NMJ to Rigby. Auburn is a great facility if the train stays on the SLR, but costly to just load and hand off to PAR. State of maimw was foolish for not having more than one loading track in Portland. Could have easily doubled loading ability, by running a track along side the Commercial Street wall they put in.

Mikejf wrote:They want 25 from NMJ to Rigby. Auburn is a great facility if the train stays on the SLR, but costly to just load and hand off to PAR. State of maimw was foolish for not having more than one loading track in Portland. Could have easily doubled loading ability, by running a track along side the Commercial Street wall they put in.

There are plans for more loading tracks in future phases if demand justifies it.

Where? By ripping up concrete? There doesn't appear to be enough space between the current track and the old yard. I guess they could put another in next to it but then the picker would need to reach over the track that's there now. Not unheard of but an operational annoyance.

Are D3 speeds pretty comparable to D1 right now with all the sections of 25?

Didn't they attempt to use Waterville as an intermodal already? What happened to it?
S

They had a joint venture with Conrail back in the 90's, not sure what happened with it. In fact, there are still signs coming off 95 in Waterville with directions to the Waterville IM yard.

690 wrote:They had a joint venture with Conrail back in the 90's, not sure what happened with it. In fact, there are still signs coming off 95 in Waterville with directions to the Waterville IM yard.

690 is correct, the signs are still there. See below,
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.524369, ... efkd_Q!2e0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

rail thru Library Ave in Auburn was replaced. Crossing some some new rail, rubber and pavement too. The old stuff with worn off edges is still sitting on the side of the ROW. No doubt that newer rail helped increase the speeds to 25. Only restriction thru town is passing Court St and I think they are planning to do some work on it at some point.

Down to about 14 miles of ten, and two crossings that are 10 between Waterville and Rigby.

Edit: forgot a spot that's 10, bumping it up to 14 miles total.

690 wrote:Down to about 12 miles of ten, and two crossings that are 10 between Waterville and Rigby.

Probably the lowest that's been in decades. I'm guessing its not 12 contiguous miles.

Eight, four and two. Both crossings are 10s in otherwise 25 mph sections (Depot St in Belgrade, and Court St in Auburn, as mentioned above).