Rough Day For Auburn Traffic

WAPO parked at Strawberry Ave., Lewiston.

We started off on the usual "patrol" of the area north (east) of Lewiston.  We immediately found WAPO parked at Strawberry Ave. with it's tail hanging well into the "singley" track down past the old Fairgrounds.  The light was good on the matching paint jobs so I got out for a photo.  We figured an eastbound might be near, but strangely, nothing was heard on the scanner.  So, we pushed on. 

Nothing else was moving as it turned out.  We thought we had RUPO nearby but that turned out to be way off base.  Meanwhile we noticed a lot of MOW activity.  The parking area at Leeds Jct. was full.  We eventually figured there must be some kind of maintenance block.  Sure enough, we saw one on the Androscoggin River bridge.  The sun was good here too.  So we pulled in to the Veterans Park for pictures.  The spring runoff pretty well filled all the outlets at the falls.  

Crew on the Androscoggin River bridge, L-A

 We headed off to do other things and kept the scanner on.  About 4pm we heard a crew tell District-1 that they were on board the 307 and they'd call back later for a Form D.  We heard the paperwork start when we headed over to Spring St. in Auburn for a spot we haven't used much, by Office Depot and Rite Aid.  We parked and went over to the crossing. 

WAPO crossing over Center St. Auburn.

 On the radio we had heard that the middle unit was shut down because it was low on water.  No big deal, they'd fill up at Danville Jct.  It wouldn't have been either except they lost another unit.  (I don't know which.)  Apparently it died shortly after it passed us.  The train sped up a bit as usual but then that sort of tapered off gradually.  I didn't catch how many cars the train had but it was pretty long, and slowing.  We walked back to the car and in the process noticed that the last car just cleared Hampshire St. but not by enough to shut down the crossing gates and lights.  This was about 4:30pm.  Apparently the head end was by Adams St (where Rt. 100 meets the rotary).  The brakes were applied based on the faint squeals we heard - to prevent rolling backward I presume. 

WAPO at Spring St. crossing in Auburn.

Not long afterwards we heard the crew talking to District-1.  Apparently the Auburn PD was already with the crew.  After a few minutes the old form D to MP164 was cancelled and a new form D was created for the train to sit still where it was.  Then a little while later DJ-1 was getting form D's to wander beyond "yard limits" and rescue the train.  It read something to the effect of "authority to run east on single track to end of stalled train" around MP161.  Further authority had to be granted to head west but we were headed to Hebron at that point and may have missed some of it.  We did recall that it was nearly 6pm before the last form D was issued.  I guess getting the computer to allow all those little things to happen is the sign of a creative dispatcher.  Key Auburn streets were blocked for about an hour and a half during a Friday rush hour.

I wouldn't want to have been near that situation.  As it turned out, we were lucky enough to escape before any real traffic snarls happened.  We were at the clear end of things anyway.  Hopefully it wasn't as rough as I imagined. 

BC

Traditional media's followup:  Lewiston Sun Journal article 4/20/13

Springtime Ramming Around The Junctions

There isn't that much to see around here most of the time but one always hopes for an off day.  Here are a few selections that are just a bit off the norm, but not by much.   The title shot above from 4/5/13 lacked both snow and leaves and was fairly clean to boot.  That's RUPO at Danville Jct. 

My first real selections are from the old Grand Trunk alignment at Danville Jct.  The shot (3/6/13) on the right shows the remains of the former main line to Portland.  It now ends in a three track stub yard well before the road crossing.  The left shot looks the other way and shows the line that used to go over the MEC diamond.  We've photographed many a unit on that very piece of roadbed - M420's, RS11's, GP40's, GP38's, GP9's, SW's, MP15's GP15's, you name it!  If the SLR had it or borrowed it, we saw it here.  The track's been out of service long enough now to look really desolate.  Of course the line isn't gone, just relocated.  It's the left most track in the top photo, from nearly the same spot.

Chasing the Rumford trains are about all one can expect in the

middle of the day - this one was 4/6/13.  It's as close to predictable as Pan Am gets in this area.  You can run into oil trains (though those have slacked off until track improves), Saint John, Bucksport or Waterville trains any time though they tend to have their "regular times".  Here we managed to see a RUPO roll into Danville (top shot again) where it was told to clear the main while it worked the yard.  Since there isn't much to see, we headed down to Maine Modelworks in Yarmouth.  Passing through New Gloucester we caught PORU as it called for a form D at "Penny", the former "New Gloucester - West".  It had to stop to set the switch to the normal position then it was clear to MP164. At least we caught a GATX unit on the point.  We got quite a show for such a normally mundane moment.  The headlight on the nose distinguished this unit right away.  Only 382 of the old sludge grey GP40's had that. 

The extent of coal with most boilers down at Rumford.

 With the full excitement of Pan Am and Maine Modelworks behind us, we strolled over to the SLR to see what we could see over there.  I managed to catch the former BAR plow near the road.  Not extraordinary this time of year but I don't have this angle for details on the back end.





My last photos here in February  showed the sand dome in place on the tower.    There must be some final tweaks needed if they hauled it down.  It would have been a normal, ordinary shot but there happens to be a Q&G unit facing us.  That's just this side of mundane since it's been around a while.  But, when it's gone, it will be a really cool shot!


The parting shot below is a new to us unit sitting in the west end of the yard.  It appears to be a former UP unit complete with the red stripes between the gray and yellow.  It also appears to be a former C&NW with the patch over the former nose bell.  I think it reads #2304 through the blur. 

BC