Rumford Branch, RUPO / PORU

I saw some of the chip gons in the mill yard at Rumford the last time I was up there 2 or 3 weeks ago. The
trains have been running late in the day and at night since track work season started in early summer so
I haven't been able to observe train consists. During the day the power is usually parked by the former
Rleys station in the Jay millyard with the consist sometimes left up by the Riley Dam.

CSX bridge crew working on the through truss over the Dead River near the Route 106 crossing below
North Leeds on the Rumford Branch this afternoon- looks like new bridge ties.

What I was told would be the final feed cars for the egg farm in Turner were either spotted or pulled last week. I am not sure if the farm is shutting down entirely, scaling back operations, or switching to trucks.

Well they wouldn't be switching to trucks because their feed is not time sensitive and they have large storage on site even if they were getting worse service than under GTI, which they aren't. Also they've already cited extremely high shipping costs to bring the feed in from the mid-west so switching to truck wouldn't help in that effect.

There are articles in the paper about them requesting to rezone sections of the property my guess is they're close to all done if they aren't getting grain anymore.

I wasn't talking in terms of poor service causing the possible switch to trucks. With their downsizing over the last few years, it might have reached the point where it was cheaper to shut down their operation and buy feed from Phoenix or FCI.

Regardless, its not good news for the branch. However Clarks Scrap in Livermore will not be moving to Augusta, since the Augusta IT has been o-o-s since August. They recently did some tie work on the existing tracks at the former Otis mill to continue shipping cars from there.

With construction season over the Rumford Branch trains have returned to running earlier in the day and caught a
noontime meet today with the crews swapping entire trains including the power at Leeds Junction. Photos show
L054-RUPO at Spragues Mills Road in Greene with 2561-504 and 31 cars at 1214 and L053-PORU at Livermore Falls with 6229-512 and 29 cars at 1355. On a different note, speculation based on trucks and equipment parked outside the
former IP Mill at Rileys indicate dismantling/demolition has been ongoing inside the mill for some time. More
recently visible demo has happened in the wood yard as the debarking drums, conveyors and other equipment
have disappeared. Today I observed that demo crews are attacking the remains of the digester and pulpmill with
a large pile of debris piled at the back of the parking lot by the main gate and one of the brown tile pulp tanks
mostly gone. In Livermore Falls crews continue to peck away at the debris field at the remains of the Otis Mill-
a pretty depressing site.