Folks tend to get a bit excited by the unit coal trains headed to New England power stations - all two destinations! The trains destined to go to Bow, NH are the most notable because they cover more distance, but Mt. Tom gets a few too. Bow's trains offer a lot of variety when you toss in the P&W's contributions from the Port of Providence. I figured it wouldn't hurt to note one of the others, though it is not a "unit train" and pretty much only one railroad is involved. There might even be other places using a few cars of coal in New England too.
The photo above was taken in Peru, ME. There used to be a healthy yard here. A large Diamond Match factory complex was located behind the cars in the photo. A spur still curves off to the remaining plant area. The siding is now called "Dixfield", which is the town across the river, and the cars are located at "Dixfield East". The old depot is now a Legion hall. The photo was taken from the road which takes you from Peru village to the bridge over the Androscoggin River to Mexico and Dixfield.
The New Page Paper mill in Rumford has a smallish coal fired power plant on it's back side along the balloon track surrounding the mill. EDRU, or whatever letters they are using lately, will bring around a dozen cars at a time to the mill often but not daily, making the coal cars an easy way to identify the train. The cars mainly have MEC reporting marks and some still have the old Delaware and Hudson paint under the coal dust.
The coal hoppers are not coming from the mines. They are coming all the way from the Portland waterfront. I'm no authority but I think the Sprague Terminal transloads the coal from ships or barges and I'm also forced to admit I don't know if it is domestic or imported coal. Since I commute on the road where I took the picture, I'm glad they use rail transport. All the extra trucks for coal mixed in with all the pulp, chemical and paper boxes one sees in the area would add to the joys of Route 108. When you see how tight the Rumford mill area is, you can see why they don't have a coal pile for the plant. Besides, that would be even more handling. See how easy it is to move the coal to the siding a few miles short of the mill until it is needed. Good old on-board storage.
Anyway, I've seen this "overflow" of coal cars sitting in Peru a grand total of 2 times now. Boxcars or log racks are common at this spot but hoppers are unusual. The mill is declining like most and one paper machine is being removed. That means less need for energy. Hopefully we'll have a few more years before the whole line is no longer needed.
BC
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