New livery?

Sorry, I am new around here and never got a chance to see the old forums, so forgive me if I bring up a topic already discussed at length: when will the new paint scheme be applied to the MM&A motive power (and what will it be)? If they're going to go in and destroy all of the BAR's sense of identity, at least they should give a sense of identity to the new road. Thanks for any replies.

The paint scheme will be like WC. Their are no plans to repaint any locomotives at this point. When their motive power gets in line and a long term fleet is in place one would expect them to begin repainting.

Any ideas if the F40s will be part of that long-term roster? Railworld owns many F40s so that would make sense.

-Jay Hogan

Yeah, I had heard that bit about WC. Oh well, another railroad gets stripped of its uniqueness . Pretty soon railfans are gonna get mighty board when there are only one or two paint schemes left in the US. I can see it now: The Union Pacific, Chesapeke, Ohio, Seaboard, Norfolk, Southern, Burlington, Northern, Santa Fe, and Everywhere Else Railroad

I didn't want to take up more board space, so I'll ask some more q's here to clear my ignorance:

1. So BAR doesn't own any switchers? No dedicated yard switchers or local power? Do they plan to buy them? I know they are currently leasing some geeps for that purpose.

2. Does anyone have a map of the MM&A system? I'm still a little confused as to what track they own.

3. Echoing what Jay asked, will the new AMT F-40s and the CDAC units remain on the roster? That's some pretty unique power!

XRails wrote:If they're going to go in and destroy all of the BAR's sense of identity....

OK, I have to speak up because that just isn't true.

The folks at MM&A have gone out of their way to make sure that BAR's history and identity are not lost. For instance, the MM&A logo is very similar to the old BAR shield. Also, MM&A recently did a beautiful job when they repainted a boxcar into the historic "STATE OF MAINE PRODUCTS" red/white/blue paint scheme.

Right now they're trying to stay afloat. This is an extremely difficult time to be running a railroad in northern Maine. I'm not talking about the weather, I'm talking about all the major industries/shippers in that region that all seem to be going out of business lately.

Basically, they've got better things to do right now than paint locomotives or other things of that nature. That does not mean that they're abandoning the history of the BAR. In fact, I think they've already gone above and beyond what is necessary to preserve the BAR's history, and anything else they may do toward that effort is icing on the cake.

No, I understand that these measures are neccessary for the MM&A to stay alive, but changing the name, flushing the loco roster, and throwing out the paint scheme doesn't sit well with nostalgic railfans (but what ya gonna do?). The new owners did what they had to do, so I don't hold anything against them. I'm just a little saddened because my great-grandad was the Houlton dispatcher for the BAR for many years and now that railroad that is part of my lineage (at least the roadname) is finally gone. Owner's background aside, however, I still thing they could have gone with a more BAR-influenced paintjob rather than a railroad out in Wisconsin.

One of the major reasons they changed the name was because they had no choice. They needed to form a new company, because "Bangor & Aroostook" was bankrupt and had no credit (and you can blame Iron Road Railways for that). In order to get credit, they needed to create a new company, and it had to have a new name.

Technically, we don't know yet what the new paint scheme will look like. Rumor is that it will be similar to Wisconsin Central's... but we really won't know until they actually paint a loco, which hasn't happened yet. Maybe it will be a BAR-inspired paint scheme. Gotta wait and see.

Every thing Ed Burkhardt has touched has turned to Maroon & Gold, No problem with that. The WC had a great paint scheme. Like said MM&A has gone out of there way to preserve there history. Besides painting a box car thay own the exB&A F3 502, the only engine from the B&A thay still own. Plus the Maroon & Gold preserves the history of the Canadian Pacific. I think the old B&A is in good hands.
-justin franz

1. If you go to www.RRNNE.net you can find a roster of what power the MMA operates. The leased geeps were not leased for switching, but for the need to have something to run trains with. All units find their way into road service on a daily basis.

3. Pending how the new AMTs preform, most likly they will be part of the long term roster after being regeared. I would not be surprised if some end up being used on the switching jobs with the new remote-control sets/cabooses where they would not need a front platform, but only a thought. The B-39's on the other hand are still up in the air after what happend this winter. Their are rumors about the MMA looking for more power to replace those units before next winter.

It was like a flash back to 1999 the other day when I pulled into Brownville Jct. and found 5 AMT's on the switcher thought.

I agree that having MM&A/BAR power painted in the WC scheme is pretty cruddy. It's an OK scheme, but certainly not one of great beauty; it has NOTHING at all to do with the heritage of the line, either CP (yeah, the maroon is a little like CP's old scheme but the pale yellow makes the similarity of the WC and CP schemes a stretch) or B&A (and putting a BAR-inspired shield on the nose is not going to do much to change that); and it belongs to a different railroad halfway across the continent.

As for the renaming, again they showed little consideration for history. MM&A isn't a bad name, does describe the territory served, and creates a "clean break" in terms of having a new name to go along with a "new beginning". But the reality is, all they would have had to do is change the name from Bangor & Aroostook Railroad to Bangor & Aroostook Company, Bangor & Aroostook Corp., Bangor & Aroostook Industries, Bangor & Aroostook Railway, or any number of other variations, and they could have kept the old name substantially intact while satisfying the requirements of renaming it. They CHOSE not to, and to give it a whole new name.

I couldn't even begin to count the number of smaller railroads around the country that have been reorganized at one point or another and all that changed about the name was whether it was a "Railroad", "Railway", or "Corporation". That's all that needs to change, folks. Think about it, there was a Penn Central for years after Conrail was formed (there may
still be?), the Bankrupt Morristown & Erie Railroad is now the Morristown & Erie RailWAY, and IRRC the Boston & Maine Railroad became the Boston & Maine Corporation. Just a few examples. Bottom line is, they could have kept the old name if preserving the B&A's heritage was a priority.

Hello All,
In regards to the livery, I have a hunch that around April something will be rolled out of Derby Shops in some sort of new livery. What that will be, I haven't a clue.
I'll give you a hint....
It's something old, but when its rolled out, it will be something new.
cya, Joey

Is that meant to be an early April Fool's joke?

Hello All,
No, its not an early April Fools joke, I would never go as far as to make a statement about that, or edit a picture, or anything like that.... I'm really a humorless person.

Seriously, somethings going to be rolled out in April, but thats as much as I can confirm.
cya, Joey

It's funny that when Ed Burkhardt's group took over the state railway in the Eastern European country of Estonia, the ex-Conrail C30-7A's and ex-UP C36-7's received the full maroon and gold treatment, yet none of MM&A's diesels have been repainted.

In a way, it's a shame - would've been neat to see Conrail Blue and UP Armour Yellow locos running through the Baltics!

Jim D.