Future of NMJ roundhouse?

Anyone know what the future is for NMJ roundhouse? Still a great facility, still a great turntable, and heavy lifting capability. Good place for loco restoration or leasing storage.
Anyone have ideas?

The property is in the bankruptcy estate and also listed as a superfund location. Any entity that would purchase the facility would most likely be on the hook for a large sum of money to clean the area.

Hello All,
Concerns about cleanup costs are very valid. As of the last time I checked, the entire area, roundhouse, car shop, dead lines, etc, was all blocked off and locked.
There was an item in the local paper, although I'm not sure when, that alluded to the area having been cleaned up by the DEP, but the railroad was still very concerned about someone walking in there and getting hurt.
On a funny note, someone suggested that I buy the property and buildings and convert them into a Hotel for railfans.
The icing on the deal was supposed to be the 'olympic size' swimming pool that was already dug out, as long as I removed the turntable.
Riiiiight.
cya, Joey

Actually, once cleaned up, I wonder if the company might not put it back into service? If not, that turntable is a find to any museum that can pony up the scrap value. I hate to see NMJ empty.

Richard and All,
No one hates to see NMJ empty more than me. Its depressing.
However, operationally it is simply too far south. With the reduced motive power requirements of a modern railroad in this area, fewer engines due to increased horsepower and declining traffic, a centrally located engine servicing facility makes more sense than one on the tail end of the main line and the start of a 30 mile branch. Millinocket, seeing as it is the current operational hub, would make the most sense for a major repair facility, but Derby is acceptable, as it is much closer to the former CP line west of Brownville Jct than Millinocket is, making servicing of this major corridor easier. Millinocket is a fueling, sanding, minor repair facility, and frankly, units only need to go to Derby for major work, and inspections. The rotation of motive power works very well, in my opinion, without NMJ in the mix.
NMJ used to be a major rail hub, and some units rarely left there, for instance, NMJ used to have 24 hour switching, the units that switched NMJ very rarely left NMJ. It would be necessary then to have a fueling facility there for them, and if the Medford cutoff were still in use, some trains would bypass Derby altogether, and head straight for NMJ. In that scenario, NMJ would work rather well.
In light of the centralization efforts by most modern railroads, I think it is unlikely to see NMJ reactivated, but one can hope.
On a related topic, there was rumors at one point about Iron Roads moving all shop work to Millinocket, and abandoning Derby Shops. Never happened, but it does leave one to wonder.
cya, Joey

The building itself is in very bad shape. The roof has leaked since the early 90's causing much damage to the building. The roundhouse will never be used again that I can see as it would cost more to fix it than what its worth not to even look at the clean-up cost talked about above.

The old BAR roundhouse in Northern Maine Junction was badly vandalized last summer, along with the old refer house. All of the windows were broken and things were just destroyed for the fun of it. Thus the cables put up to keep vehicles out. Keep in mind MMA does not own these buildings. There was an extensive cleanup done in the 80's and 90's which was funded by the superfund. Most of the soil in back of the old roundhouse was removed and disposed of properly and the property was given a clean bill of health at that time.

A couple of things, first the roundhouse area does not have a "clean bill of health", that applied only to the site at that time. The bankruptcy lawyers put a bid out last fall to remove all of the oil and chemicals remaining there as an initial action. More work will be required at some point, probably this year (some form of investigation directed by the state).

Second, someone could come in and buy the place (or long term lease, i.e. 100 years) without getting into the liability. This is the purpose of the brownfields programs that are out there - redevelopment of sites, while locking the pollution liability for past issues. In Maine this program is called the VRAP program. So it would be possible for someone to do something with it. Bigger question is what!??!