Downeaster Study

The Wheelman was home on hiatus before the next big gig so today we headed south for a relatively low key visit to Pan Am District 2 south of Portland. It was nice to get out with a "mission" too. The idea was to check out the new station in Saco and anything else we could get in the vicinity with actual trains going by. Some Downeaster pics were part of the deal. DT&I Fan and I tried this a few weeks ago and got skunked. Today we took a timetable, scanner and some of Wheelman's luck. It was overcast the whole way so we had sub-par light, but on the plus side, no tough backlighting.

We saw a local switching 22 empty slurry tanks and coal hoppers near Sprague Energy in S. Portland. Unfortunately they stopped right by the bridge over the bay, so no pictures. After a turn around by the old Commercial Street Yard, we headed over to Rigby. Very un-lively at both ends so we moved on to the new CPF201. There we found new signals duly pointing sideways (so crews don't have to obey them and stop) while the old signals live out their final days. Scanner noise sounded like we had a freight coming in from the west so we stayed put. We then heard the detector go off at MP213. The second report was spaced well so it had to be a freight. About 20 minutes later we heard the detector again. That could have meant that two freights passed each other and one would be by soon. We'd know in a few minutes. That's when our EB showed up with 517 on the point (333, 377 trailing). He crossed over to head into Rigby.


Thinking we had nothing else headed our way, we headed south. We went about a mile when a Portland bound Downeaster was crawling by on the heels of the freight. It turns out we mis-read the timetable. Oh well. Catching a freight was tougher.


Onward and upward. We had an hour to kill before a pair of trains stopped at Saco. We dropped into the old Lisa's Pizza (something else now - I forget the name) and got out of there with about 6 minutes to get to the depot. Close call but we needn't have worried. The Boston bound came first (2 at upper left), on-time and about 10 minutes after we arrived. The Portland bound was 40-50 minutes late, and was supposed to show before the other. We waited for the second and tried a new angle for photos. (right and left) The photo at lower left is of the mill complex on Saco Island that is being redeveloped with the Downeaster in mind. The skeleton of the future clock tower for the depot stands at the far end of the depot foundation. The platform is nearly done but the building part in between was just bare concrete awaiting the rest of the construction. Looks like a good sized building.


We figured that we only had a few minutes to the next Boston bound but then we just saw the trainset that would make that run. We re-figured correctly that we wouldn't see another train for at least an hour so we headed down to Wells. There a crowd had gathered to ride, but it seemed that they didn't know of the delay yet. As soon as someone called Amtrak, they migrated inside the depot to get out of the chill. The depot is pretty plush for Amtrak but only visitor info people staff it. No one on hand today. I got some detail shots of the facilities and we waited like everyone else, except the two of us stayed trackside out of habit. We heard on the scanner that SD26 #643 was leading an EB somewhere to the west so we hoped it might amble along (It did not; it was waay off!). The Boston bound train arrives on the left as passengers wait. On the right is the sign which extols the virtues of the Wells depot and who's in charge.

With the bulk of the adventure over, the Wheelman and I pulled straight out of the lot and headed to "The Junctions" and home via the Maine Turnpike's convenient entrance ramp across the street. The "CPDD" at Falmouth perked us up but we got skunked at Danville Jct. and Lewiston Jct. It was a good ride anyway and pretty good for a low expectation day.

Vacation is now officially over!

BC