"Up North" Gawking (District 1 sightings)

The 426/427 thing with CSX power to Waterville started today. They're in the process of aligning the jobs to make it a more seamless trip between Waterville and Selkirk.

Rumford Job going to 5 days too, but both trains will run (offset by a day, so they overlap 4 days). Should be plenty of daylight trains during the week.

Also, EDPO/POED are done, 427/426 will handle the Deerfield traffic as work en route at Rigby and Ayer. I suspect that either a new job will handle it onward from Ayer or 11R/16R have capacity? All in prep really for B&E in April.

Lastly I'm told D2 will be extended to Brunswick to mirror the new Portland Division and simplify Amtrak. Should make it an easier change to the new mileposts too I guess.

Any indication as to what the destination of 426 / origin of 427 will be once CSX is "done" with their trackwork in a couple years? Would seem logical to send them all the way to Keag, no? Move the most traffic over the most railroad as quickly as possible...

From my D2 radio monitoring today M426 with CSX 468 has done work at Westford at about 18:00 hrs, was recrewed somewhere east of Lowell, at 21:25 hrs got orders to pickup empties at Lawrence. This train was seen on video with the rail train and regular manifest in Harvard this morning. I don't know if they kept the rail cars all the way. Seems like they are piling a lot of work on to the train.

With no edpo, 426/427 will be monsters traversing D2.

mrj1981 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:35 pm Any indication as to what the destination of 426 / origin of 427 will be once CSX is "done" with their trackwork in a couple years? Would seem logical to send them all the way to Keag, no? Move the most traffic over the most railroad as quickly as possible...

Probably not as there are no facilities there. Waterville to Keag likely a turn job. Unless we're talking any intermodal that ever materializes, which it should. Then that would likely be another job.

F74265A wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:28 pm With no edpo, 426/427 will be monsters traversing D2.

The ultimate plan is not run it this way when there is more crew availability. Not only is the RR not setup for 15,000' trains 426/427 is now going to have a ton of work enroute and that will cascade down. Right now things have been simplified to the nth degree on both PAS and CSX in anticipation of the B&E takeover. One job on each RR, alternating day work. CSX is proposing a Portland to Deerfield job with a B&E recrew in Ayer after the takeover smooths out. Also some type of LANA turn to handle the New Hampshires.

Thanks for the knowledgeable info
All that makes sense
Amtrak and mbta would go berserk if csx blocked up the works in D2 with trains that don’t fit the infrastructure

Q: does this mean that Selkirk now launches M426 classified into 5 blocks: P&W Worcester, Ayer, Lawrence, Rigby, and Waterville?

To my knowledge M436 handles PWs now. Probably yes on the rest.

Not like trains have been that long as of late anyways. They combined 427 and POED the other day is was 117 cars IIRC. Todays 426/427 on D1 met at Rumford Jct and 427 had 3700’ of train. 426 wasn’t there much longer

Yeah but winter is the slowest time of year traffic wise. It's a good time to be evaluating the operational changes. Come early summer things will pick up.

The 3rd rail train for D1 will be arriving in Waterville later today

Wow, third-rail electrification on the Maine Central! Didn't have that on my 2023 bingo card!

(Sorry; couldn't resist!)

With the gloomy weather lately I haven't been out railfanning much but here are a couple
of recent shots. The first on Monday the 13th is of PORU making a set off at Rileys with
an engine consist of 5976-512-315- don't often see the GE's on the branch. Yesterday I
found PORU tied down at North Leeds with 315-512-502 and 15 cars at about 1130.
Shortly afterward an suv pulled up and delivered a new crew. The shot was taken down
line at Curtis Corner MP5.