Scanner Feed Update

The Maine Rail Scanner feed is up and running. The HAPT maintenance crew had "blue flag protection" posted for a bit. The flags are gone and the feed is operating normally.

Another Shade of Gray

Or alternatively; "Temporary Relief From The Normal Dullness" on District One.

George Melvin's annual slide show in Readfield gave us an excuse to get out and about on a very nice spring day. In fact I went the whole day in a t-shirt and no jacket or sweater for the first time this year. I didn't linger outside the car or a building for very long once it got dark though. The slide shows were absolutely first rate yet only semi-formal.

Waterville seemed like a logical place to go since our destination was about half-way there. There was quite a gaggle of fans at the parking lot - all with the same idea roughly - waiting on a westbound (top photo) with a lease unit on the point. That added a bit of color to the visit, albeit a dull shade of gray. What really made it exciting was the eastbound train parked at Readfield that the other fans told us about. The westbound guy in Waterville wasn't going anywhere until the eastbound arrived.

Arriving at Readfield a bit later we first headed to Luce Road since it crosses the middle of the siding. There we saw the back end of the train in the distance. We also heard the scanner chatter indicating that this guy was getting his form-D to leave. Back to the other crossing by the detector. Good timing. As you can see he began to roll after we arrived. This was a golden chance to get shots of these newly acquired, former Kansas City Southern units as they passed.

Not a news scoop, but we weren't left out for a change!

As I said before, the slide show and digital images were excellent. There were nationally known people showing or watching such subjects as the Bangor and Aroostook; CN's P.E.I. operations; Abo Canyon, Raton Pass and Tennessee Pass. In a sense it's depressing to see so much that has radically changed. But, it's always good to view any place when it was still under previous management.

Now the last thing to add is the odd track car sitting in Waterville. It's apparently some form of track geometry or just plain work car. Obviously it had been to the big city, based on all the art found on it. With all the new gray found on the line this day, who had time to pay attention to this rig?



BC

Catching Sun at Rigby

It's a pretty good day when you can catch a relatively matched set of 6-axle units of any kind anywhere near Pan Am District 1. At least this bunch above was aimed in the right direction sitting in Rigby yard. About the only matching thing on any of them is the HLCX decal on the long hoods.

It was a beautiful, warm and sunny Saturday so the DT&I Fan and I headed to Portland for a drive. We thought a swing by Photo Market and Maine Modelworks would be good. As usual we started with a swing by Lewiston Jct. and the SLR. GP15-1 #1505 was playing around on the wye at the end of the new yard. 394's power was just pulling through the engine house for servicing. The place was hopping a bit. Right next to the road was a nicely placed Quebec and Gatineau unit #3105 suitable for portrait photography. We stopped for a shot or two. Next to it was an older 'yellow jacket' unit. Both had new stickers proclaiming in French something like "Zero Accidents". Neat little accents for future modelers.

We saw a local fan at Danville who gave us the idea that we'd get skunked waiting for anything to go by on District 1. Seems that there were trains stacked up all over the place with outlawed crews or no crews. Rigby Yard and a lot of sidings in Portland would be full as well. A train was sitting in New Gloucester. Scrap metal gons are sitting at Rumford Jct. Someone was at Fairgrounds. Apparently only Leeds Jct. was open north of Royal Jct. and Walnut siding.

The shot on the right is meant to show the newish track layout at Rigby. The place is full of trains and cars. Left is the depressing sight of a bare space where the roundhouse once stood. It was knocked down this winter. The huge puddle is the old turntable pit. I guess it was too far gone to save, if you could get a likely environmental disaster to be saved these days.

As we arrived in Portland we saw a trio of units on the bridge by Sprague Energy. We kept going to Rigby but caught sight of blue PAR 307 and a blue HLCX unit heading east with a train. We turned around and tried to catch it down by the old Union Station area. No luck. Back to Rigby. Again a set of headlights and a red front end down the tracks. This one proved to be the set at the top of the screen pushing a train back into the yard. The first trio left a cut of cars down by the jail and there were 2 cuts of cars by the tank farm. Not much wiggle room. These guys followed the HLCX units and headed into the yard.

After the six pack set finished backing into the yard a pair of units come in from the east and scurried off to the engine layover track - at least it was the track with the oil catching mats between the rails. As near as we could tell from scanner chatter, they seemed to be getting out of the way. It wasn't long before the Downeaster came through. Boy, Rigby was getting crowded. What a fun and relatively action packed visit to a normally quiet - and constantly proclaimed 'dead' - part of the state.

Several hours later, 307 east still hadn't gotten to Danville Jct. and nothing else had gone by since we were there in the morning. We were definitely back to "life in the slow lane".

BC

February Picture Worth A Thousand Words

Who's model railroad is this anyway?

It's usually someone's basement or garage layout where you'd see something approaching the features in this photo. Of course, talk of another adventure next summer caused the brain to think about last summer. Snow and slush outside also caused a longing for warm and sunny days, gone by in this case.

Who doesn't recognize Tehachapi Loop built by the Southern Pacific Railroad in California? It's been well documented by magazines, videos, books and other railroad enthusiast literature. Of course there's nothing like visiting there live. Local Maine Central Railroad expert and author George Melvin and his wife Kathy were recently moved enough to write and publish "Tehachapi Today". The resulting book is a "must own" for anyone going there, or anyone who's been there! The maps and photos would have been helpful to our visit, but they will be useful for a triumphant return.

What really prompts the time put into writing all this is the unique features found in this one photo. Here you get to see the whole train spiral around itself. This feature is itself apparent with the help of the stark contrast of many white trailers on all of the cars in the picture. The train was heading upgrade and the power had just passed along with the non-trailer cars on the point. The train was well beyond sight still behind the scene below the tunnel. If I was a few feet higher you'd see another line of trailers on the rear of the train snaking around to the right. This type of thing is usually limited to model railroads and of course this was all built before modern machinery in the real world. And, how many of you could get this many cars to stay on this track design on a model railroad? "Stringlining" anyone? I'm sure a few people out there have that many cars and trailers along with the savvy to make it work.

The last feature that makes this unique and model-like is the scenery. For one thing, it's very open. You can see the loop. The Williams Loop on the old Western Pacific farther north is buried in trees. The scenery near Tehachapi is also relatively simple. Brown colors and a few lumps of vegetation. Not too difficult to create on a layout. Of course the complete view would be tough to duplicate, but the scene nearer the tracks is a bag or two of lichen away from done once the
plaster dries. Boy did we have fun with that thought on this trip!

BC