Skull's Excellent Adventures 2011

Only speaking for myself, I'd say Skull brought his usual luck for finding the unusual or different. (Just look at the archives under any July) Despite PAR District 1's reluctance to show us much, it still showed the strange, odd and curious from time to time - trackworkers at "the Keag" for example. We also followed WASJ for quite a bit of its journey, catching it at "the Keag" a day later. Lacking power but consisting of the same 50+ WASJ cars, we watched as it was picked up by NBSR for the trip to St. John.

The words and photos are all mine unless otherwise noted, and all is subject to revision from time to time as facts become known or mistakes are found. HAPT members mentioned are working from their nearby homes and Skull was based out of the very comfortable and reasonably priced Sleepy Time Motel in Auburn, ME - a great location at the bridge overlooking "Rumford Jct. West", and minutes from Danville Jct. and Lewiston Jct.

TUESDAY:
The first day was pretty routine with a visit to Danville Jct where the DT&I Fan was also posted. I was the third to arrive. DJ-1 was finished for the day before anyone showed up but PORU was on the scanner doing some kind of power swap at Leeds Jct.

DT&I Fan had to leave for work so Skull and I headed to Leeds Jct. where PORU was likely to be lurking. It was, sitting on the siding but long enough run past the crossovers. We found the three engines were displaying the last three paint schemes. With little else to do we got our pictures, listened for any info and headed north up the branch. RUPO was around Jay but sounded like it was headed south through Livermore. Either way, we gave up for lack of light around the DeCoster grain elevators in Leeds. Here is an excerpt from Skull's report for the day.

DJ-1 = 348 (MEC)

AYWA @ 10:50 503 - 507 - 511 - 337(B&M) - 515 - 334(B&M) 75 cars. Through Danville Junction.

AYWA cutoff its front 3 engines and a long cut of cars at Leeds Junction, then turned its remaining power on the Y track and took its remaining cars to Waterville. As of 21:00 PORU MEC 503(E) - 507(W) - 511(E) was still at Leeds Junction as RUPO was finally down to MPR-2. Then Brad and I headed over to the SLR at

Lewiston Junction where there was NOTHING happening, same power as earlier so it seems no # 393 tonight. Short cut of cars on Rumford Junction Siding.

Quiet on District 1 today.

Till Next Time Railfans.

WEDNESDAY:
I think this day was to be relatively low key but we started early at "the junctions." As we will see, the rail gods of district 1 didn't want Skull to see much, at first. Danville, Lewiston and Leeds junctions were quiet. PORU(?) was gone from Leeds Jct. though. We headed north to Waterville to see what we could shake loose. Before we hit town we heard WASJ on the scanner, making noises about leaving town. We made a quick trip to the yard office area and then tried to locate it down the line. It turned out to be behind the Chinet plant and it was going to leave soon. We knew just where to go too. We found a parking place on the Benton side of the river and walked out onto the Rt. 100 Kennebec River bridge. We could hear the train blowing for all the Fairfield crossings and watched it pass through the last crossing next to CPF 110. We got some nice shots of the train crossing the river. A canoe even obliged us and crossed the river right in front of us, almost on cue.

We proceeded to leapfrog in front of the train to several spots. The first was CPF107 at the other end of the siding in Benton on Bellsqueeze Road. I noticed that the siding still had an electric switch despite the fact that the siding is usually used for car storage. It wasn't much of a chase so we were way ahead by the time we got to Burnham Junction and the former B&ML. From there we proceeded to Pittsfield. We photographed the train by the depot and broke off the chase. It turned out that we saw one of the several Pittsfield area rail buffs (Tom) when we filled the gas tank and we asked him about another (Brandon) who works downtown. It turns out that Brandon saw the same WASJ about 100 feet away from where we were. We decided to return to Waterville and leave the "field of pits"- former home of "the Fiddler". We planned to go north the next day anyway.

Not much to see at Waterville. Apparently SAPPI-3 had just arrived and the power was down by the yard office (left photo). No more "Geeps". At least the unusual #381 (low nose headlights - right photo) was apparently doing the switching chores. No more traffic on the scanner so we headed home.

Back near Lewiston we heard scanner chatter in or around Danville Jct. so we checked it out. Before we could get there we heard something about the brakes on #348, which was doing DJ-1 duties. When we arrived WAAY was backing out of the siding and leaving town. Maybe there was an aborted pick-up of the unit? Skull confirmed the train symbol by asking the passing crew who nodded and waved back.

THURSDAY:

On this day we were joined by "the Videoman". We made a fairly leisurely departure from Danville and headed north up the turnpike. Not much going on via the scanner so we made a bee-line run to Waterville and NMJ. Waterville was very empty and quiet, apart from a mill job somewhere. NMJ was a little better. The two PAR units in the depot area did move a bit but the yard was unusually empty. No scanner chatter at all from the MMA.

From here we worked our way up to Old Town and Route 2. The idea was to follow the line to "the Keag". Since we were expecting to see little, we took our time. However, as we approached Mattawamkeag the NBSR channel became more active. An MOW foreman was looking for clearance for work from the St. John RTC. The RTC in turn, by the sound of it, was expecting the EB freight out of Brownville to be calling at about the same time. In the end we found out that an actual NBSR train would be passing if we simply waited. Excellent! We set up at the Rt. 2 crossing around the entryway to the Verso pulpwood yard. This provided a good view of the unusual bridge over the Penobscot River. My best shot is at the top of this post.

It did take over an hour to anything to arrive. Sunscreen was called for in this case and the "biteless black flies" were a nuisance. But, it was more than worth any discomfort. The train came over the bridge with 4 of its cars and picked up the 56 cars of the former WASJ chased the previous day from PAR. Then it backed the whole thing over the bridge and unified the whole train. This gave us some time to skip ahead to the depot area.

The NBSR MOW crew was taking a break near their vehicles in the lot and were very friendly. We introduced ourselves (Videoman's Train Time video got their attention) to some who were chatting near their cars. They said trains run on Tue-Thu-Sat. We got lucky. As the train neared the crew lined up on either side of the tracks to inspect the train. We set up nearer the Mattawamkeag River bridge. The full train was over 100 cars and about 25 of them were auto racks - something seen in few places but the old CP line in Maine. As the train crosses the river an MOW guy gets on the radio and says something to the effect of: " I hope you guys were smiling for the Channel 9 News". Like playing "telephone", it was mentioned earlier that Train Time can be seen on Augusta channel 9 public cable, and the latest translation was just too funny.

Here's an excerpt from Skull's post:

After many years of going to the "KEAG" We hit a homerun. We caught the east bound train from Brownville Junction. He picked up a long string of cars off of Pan Am's main line. Most were on yesterdays

WASJ.. Also 2 track cars, MOW machines on PanAm. They have been doing a lot of tie and ballast work on the line. The NBSR power was 9802 - 2612 - 008(SLUG) - 2318. He went east on the "Mattawaumkeag Sub" at 14:40. The NBSR / Maine Eastern had a lot of MOW guys working the line. Told us the NBSR runs

over to Brownville Junction on Tuesday,Thursday & Saturdays.We then swung up thru East Millinocket,

completely dead with rusted rails. quite a few cars in Millinocket Yard along with ex Conrail B23-7 2000.

Over in Brownville Junction the yard was hopping as they were building a train for Montreal with a long string pushed over the bridge on the NBSR Main Line. I could see 2 C-30's and 1 B39-8E at the east end of the yard but we couldn't get close enough to get the numbers. Derby Shops were closed up so we headed down to "DYSARTS TRUCKSTOP" in Hermon for our annual H.A.P.T. Dinner. A Fun day today.

Till Next Time Railfans

As you can see we continued to make the big loop over to Millinocket, Brownville, Derby and NMJ, with a final stop at Dysarts to dine with HAPT's "Northern Correspondent". Millinocket was about the only other place pictures were taken. The yard had cars this year but only the former Conrail B23-7 #2000. The inactive engine house area had a scale car which I worked into a photo. Not much to photograph at any other location though Brownville was "active" but obscured by trains, trees and lack of access. Another good day for a drive in the woods up north though. The NBSR made the whole week.

FRIDAY:
It was a bit tougher to roll out and get going after all the driving up to this point. It was early afternoon before we headed towards Portland to see what was moving. Low key day as it turned out. We rolled through Danville and turned south to New Gloucester and Royal Jct. The usual drive to catch something east out of Rigby. Very little seemed to be moving during the day as before so we suspected that work on the Downeaster extention to Brunswick was the culprit. At Royal we saw lit signals, plenty of track work completed and a work truck parked past the switch. Previous experience with nosy local law enforcement dictated that we move on.

We stopped by the Downeaster terminal at Thompson's Point. Plenty of equipment was on hand and it appeared that the departure due to run in 10 minutes might be slightly delayed. The train was sitting just past the crossing and spare units and cars were in two places. Skull got out for some quick pictures but we took off in a hurry for CPF201 in South Portland. The tiny delay gave us plenty of time to arrive at the private crossing and get ready. As happened last year when we saw the Downeaster, Billy's luck caught a day when two cars and a "mud missile" were headed to servicing in Boston. We proceeded back to Rigby to see if anything was stirring. Other than the usual sights and sounds, nothing appeared to be following the Downeaster.

We hoped for a freight since there was about a 5 hour window on the Portland end to sneak a train through. There were no westbounds so maybe an eastbound was hiding in Wells or beyond. So we headed south following the line on Rt. 1 and Rt. 9. Nothing. We turned in at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk. I decided to look through the book store (I did buy a couple of books) but no tour since they were going to close in 30 minutes. Skull told me lots of tidbits about a bunch of "T" items seen from the parking lot. That made for an interesting stop. Most times any of us go by this area it's early, late or out of season s0 the place is closed. This was much better than usual.

We headed straight back at that point. We had a "slide show" planned for my living room at 7pm. On the way we heard tidbits on the scanner about a train running out of time around Rockingham Jct. in NH. Apparently PH-1 was going to take over. Well, that was too far and too long given our circumstances. At least something was moving though. We did have time for some really large calzones at Mario's in New Gloucester on the way. Slides by the Wheelman; Train Time segments by Videoman; and a few odd photos by me on the LCD screen. A fun way to end the day. The four of us quit around midnight.


SATURDAY:
We were beginning to think Skull was hated by the District 1 gods. Fewer trains than usual were seen during this visit. This day seemed little different at first. Skull and I had breakfast at Roy's and they do change over to lunch at 11am as we were told. Lunch conversion took place at 11am sharp while we finished. But, while we could see the D-1 tracks, no trains went by

After picking up the DT&I Fan, we struck out for Leeds Jct. We planned to go over the Rumford branch. This is nearly "home turf" for me since I've been commuting to work in the valley for going on 20 years. Though we hoped to see something, not surprisingly we saw empty tracks all the way to Rumford. There we found that RUPO had just arrived. Past practice seemed to be that it took about an hour or so to unload one train and take off with another, if it left was going to leave right away. We grabbed soda and snacks at McDonalds and returned to find the power tied up at the roundhouse. I guess they weren't leaving soon after all. Time to return down the branch. The scanner was totally dead the whole way except for occasional locals around Waterville. We were hoping for a branch train of some kind but would settle for a WB on the freight main. It was not to be.

Luck changed as we approached Lewiston. Scanner chatter picked up. We had time to go to Danville Jct. and found POWA working the junction right away. They had a nice large set of power with new blue units up front and the old "sludge gray" in back. We arrived as they pick up DJ-1 unit #348. They'd already set out and picked up their cars. They were on the siding to get 348 sitting on the old main spur over the now gone diamond. They disappeared toward Black Cat Rd. as they worked back to their train on the mainline. The siding and the SLR track have stop signs on either side of the grade crossing which we watched in use. Apparently the crossing signal circuits don't activate until that point and by stopping, the gates have time to respond. The circuits also don't send the gates down for every move in the yard either. The main track has plenty of lead time for the gates to come down though.

While all of this happened we heard horns on the SLR. Something was coming down. As POWA did their inspections to leave, down comes SLR's LLPX#1512 and A small train to work the interchange. Unlike the old days, the two trains went about their business without conflict. In the days of the diamond they would have held each other up waiting for the signal to cross. Now they carry on on parallel tracks. POWA left town as the SLR train disappeared into the yard. We gave chase, but this is Pan Am not Union Pacific, so we stopped at Irving to grab snacks. We heard the SLR crew on the scanner mention something to the effect; "The cameras have scattered. They didn't care about us." when they re-emerged from the yard and we had made our escape.

We had plenty of time for this chase. Being a Saturday, traffic was minimal in Lewiston so we headed to Strawberry Ave. for a photo. We were ahead by a few minutes. From there we got ahead to the "Lady in the Field" - the defect detector at 157.9 on Merrill Rd. No pictures there since the evening light was in our face, but we wanted to be sure it came through town without stopping. Our last wait was in Greene. We stopped at Barrel Shop Rd. (Barrel-Ass Rd. to some of us.) This was shady but the sun was all wrong anyway so I made the best of it. A local resident and railfan came out with his video camera to film while we were there. DT&I Fan knew him and had a conversation as the train neared. We left while the train was still passing and the video camera was still rolling. A re-crew was waiting in a cab at Leeds Jct. so we simply watched the approach from Roy and the train asked where to stop for the changeover.

Light was failing and exhaustion from over 900 miles of railfan road trips was setting in. Another excellent day was ending and with it the end of our exploits with Skull for another year.

BC