"Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

gokeefe wrote:Oil Extra was clear of the crossings in Winthrop at approx. 6:30 pm. RUPO as photographed above was observed in Portland clear of Congress Street at approx. 11:30 pm.

RUPO got held up at New Gloucester for several hours. There was an FBOX full of paper with the door stuck open about a foot. Over the radio it was heard the door crank was oos and so a maintainer was called to the train. By the time they were ready to roll again, it seems they had lost their window and wound up not getting into Rigby until later.

SJPO was into Old Town about 45 minutes ago, 313, 314, 514 and a solid train. On the west end of the mill was a Fairmont Tamper and a ballast regulator and lite 504 all crewed waiting SJPO to clear. I believe both of these machines are new to the battle up here. There has been a tamper floating around up this way, but the regulator was with a tamper in Belgrade a couple weeks ago. I've also heard, but have not confirmed that rock has been dropped in areas east of NMJ. I'll be out hunting for that in the coming weeks...
The total for machines I've seen up on the tie project is
2 Kershaw Tie Cranes
2 of the newer heavy TRIPP tie Machines (http://www.nordco.com/New-Machines/Tie- ... TRIPP.aspx) These things really do work...
1 older tie machine
2 (?) Fairmont tampers
1 Ballast Regulator

SJPO-http://kevin_smith.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3276289
Track Machines-http://kevin_smith.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3276293

KSmitty wrote:I've also heard, but have not confirmed that rock has been dropped in areas east of NMJ. I'll be out hunting for that in the coming weeks...

Yesterday around 10 in the morning I saw a ballast train in Bangor. If I had to guess maybe 20 cars.

Eastbound Oil Train at Winn last night at about 17:30. I dont remember if there where 4 or 5 units up front, but it was a mix of G-GMTX & PAR units.

4 Units-334, leased 3001 (xSLR Yellowbird), 376, 307 and oil. Caught them in Old Town, about 3P.

306 was at the Bucksport Mill today 3PM apparently waiting on a crew. Of note though was that starting from the crossing nearest Kenney Rd. there is fresh rock on the ground. There were 2 or 3 stretches visible from the road that had fresh rock. I don't know how far north they came, but it did not make it to Brewer.

Busy day at Keag on the NBSR side, apparently there is to be a new cutoff on the MM&A/EMR to bypass Brownville Junction. (I posted more details on the MM&A Board). But the MM&A wreck train was in town. http://kevin_smith.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3281565 While there we also caught NBSR's 6315 West with a huge train. I got to meet JB283 at Keag, was nice to meet you, enjoy your vacation!

I actually went north today looking for the new rock I'd heard about. Found lots in Old Town/Orono and more in Winn/Mattawamkeag. The stuff up north had been tamped and regulated, still waiting on that here in OT/Orono. There were a few random dump spots, mostly on high banks between, but surprisingly little is on the ground.
Winn looking east to Main St. http://kevin_smith.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3281584
And looking west from Main St. http://kevin_smith.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3281585
Lastly a "before" picture from Lincoln which somehow didn't get rock. I've been saying but figured I should take a picture of just how bad it is there. http://kevin_smith.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3281589 Tracks are literally in the mud, the near track is the main, which is why you can see a few ties, they had to dig them out to change them and they haven't gotten fully buried again the far track is the siding and its just a mudslide.

The rest of today's pictures are here - http://kevin_smith.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=85730

It was nice to meet you too. Its good to put a face with a name. I was in Winn yesterday 18 NOV around 11am visiting family and i saw a Pan Am track machine headed to Keag. It looked like it was flattining the rock piles between and on the side of the tracks.

JB283 wrote:It was nice to meet you too. Its good to put a face with a name. I was in Winn yesterday 18 NOV around 11am visiting family and i saw a Pan Am track machine headed to Keag. It looked like it was flattining the rock piles between and on the side of the tracks.

Probably the ballast regulator, he was tied up in Lincoln this morning and the rock up that way looks freshly worked.

Nice report Kevin!

I would imagine they will be planning on dropping more and more ballast as time goes by. Something I hadn't known about was that the Irving Refinery was shutdown for some routine maintenance recently and as a result was off line. I would anticipate that we will see an increase in Oil Train traffic again over the next few weeks as the refinery comes back online.

This morning around 3am i was thrown out of bed by the horn of a short SJPO. I couldnt see what the power was and didnt count the cars, it was to dark. I went up to Mattawamkeag this morning around 8am and there was a lone 373 in G paint with 12 cars from EMR/MNR/NBSR.

Drove by the Waterville yard today (12/6/12) a couple different times while working. First time was about 1:45pm, new blue MEC 345 & GATX 3003 were doing some switching on the west end of the yard. On the east end it looked like there were some oil cans and ST 77 was coupled to some cars and idling. Second time going by was 4:00pm ST 77 hadn't moved, but by the yard tower were new blues B&M 326, MEC 307 & MEC 381 together. Old paint MEC 315 and another New Blue were starting to head down into the yard. On the main was an old paint 500 series with a cut of gondolas.

MEC MWS 73 (the plow from Woodland) is in the yard at Mattawamkeag hasn't moved in over a week. A growing number of NS chip gons (spotted on Perma-Treat's tracks and in the yard) were present as were several empty centerbeams and old beat up MEC/BM open hoppers.

Further south than my normal northern reports, yesterday there was a string of maybe 10 or 15 50ft boxes on the siding at Leeds Junction. All were various Pan Am marks or GMRC, several in weathered MEC orange, a couple in B&M blue some in Pan Am blue and gray and various GE Railcar Leasing monocolors. The surprising find was a white "GBOX" --> http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3308651
It was one of the few with doors closed, leading me to wonder if this cut is bound for disposition like several of the other older B&M cars...

I just came through Rigby on the Downeaster, and it looks pretty full. Lots of what appeared to be westbound consists, judging from the processed lumber aboard. The are even a few tankers parked on the TI!