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