Eastern Railroad Discussion > Spreader Action in Northern Maine

A buddy and I had a great winter trip to Maine last year, so we decided to try a repeat this winter.  Last year was mostly CMQ, but their operation seems to be mostly at night, so we decided to concentrate on Maine Northern Rwy., a division of JD Irving's NB Southern this time.  JD Irving has owned the former CP International of Maine east of Brownville Jct. since 1995 when CP pulled out of Maine and the Maritimes.  When MM&A was threatening to abandon all their track north of Millinocket in 2011 or so, the State of Maine bought it and then leased it to Irving.  MNR also bought the section between Madawaska and Van Buren directly from MM&A.  There are several lumber mills and a pulp mill on line, many of which are also owned by Irving, so the railroad is a natural fit in their overall business.  And wood products are the primary commodity handled.  When a train was having problems one night, the instructions from the Trainmaster were to "set off the CN and CMQ cars, and hang onto the wood chips".

As luck would have it, our trip coincided with MNR running a number of plow specials using NBSR's ex-CP Jordan spreader 402896.  Our first day in Aroostook Co. we picked them up at Masardis Siding, following them through to Squa Pan and then on the Presque Isle branch as far as Scopan Lake where the light finally gave out.  The next day they plowed (and spread) from Presque Isle to Easton, where there is a large McCain french fry plant and the Huber engineered wood operation.  The second picture shows the spreader working just south of Easton across some fields that are prone to some heavy drifting.  They took 3 passes this time, but in previous years it has taken as many as 10 to clear the snow back from the right of way.

The video is a composite of the first day at Masardis, and then the next night in Presque Isle as they cleared out the 3-track yard there.  The spreader train has a 4-man crew.  The conductor is in the center and can move the main blade up and down (for crossings) while a sectionman watches each side and controls the large wing blade and its extension.  The engineer was back in GMTX 2645 running things.  At only 10 mph there wasn't much flying snow, but I assume that they don't use the wings at high speed.

GTD 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/20 18:23 by cn6218.

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MNR's primary power is leased 4-motor EMDs, although there are a few units in the company green paint.  After the spreader went on the ground after reaching Easton, we took off towards Ashland to try and find train 901 coming down from Ft. Kent.  The north and southbound jobs had traded trains at Nixon siding, and 901 had a lot of work to do at the Skerry Mill, so it wasn't too hard to find them.  The first image is at Moody Siding, between Skerry and Ashland on the former Bangor & Aroostook (all these lines are former BAR).

On our last day in Maine we had sunshine and finally got a chance at some green paint, although we had to wait for train 504's return trip from Oakfield to Houlton for it to be on the point.  GP40 GMTX 3051 was leading NBSR 906 (former HLCX GP38-3 leaser) and about 15 cars just north of the Oakfield cautionary limits in the second image.  We had scouted out the line, and had several spots picked out, but they really surprised us with a speed of at least 25 mph here.  Empty centrebeams were dropped at Louisiana Pacific in New Limerick and a couple fuel oil tankers were spotted in Houlton before the power was run around the train for the return trip.  In the last image they're passing the Gould Packers potato house in Carys Mills, just south of Houlton, with loads of logs to be dropped at the other end of L-P (there are north and south facing switches there).

GTD

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Great set of photos. My favorite is number one. That spreader has an unearthly look to it.
Bob

Great stuff Geoff!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

Wow— great series, very well done!
Like the video, too ( looks like they knocked that Xing sign down, but lots of little damage when out plowing like that!).

Posted from iPhone

Great stuff!  Thanks for sharing.

Very nice..!!

Great pics & vid and location and equipment! Shoved a lot of Jordan's and Batwings. Spent lots of time knocking over stuff and derailing the beasts, too.