Railfan trip to New England - 3

Hi, This post will cover May 1st and 2nd. Jim Kleeman and I began May 1st by setting up at the grade crossing at Onawa, ME about 8:00 AM. Our target for the day was Central Maine & Quebec, the reason we made the trip. The plan was to photograph the railroad until we had all the coverage we could get between Brownville Junction and Jackman, ME.

Before we left Maryland we received information from many sources that the CM&Q ran a westbound out of Brownsville Junction Tuesday through Saturday with a call time of 8:00 AM (or later if the eastbound was late). We had estimates that the westbound, called Job 1, would reach the Onawa area between 10:00 AM and 12:30 PM; depending on the actual call time and the amount of work the crew would need to do before leaving Brownville Junction. The early arrival was chosen as we did not want to miss Job 1.

An hour or so after we arrived we spotted a fairly large, grey animal trotting down the track towards us from the east. About 75 feet from us it stopped and just stared at us. At this point I realized it was a Bobcat and started taking photos (above and below). Possibly the clicking shutter scared it because after a few minutes of watching us it took of back the way it came it headed back east, went about 100 feet and went down the fill into the woods. A short while later and a little further east it emerged from the woods and continued east on the track.

We stayed at the grade crossing until 2:00 PM when we decided we needed to find out what had happened. Heading west we spotted some kind of railroad crew getting into a car near the Greenville station. They told us Job 1 would be a night train until further notice so the emergency bridge work could be performed.

As there was nothing else to do we continued west checking out locations for our next trip. Also, we expected that Job 2 would be sitting in Jackman awaiting the arrival of the Job 1 crew. They would bring the Job 2 train east following their rest. The Job 2 train was indeed sitting in Jackman, however, we could not find a public road down to where the head end was sitting. So no train photos on May 1.

We learned earlier in the trip that Pan Am Railroad had an office car train scheduled to run from Rigby Yard in Portland to Ayer, MA on May 2nd and then from Ayer to Mechanicville, NY and back to East Deerfield, MA on May 3rd. This became Plan B. We got an early start from Greenville and headed to Portland. Crossing over the north end of Rigby Yard we spotted the office car train and scouted out our first location.

We found a spot just south of the yard and set up. The first train that showed up was a northbound Amtrak Downeaster (above and below).

Next up was a southbound PAR freight with a former CSX C30-9 on the point.

Then a southbound Downeaster came through. This train taught me a lesson. If I am going to shoot on burst three frames per second is too slow for a 60 MPH train. Shortly thereafter we learned that the OCS was cancelled at 9:40 AM. However, Jim spoke to his friend Steve Carlson who told us The New Hampshire Northcoast had run a train from Dover to Ossipee that morning and the train would return later that afternoon. And away we go.

The town of Milton had this really nice view (above and below) so we decided to wait for the train here rather than risk missing it as we drove north. It showed up about 5:00 PM.

These two days were the least productive of out trip. Things would get better, much better.

Thanks for looking.