St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (SLR/SLQ)

MaineRailfan,
As you suggested, they indeed did repair the bridge abutment at MP 14.4 Sherbrooke Subdivision with a new concrete base protected by the funkiest (and most difficult to walk on) rip-rap that I have ever seen:





Meanwhile, it doesn't look like they have moved forward with installing the new welded rail near Island Pond, and it doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon (e.g. no piles of tie plates, bags of rail anchors, or cans of spikes to be seen in the Pond). I wonder if all the flood repairs has delayed this work until next year?
Best,
Fritz

No progress with the rail down this way either and there is more of it than I reported earlier. New rail
was dropped from the Nichol St. crossing west of the South Paris station at approximately milepost 48
to some point east of Station Rd in Oxford at About MP 40.8, plus some more westward from the Elm St.
crossing in Mechanic Falls. I doubt SLR has the manpower to do this itself and the various RR contractors
are probably pretty busy with all the work the other railroads have going on now.

They did remove the east turnout in front of the South Paris Depot not too long ago.

have some pics from the Train or Treat Day at the engine facility in Auburn:

The painting season at Lewiston Junction is apparently over. Driving by this afternoon I observed that
the "paint booth" was just a skeleton pipe frame with all the cloth covering removed. Sitting on the east
side of the shop building was a unit numbered 3587 dressed in a tribute to armed forces theme with flag
on camouflage sides with yellow rear end. At that location I could only see the rear half of the long hood
above the frame but I could see two radiator fans so it's likely a GP38. I'm wondering if this is the former
HCLX 3868 which sat on the fuel track for 2-3 weeks earlier this month then disappeared. There are photos
online of this unit in both dark red ( as at Lewiston Jct. ) and in UP yellow/grey and it is also a GP38.

Hello,
This morning's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0737 with the following:

QGRY GP40-2L 3014
GP40 3004
SD70MAC 4022
10 centerbeam flats
2 covered hoppers
3 boxcars
30 tank cars

That's 45 cars total, including 2 loads and 43 empties. I was away all week, so I am not sure if this was the 2nd or 3rd train this week.

I noted that there was a regulator and tamper parked on the house track at Island pond. Maybe they are starting to do some surfacing in the area. Still no sign of materials or equipment for rail work, but I think that that usually occurs after the surfacing.
Have a great weekend,
Fritz

Sounds like they only ran twice this week. Crossings in North Stratford were replaced over the last few days, no idea if that equipment would have come down there.

On full display next to the road at Lewiston Jct. this afternoon 8 November 2024.

Greg,
Wow! Very nice! And just in time for Veterans Day on Monday. I wonder if it will be displayed somewhere?
Best,
Fritz

SLR 3587 was parked on the engine house lead next to Lewiston Junction Road yesterday afternoon after
513 was tied up for the day and shop crew was gone so will probably sit there until Monday unless a crew
was called to work this AM - which happens once and a wile on Saturday. I'm wondering what it's use will
be as the road freights run a night where it would not be seen and I'm not sure how appropriate it would
be in Canada. That leaves 513, Lewiston Jct yard work and perhaps visits to other G&W properties.

I've read that it's the new 513 unit, replacing 3008.

NBM Rail Services (For hire track subsidiary of NBM Railways) did the crossing replacements up there. They also have a tie gang working towards the Canadian border over the next few weeks.

By chance I saw SLR 394 in Sherbrooke, QC today near sunset and I had my camera with me - so I chased it to Waterville, stopping three times on the way around Lennoxville. It had 805 - 3805 - 3047 - 4024 and about 80 cars, a large portion of which were LPG tanks. Here's the 4024 exiting Lennoxville:



It crested the Waterville grade at perhaps a little under 20 mph in notch 8 - the increased power of the new SD's is noticeable. The 3047 appeared to be having turbocharger issues as it made periodic puffs of black smoke and the hood under the exhaust stack was very oil-stained.

This was my first time seeing one of the repainted SD70MAC's. The lighting wasn't great but I managed to get a bunch of photos (in no small part due to a new camera I got a few months ago that's vastly better in low light than my previous one).

More photos here:
https://trainiax.net/mephotosearchresul ... 2024,11,14

I also got a video of the train cresting the Waterville QC grade. This was very much unplanned (no tripod, no external mic, low light) but having already taken several photos (and having just remembered that my camera could now do video) I decided to give it a shot.

Hello,
I know this is a bit late but ... yesterday's SLQ westbound 393 departed Island Pond at 0720 with the following:

SD70MAC 4023
QGRY SD40U 6904
14 centerbeam flats
5 hi-cube boxcars
3 covered hoppers
25 tank cars

That's 47 cars total, including 1 load and 46 empties.

Meanwhile, both the tie and surfacing gangs were tied up on the house track, and down on the west yard lead was GP40 3004. Given that there were 8 ballast hoppers spotted in East Brighton, I am guessing that they will be dumping ballast early next week. It already looks like they have finished replacing ties and surfacing in Norton (where there is one length of welded rail to be installed). Lots of new ties placed trackside from MP 1 to roughly MP 3.5.
Have a great (rest of the) weekend,
Fritz