This spring has been awfully quiet on the blog. A few too many things - mostly good though - going on with work and not much noteworthy railfanning to post here in my case. So, when I spotted that our favorite boxcar and paint scheme combo is 5 years old now (apparently shopped in 1-04), I had to use this close up.
The photo above is of the famous MM&A "State Of Maine" car #1. Many people have seen it and I won't go into the one-of-a-kind paint scheme itself. My first real photo op was last October on the "County Tour", which you can refer to if you aren't familiar with the car. At that time I took a few detail shots, the photo above being one of them.
What caught my attention wasn't something new, it was something from the past - a railroad owned car shop. Most railroads have thinned out or contracted out their car shop business. Mega-mergers have consolidated company facilities to a fraction of before and shortlines often don't have the volume for their own elaborate shop, unless that's part of their business. Derby Shops next to Milo, ME is a holdover from a past that has disappeared in most places. Places like Erie's Meadville shops, B&O's DuBois shops, Lehigh Valley's Sayre shops and dozens more across the country have all gone over to rail car contractors or simply been erased. The Wisconsin Central, which was run by the same folks that run the MM&A, kept a shop at North Fon du Lac, WI too. It was still run by CN when I saw it a year ago. I don't know about WC's habits, but I know that outside work is often part of the revenue stream that keeps these shops alive. Having a locomotive shop in the complex helps too. MM&A probably has just enough of it's own business and just enough contracted business to justify the shop.
I'll let others do a detailed analysis of why the shop exists and if it will continue. I just like the little shop stencil. It's doubly cool because it is a derivation of the old Bangor and Aroostook shield like the current MM&A shield. That MM&A shop logo on the car is something that shows up on many MM&A as well as SLC cars that travel from coast to coast. One has to wonder if someone in a far off state sees it and wonders if Derby, or Maine for that matter, is in the mystical place known as Canada. I would hope that on this one car that's not an issue.
BC
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