by necr3849
I've been posting these sightings regularly on Yahoogroups, and I'm going to start doing them here to add some site activity. Starting from earlier this year.....
MMA had been discussing with Sprague in Searsport about adding a Saturday turn out of Northern Maine Junction. As of January, it began with small trains of like 3-8 cars. There didn't appear to be a real set time for the on-duty, but by March, things were into sort of a routine. Now in June, the trains are definitely for real.
An engineer out of Brownville will drive down to NMJ and report to the office anywhere from 11:30a through 3:30p. Normally, he's on closer to the earlier end of that window. He'll figure out his game plan, and head for "the Farm" or LMS. The power is almost always stored here, but Winter in particular can have the power stashed up near PAR's building. As of late, a weekday crew has been staging cars and making up some tains for the run to Searsport. More often than not, the Brownville guy still has to do a few switches or bring in a recent Brownville turn. In most cases, tanks rule for places such as....
1) Dead River in Hampden
2) GAC in Searsport
3) Sprague in Searsport
Once in a while this time of year, Lane gets some mini 2-bay hoppers in Stockton Springs along with their home off Cleanout in Hermon/Bangor. On most occasions, the train leaves for Searsport within an hour of the engineer's arrival. There have always been two locos sandwiching RC caboose VB-2, and it's a one-man operation. Last week's job with 8583 and 8578 had one car short of 20 once it left Dead River. GAC had 13 alone. Sprague has been taking some good blocks of slurry tanks on average. Weekdays still have a turn on Monday and Wednesday nights. I think that job reports for 7pm, so these weekend daylight moves have added some nice variety. Just wish the weather would be nice more often.
Just beware that these jobs aren't 100% guaranteed to leave Hermon. Every so often, the job stays "home" and spends its time switching or aasembling trains. Alway be sure you see it leave past Maine Energy and continue toward I95 before you haul to the next spot!
J Bray
MMA had been discussing with Sprague in Searsport about adding a Saturday turn out of Northern Maine Junction. As of January, it began with small trains of like 3-8 cars. There didn't appear to be a real set time for the on-duty, but by March, things were into sort of a routine. Now in June, the trains are definitely for real.
An engineer out of Brownville will drive down to NMJ and report to the office anywhere from 11:30a through 3:30p. Normally, he's on closer to the earlier end of that window. He'll figure out his game plan, and head for "the Farm" or LMS. The power is almost always stored here, but Winter in particular can have the power stashed up near PAR's building. As of late, a weekday crew has been staging cars and making up some tains for the run to Searsport. More often than not, the Brownville guy still has to do a few switches or bring in a recent Brownville turn. In most cases, tanks rule for places such as....
1) Dead River in Hampden
2) GAC in Searsport
3) Sprague in Searsport
Once in a while this time of year, Lane gets some mini 2-bay hoppers in Stockton Springs along with their home off Cleanout in Hermon/Bangor. On most occasions, the train leaves for Searsport within an hour of the engineer's arrival. There have always been two locos sandwiching RC caboose VB-2, and it's a one-man operation. Last week's job with 8583 and 8578 had one car short of 20 once it left Dead River. GAC had 13 alone. Sprague has been taking some good blocks of slurry tanks on average. Weekdays still have a turn on Monday and Wednesday nights. I think that job reports for 7pm, so these weekend daylight moves have added some nice variety. Just wish the weather would be nice more often.
Just beware that these jobs aren't 100% guaranteed to leave Hermon. Every so often, the job stays "home" and spends its time switching or aasembling trains. Alway be sure you see it leave past Maine Energy and continue toward I95 before you haul to the next spot!
J Bray
