May 10th, or "National Train Day" of 2014 started rainy but promised to clear a bit in the middle so Carl and I chose to head over to Brunswick for the 12:30 arrival of the Downeaster. There would be state-wide organizations of various kinds and tours of the train. Otherwise, pretty tame.
Right across from our parking spot was this police rig for Amtrak's K9 unit. It had PA plates. They had just arrived as we did around noon. Inside the station area we found tables and displays for about every rail organization in the state. Outside but under the portico was this speeder nicely restored for the Maine Central RR. The owner was busy talking to folks so I didn't get any info on it. Once the Downeaster arrived, the train grabbed everyones attention and this speeder was next to the lines of people.
The train arrived from Boston with little fanfair but it was the event people were there for. Here I managed to catch the locomotive as it passed the platform. It stopped well before it reached the wye switch and the end of the platform siding. The red signals probably had something to do with it too. Carl had seen the engineer around before so he went over to say hi. I sat around and photographed a few odds and ends, away from the crowds.
Once we'd had our fill at Brunswick, we made our way back to District One around Yarmouth and work our way along the line to Danville Jct., Auburn and Leeds Jct. Not much moving. We heard the detector go off so we sat in the Memorial Park in Lewiston waiting on the train to cross on the bridge. After about 45 minutes we figured we'd heard a train heading the other way. Eventually we heard something about MP 147 on the scanner so we dashed off figuring we might intercept in Winthrop. A minute or two sooner and we might have. We only got ahead as the train hit the weeds along the lake. Without a DeLorme, we figured we'd head to Readfield and scope out the tracks from there. We crossed the tracks by the store, turned right and then took the next substantial, though dirt, right turn we came to. This brought us to a "temporary" crossing down by some camps. But it was a nice clear straight stretch in the middle of the woods.
While this chase was taking shape, we heard RUPO escape the branch and head west. Naturally, we were well out of place for catching it, we assumed. However, as we returned to Lewiston, the detector went off behind us. We thought it was PORU but saw just enough train to see that it was not, saving us a wild goose chase in the wrong direction. We had enough time to catch it at what was once Carter's Feed Mill by Marden's - now the back side of Subway.
We only lingered long enough to see to it that it wasn't stopping for lunch or a meet on Fairgrounds siding. Off to Memorial Park for a second attempt at a photo on the bridge. This time we were successful. The park wasn't so busy that we couldn't get our shots. The people just made the shots more interesting since they were looking at the same thing. I guess the shot could have been less cluttered but it's a memorial park, full of objects on display.
Once the train cleared the bridge we hit the road to beat it to Rumford Jct. siding. As it turned out PORU was already there waiting. We drove via New Auburn to get over to Danville Jct. We saw signals lit but no sign of a train, so we headed for Hackett's Road. There it was. The scanner was starting to liven up too as RUPO called out at the other end. We were around only a couple of minutes when RUPO passed the signal and worked the switch. Last time I watched the passing ritual from this spot, blue paint didn't exist. Catching the old SCL unit #381 with its odd-ball low-hood headlight was cool too. The end of the train even proved interesting with the NS chip cars used to haul shredded tires to Rumford. It is cool to see chip cars from another part of the world, even if they are not carrying wood. A pair of NS gray chip cars were headed up on PORU.
And thus endeth National Train Day 2014 for us.
BC
