Maine Northern Railway (ex-MMA lines operated by EMR/NBSR)

Where was 6200 painted?

I'm assuming in Saint John. Check out Steve Boyko's "Confessions of a Train Geek" site. Scroll down to the January 22nd entry and you will see pictures as well as video of it.

Irving spoke at the New England Railroad Club this week (industry association, not a foamer group). It was stated that monthly carloadings on Maine Northern are up 66% over MMA levels. Encouraging news. It would be interesting to know how general economic conditions, service improvements, and the fact that Irving is now using the line as a conveyor belt for its fiber demand play into the volume growth.

One of Irving's main goals is to start supplying mills on the PAR with fiber from up North. There's huge volume potential in this area and right now they are working on getting more equipment. Prior to Guilford, you'll recall that the MEC ran a helluva fiber business from points north, both on their own lines and on the BAR to mills mainly on the Rumford branch. The "new" Pan Am seems much more interested in this business than the old regime.

Good news for both companies -- and their shippers!

To get this stuff to PAR, would they send it via Mattawamkeag where they have a direct conection to PAR, or over Brownville Jct to NMJ over the MMA? ... Im going to say via Mattawamkeag to eliminate the middle man. But i want to know what other people are thinking.

Keag

Any word on PAR working on increasing speeds from Keag to Waterville? I believe most of that track is 10 mph.

roberttosh wrote:One of Irving's main goals is to start supplying mills on the PAR with fiber from up North. There's huge volume potential in this area and right now they are working on getting more equipment. Prior to Guilford, you'll recall that the MEC ran a helluva fiber business from points north, both on their own lines and on the BAR to mills mainly on the Rumford branch. The "new" Pan Am seems much more interested in this business than the old regime.

What sort of equipment is Maine Northern looking to use to ship the wood fibers, and what did MEC use back in the day?

Both the 6200 and the freshly painted 6318 were on the westbound leaving McAdam at 1000 this morning. MNR 9801was also in the mix along with NBSR 2319. Train had about 80 cars...haven't seen a westbound on a Saturday in a long time. More traffic means more trains are moving on the NBSR.

Pan Am is really going after Irving's business these days and they are in the process of implementing something like 48 hours service between Keag and CSXT at Barbers, so don't be surprised to see more traffic moving that way.

Maybe this will finally give Pan Am a reason to fix the tracks between Keag and where ever the slow speeds stop.

I believe they are trying to work out some type of arrangement where the Irvings would run their lines for them East of Waterville under haulage. The Irvings would gather everything from Waterville to Van Buren and East to Saint John and Pan Am would run the core main line West from Waterville. They figure this would be a good way to get the lines upgraded by someone else.

That would be interesting to say the least.

Really interesting. Good news for both lines and the State of Maine. Not so good news for the Moosehead.