May Photo Worth A Thousand Words

This inglorious beast is recognizable to most railfans as a "Budd Car", otherwise known as a Rail Diesel Car or "RDC". This particular one is found on the Bellefonte Historical Railroad in Bellefonte, PA. I chose it for being of New Haven Railroad orgin and the fact that this was a recent picture from the Altoona trip last April on which I've already written a post.

The "RDC" has been and still can be described by experts at great length. They were designed to replace locomotive pulled trains on light density lines where such economies were needed. Each car was an independently powered unit which could be added to other units to form a longer train. Interestingly, though RDC's were often powerful enough to pull another unpowered car on many lines this could not be done without serious repercussions from the Budd Company. It affected the warranty, and of course they could sell more RDC's as a result.

The New Haven Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad were two northeastern railroads with massive webs of passenger routes throughout New England. This meant that they were also saddled with massive revenue problems when passenger service could no longer pay the bills. The RDC bought these two roads some time. Time to reduce costs to see if they could maintain service profitably, and later, as the cars deteriorated, time to drive off those stubborn customers who still used trains to get to work or travel between cities. These two lines were not the only railroads to buy these once popular cars, but they were the top users.

Boston and Maine bought more than anyone and the later MBTA kept them around even when the engines could no longer propel the cars. Several cars had to be hauled around by a locomotive. Later, many of those cars were de-motored and turned into regular cars. For years the B&M fleet suffered on in various states of decline, long after other roads replaced them. Many of New Haven's Budd Cars went into Amtrak service or suffered under Penn Central. The example above still has many of it's New Haven options including the oval number board, the recessed headlights and, out of sight, solid plates on the sides for logos and reporting marks.

Now, I noticed that the logo on the car was missing. Below, I had to include another shot from a 2005 expedition to show that much. The blue color and logo is very reminiscent of the B&M McGuiness style logo. Their other car is a later Reading car, which is different in the details I mentioned. Neither is former B&M.

By the way, the town of Bellefonte is a worthwhile detour on your way to Altoona. Paul Lodge and his wife enjoyed the gardens around the depot and the local architecture is pretty neat. I've never been able to coordinate with the operations around there so I can't comment on the excursions. The Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad, part of the North Shore System, has an engine house just a couple of miles up the road in Colville too. Apparently they do well out of that area, but I've not studied it well enough to catch much.



Aside from a neat depot and a couple of RDC's, BHRC has an old New Haven wood caboose (at least the trucks are NH) and an old wooden snow plow. For some of us that's reason enough to take our chances on this little detour.

BC

Spotted @ Ontario Airport

I got in from Manchester at 8:30PM PDT this evening. It's about a 1/4 mile walk to the auto rental building, so I hoofed it in the 70 degree night air. I glanced at the tracks immediately adjacent the airport to the north; they were quiet. Most every time I come through I see at least one stack train headed west, 2 flared, flagged & winged on the front, and one on the rear.

I got this week's car (a Caliber with 41K miles - rides fine but that new car smell is increasingly becoming a hit-or-miss proposition. I can't wait to pick up a new ChrysFiat, just so I can hear something rattle and I can shout "Fix It Again Tony")

I left the car rental area and drove west along the tracks. It's a good 2-2.5 mile stretch along the airport. As I was driving I noticed a signal in my rear view mirror - red-over-yellow, indicating something was headed east. I always thought UP had directional running around the airport: WB on the north track, EB on the track just south of the airport.

Just before i was to cross over to I-10 and my hotel for the evening, the gates lowered and headlights approached. This lead unit wasn't reflecting as a normal UP unit reflects at night - too many horizontal stripes. The unit got closer and I was treated to the SP Heritage Unit, pulling two other UP units and nothing else. I assume they were headed for Colton.

Well that's 2 heritage units in a week - WP and SP. The signs bode well for HAPTapalooza 2009.

TONIGHT'S BEER - Sierra Nevada Porter, fresh from the brewery in Chico CA.

Wheelman ... out

Calais Branch Recon

The leaves were just starting to pop out. The weather was decent. So, why not a trip to Calais? Well, you could come up with something more exciting but this was relatively uncharted territory for the DT&I Fan and I. So, why not? Besides, he collects counties like The Wheelman and needed Washington County. Pan Am shut down Calais/Woodland operations the day before, so it's some of the usual "day late and a dollar short" railfan fate we've both had in Maine, but there was still some fossil hunting to be had. The shot to the left is essentially what we drove all the way to get; empty tracks in Calais the day after the shut down.

The usual stops on the way to NMJ netted little of note. Leeds Jct. and Waterville were semi-quiet, though we spotted trains EDNM and NMED "side by each" in Waterville. EDNM had wind generator equipment toward the front of the train and we later saw the same train in NMJ on the return voyage.

Our first non-usual stop was Ellsworth. We stopped by the old depot then headed over to Washington Jct. to look over the recently established Down East Scenic Railway. There were a few workers about and a few nicely painted cars. The old B&ML 70 Tonner #54 was handy but boarded up. We didn't linger long since we didn't see anyone we knew and they clearly marked the place with no tresspassing signs. The roadbed in either direction looked to be clear of brush and washouts, so they have worked on the track to get things started. Track seemed good back toward Brewer but not very far to the east. Good being relative since it was 85lb rail on gravel roadbed 20 plus years ago when it was last used. We saw evidence of tie work back west to the outskirts of Ellsworth but that's where the newly installed crossbucks stopped so that might be the limits for now. I'll leave further speculation to the experts.

Continuing on, we followed the empty Calais branch east. We had to do some zig-zag maneuvers down lesser roads to follow the line at times. A DeLorme Atlas made this child's play. With the nice day and low foliage we had great visibility for the downeast scenery and following tracks. We stopped in Harrington to see what we could find. We found the start of the rail trail and the home of the Worcester Wreath Company, known for donating wreaths to Arlington Cemetery every year. We were also deep in wild blueberry country, so the barrens were newly burned in some places. Eventually we reached Machias. There we found the depot and an MEC boxcar, both of which have seen some attention though the rail trail construction has removed the tracks. Directly across the street was Helen's Restaurant. A local landmark. We had to eat there.

The next photos are of rail-trail construction. A truss bridge in Dennysville was getting some new decking and railings so the materials are stacked nearby for the job. At Ayers Jct. we see the end of track with the DT&I Fan checking the dates on the rail (early 1900's). Ayer's Jct. was particularly interesting for us out-of-towners. The Eastport branch took off from here. I photographed the recently pulled up line in Eastport back in the day, but did not trace it to here. A short runaround siding and a short stub is all that is left of the branch trackage. Of course the rail-trail chops off that small piece at the same road as the Calais line, so the connection is lost.

From Ayers Jct. we headed to Charlotte along the old trackage and found Depot Rd. Apparently this once had a depot but the siding is still present. We couldn't see obvious evidence of the building but guessed where it might have been. The main road continued to Calais so we did too. We eventually rejoined Route 1 and could see Canada across the river. After poking around downtown Calais and visiting the Irving station at the border crossing, we followed the line toward Woodland as best as we could. It's not easy to lose but it's not easy to see.

Poorhouse Rd. looked promising and boy was that a good guess. We ran right into a masonry roundhouse and the small yard pictured above. This is just beyond (RR east) the bridge where cars are shoved over the border to the NBSR. For those who might try to find this spot, you will see the NBSR and the bridge from Rt. 1 on the west side of Calais. You won't have trouble finding the river that is the border either.

Our final stop in the area was the Domtar mill in Woodland. It is shut down and the railroad in turn is shut down but we thought we might find some fossils or soon-to-be fossils. Logic said that if we stay on our side of the river we should encounter tracks at either end of the plant. Guess again! The west end of the plant yard only has enough of a stub to switch on. There is no east end either. The tracks cross the river somewhere inside the plant property. Oh well. I got this "driveby" shot of the chip plant with the very empty four track yard in the foreground just to have something. Plant security at these places is sometimes overzealous though I probably could have done much better if something of note presented itself.

The Domtar plant is closed indefinitely according to news reports. That means it could reopen eventually or it could be all over. Stay tuned. I'm sure someone will forward news to the listservs.

It was a perfect day for an outing. After exploring the last corner of the state that we haven't railfanned before, we'll probably head west next. You know, those wild west towns over to Vermont!

BC