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  • Railfanning (if any) West of Bangor

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1515340  by umtrr-author
 
It turns out I will be spending some time a bit west of Bangor early next month. (My wife is working and I'll go with her to have some vacation. Now that's a switch for me...)

Looking at maps, I see I will be near the PAR as it heads westbound out of Northern Maine Junction. This would be the Waterville to Bangor segment.

I'm thinking that (1) there's not that much to see and (2) it would be, let us say, difficult to observe anyway. Am I right?
 #1515358  by KSmitty
 
5 days/week you have NMWA/WANM. The schedule is hit or miss, but odds are you will have something moving at least a couple days in any given week during daylight. There are some nice shots between Waterville and NMJ.
Bog Rd in Hermon,
The Rte.2 bridge in Carmel is nice, you can park in the public works parking lot at the west end of the bridge and walk up,
Etna has a couple crossings on the same circuit, with a couple options,
Newport by the old Guilford Manufacturing facility was a decent shot. I haven't been in a couple years, may have grown up,
Bridge on Rte.220 in Detroit is a nice overhead with a long straightaway to the east,
Downtown Pittsfield has the old depot which was just restored. Nice downtown too, lots of angles.
Snake Root Rd in Pittsfield is also a nice shot.
Couple options in Burnham, including with the MP100 milemarker which is always a neat grab.
The Farifield-Benton bridge over the Kennebec is a nice shot(s) and is in range of public sidewalks on Rte.100. Just park on the side of Bunker Rd on the island.

Plenty of other options, too, but those are what I would call the high points. Not sure where in that stretch you'll be staying, but NM-1 is also in the NMJ-Old Town-Orrington area and that has potential, Tin Bridge in Bangor, maybe the Penobscot bridge on the Bucksport branch, etc... And CM&Q runs a couple times a week to Searsport, and weekdaily(?) to Brownville. Both of which are relatively short 30-40 mile trips 1 way. On the other end SAPPI-3/4 runs daily from Hinckley to Waterville and back. Short trip, about 22 miles total, but a few real nice shots.

If you've got a scanner, that will make life a lot easier to find this stuff.
Good Luck!
 #1515487  by BAR
 
Since you will be in the area you might want to visit the Cole Land Transportation Museum near the I-95/I-395 junction in Bangor where BAR BL2 #557 "American Railfan" is on exhibit. if you have never seen the former BAR station/office building in Northern Maine Junction you also might want to pull into the parking lot (off of Route 2) to have a look.

BAR
 #1515629  by backroadrails
 
NMWA is on duty at 08:00 and WANM reports at 18:00, so the only road job you will see in the light is NMWA. CMQ Job 211 runs to Searsport on Monday and Thursday, and the crew reports at NMJ at 10:00 AM. CMQ Job 202 to and from Brownville Jct. is a night time operation, although I have heard that CMQ will be switching to days for Job 202, 420, and Job1/2 once this years trackwork is done. I wouldn't suggest shooting by the Guilford woolen mill, that part of Newport has become a home for a lot of drug activity lately, and there have been 2 or 3 fights near the tracks in the past few months.
 #1515891  by umtrr-author
 
Thanks all.

I'm in Etna... nothing today, but it's Sunday as I type this. So far today the major trainspotting has been a pair of isolated freight cars (MEC boxcar, BAR refrigerator car) at the station in Machias along the rail trail. (My friends have been in Maine also and we decided to drive over to Calais to walk over to St. Stephen and pick up New Brunswick and the Atlantic Time Zone as "set foot ins", having little to do with trains.)

I may have some time to look around on Monday or Tuesday. The Cole Land Transportation Museum is on the list of things to see... whoa, they have a BL-2!!!