"Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

Is the lumber customer at Enfield already in service and shipping cars?

Negative. And the date for the other haulage traffic going back to Pan Am keeps getting pushed back as well - we're being told it won't go until May now.

As for other existing customers, Pan Am also services Downeast Emulsions, which takes asphalt tanks, Galt Block as mentioned above (or whatever the actual name of the warehouse is nowadays). There had been talk of Pottles taking cars again recently, but as far as I know that hasn't taken place, and they also still have the siding into Lane's, although I highly doubt they will ever service them again, especially with Lanes adding more tracks on the CP side.

Is Grimmel's in Topsham still shipping by rail? I also thought there were a couple more on the Rumford branch

Isn't it just DeCoster on the Rumford branch besides the mills?

Might be some Steel and/or Lumber transloading.

A scrap outfit has been loading cars in the old mill yard at Livermore Falls.

ARC Steel in Kingfield is taking cars at Dixfield now. They relocated off the end of the Madison branch in North Anson.

Irving gets logs for the Dixfield sawmill, I think they are taking those up to the Rumford Mill yard, but they might be unloading in Dixfield now.

Does anyone know if the facility which looks to be some type of lumber mill about a mile North of Woodland Pulp and paper gets rail service? Thanks.

That is an old Lousiana Pacific OSB(?) plant. Old being operative word. Shuttered for a decade +/-. The switches on both legs of the wye have been pulled, I believe when they did the trackwork after Woodland Pulp bought the railroad from Maine Central/PAR.

appears to have been shuttered prior to April 2005 (by LP)

railcars do show up in the 1997 image of the facility, but none after that.

as of 2019, there is some activity there again, judging by the log piles in the yard. appears to have begun in 2015, as 2014 images show some dismantling activity happening, and then logs appear in the yard in 2015 images, and continue to the latest images in 2019.

Someone on one of the Canadian boards mentioned that there was another active customer North of the pulp mill so was thinking it must the old OSB mill. Maybe they just assumed it was rail served or maybe they've rebuilt tracks into the facility?

Am curious how many times a day Pan Am runs up the branch to Sappi at Skowhegand, is it just once or is it multiple moves? Thanks.

Most days it's one roundtrip. When I was living in that area they would leave Waterville early in the AM and get back sometime between 10 and noon.

Is the line up to Keag in daily operation now? How much track work was put into the line over the last year?

No, not back in daily service yet.

Not much really, Irving did some contract tie work. Not sure how far they made it, maybe half way to Old Town from 'Keag, didn't do a heavy density job either.

Fact of the matter is, the line is fine for 10mph operations as it was. The problems always come in the spring when the ground softens up and the lack of ballast makes itself known.