Activity on the Mountain Branch (Portland to Westbrook)

The amusing thing to me is that the Bishop St. Extension crossing, on the same rail line with a fraction of the vehicle traffic, has flashers and gates since it was a new build.

Thanks for the insights, everyone, and let's be glad BlueLinx is down near the end of the street, since it keeps the line open in case another industrial customer would want to locate down there.

Does Plasmine or whatever they call themselves now up near the Forest Ave end still get tankcars?

Is the Westbrook mill still receiving anything by rail? I drove through Westbrook yesterday and some of the grade crossings in the Main St. area look very rundown.

The two that crossed the rotary by Walgreen's were to the outbound side of the mill (Warren Ave.), and those have been discontinued and paved over since they haven't shipped by rail in years if not decades. The only Main St. crossing that's active is the one by the Stockhouse and I think that one's in decent shape.

No paper making happens in Westbrook anymore… just a coating and offline finishing shop now. No need for rail at this time.

There hasn't been any paper making for a long time though right? Weren't they only getting a couple of slurpy cars for coating anyway?

#9 paper machine was running up until Fall or early Winter 2020 (can’t remember exactly when) and it took slurry (wet and dry) by rail. Occasional car of latex.

Oh okay so that was the one that shutdown. Guess that's a wrap then... sucks.

Brush and overgrowth has been extensively cleared on the spur leading into the Pine Tree Industrial Park just west of Rand Rd. The building (80 Pine Tree Industrial Pkwy) recently changed hands.

Potentially a new customer along the Mountain Branch??

Isn't the recycling place at that address the only building that the spur touches? Could be looking to use rail.

Yeah, that one building. I guess it was the local office for the returnable bottles machine company.

CSX ran the geo train up to the mill last month, which is interesting considering they didn't scan any of the other branches. They have also been adding a large amount of positions to Westbrook in the recent months, so I am starting to wonder if they will be bringing part of the complex back online.

That woudl be nice!

Since the track is still in service afaik up to the inbound lead maybe they were just testing the entirety of the branch.