After about 35 years, The Maine Central Mountain Division will Finally be used Again!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- This is taken in Westbrook, Maine on a new development. This video shows spikes being put in and just a view of this part of the line. The line will go up to Windham and hopefully all the way to Fryeburg. These tracks were ripped up I believe around 2005. Then a snowmobile club got permission to use the rail bed until they needed to rebuild the line.
Enjoy!!
© dcarpine28
Im so sick and damn tired of seeing rails to bike trails !!! This is so refreshing to watch a old line come back to life !!!!!!!
Any time a railroad is rebuilding a line that the track was removed at one time they lay out the ties, tie plates, rail spike it into place after gauging the track then they can bring in hoppers of ballast. Until they bring in the surfacing lining machine it's not unusual for the track to look like your worst nightmare up down jig to the right and left, after dumping ballast the ballast regulator comes into play to provide an even amount of ballast for the surface lining machine to do it's job and the track after the surface lining machine will look like it ready for traffic. The railroads have discovered they get a much better track if they run the surface lining machine over the track 2 or 3 times before opening the track for service as it settles the track better and allows a higher track speed when put back into service. After each pass of the surface lining machine the ballast regulator will come back to bring more ballast to the top of the track for the surface lining machine to use to more compact the ballast and leave a more solid track bed behind. The last machine is the ballast regulator again to dress up the track fill in any voids between the ties and make a safe walking surface for railroad employees.
Just to let you all know its 2022 and this never lead to anything else.. Most of the line is still un-used..
A decade later and still no trains on the rebuilt line. Colossal waste on money!
Right of Way (ROW) is usually the final 'hold claim' owner of the land. In some states you can't even give ROW away unless you can stop 'hold' of it all and then only to someone who will use the entire ROW. Many groups, or even local governments have learned that a railroad can sue to remove them from ROW if the railroad will be using the ROW for railroad. Someone said you have to look at the ROW as a road. Only for a train. Not too many roads go out of business, and hardly any or broken up and sold off. ROW is the same general concept. Railroads abandoned thousands of miles of ROW in the US, most of it was let off by the end of WW II. However, the rebirth of rail in recent years has made the ROW an asset once again. Soon enough, and I hope it's done, trains will be moving commuters in places people don't even know there's a ROW at today. And, a few jogging trails might be asked to find another place to operate.
I am happy to see that the Mountain Division is being reactivated after nearly 30 years of the line being abandoned. If this is only going to Windham... that's only 11 miles of track that's being rebuilt. I suppose that's better than nothing given the reality of the shrinking use of the railroads that exist here in Maine. I hope one day the Calais main line will be used once again.
Yeah I hope this line turns out to be busy in rail traffic! Thanks!
Wow, that looks 136lb welded rail, that's expensive stuff, they wouldn't be putting that down unless they have some big plans. Good videos bro!
@GrnArrow092 You said it exactly! The CB is needed more than ever these days, especially with the cost of fuel nowadays alone. If they bring it back that would mean the end of the DSRR, but they'd probably still be able to use the line. The Amtrak Downeaster would benefit from it to with direct access to all the coastal towns along the route, & access to the Canada border. Funny how the old stuff that's been around (like trains) seems to always beat out the new stuff in the long run
The tracks from Ellsworth to Calais are gone now, but Baldacci said it was to preserve the corridor until rail traffic is needed again. I hope that will be someday soon because the Calais line in my eyes is a valuable railroad. If Amtrak wanted to, or a local carrier, could run passenger trains from Ellsworth to downeast Maine and back. It could be a dual use freight and passenger line like the Mountain Division will be again.
its good to see some good news for a change for the RR in main,,lets hope it keeps up, good video
Who is planning on using this line?
CSX Corporation
Corporate we need this line open! The cost is this much! The corporate ok get it done we'll pay for it! There you have it!
Now there is an update. They have started to repair the Mallison Falls bridge in South Windham and signs on the side of the road say it will take until 11/15/13
@trainlover479 Yea I wish I had seen that! I havent been railfanning on the CSRR before. I have ridden it though.
In order to continue track work, they have to fix up the Mallison Falls Bridge. I guess they bid on that in early June, but I haven't heard of any work on the line since.
This didn’t age well…….. Now it’s going to be getting ripped up. 😔
Yeah, I wonder if they’ll bring a rail train down here when they take the track up
@Brian4449 Frieght for now I believe. They are talking about Passenger use in the future though.
It's sooo refreshing to see this! will they use the portion that goes past Sebago lake?
r they planning to change all the old track with new.?
umm, the line from csrr to ellsworth has been torn up, and its a distance of a little under 200 miles
Laying tracks in the USA. Wow!
is conway scenic's (ex MEC) tracks be used in any of this? If so, EPICNESS!
Actually CSX Corporation will own it.
CSRR is using it
And there using welded rail. Looks like the line will get heavy use
It looks like they are using first class materials of the reconstruction.
How much of the line looks like this and r they planning to someday use it. And why the wait, r they waiting for more or the same customers as before.
+Ginger Rail Not too much of it looks like this. only to the next town over is it nice looking track. Probably a few miles.
Nice catch of the Resurfacing.
Thank you!
A wish they would bring back passenger rail service again it will cut down on traffic n enjoy the scenery a lot more better a would love ta travel on the old time passenger train n learn about the history of old time passenger train service
AND SLOW LIFE DOWN A LITTLE BIT ? AND LESS HUSTLE AND BUSLE .
I'm getting seasick. Get a tripod.
What a huge mistake taking out the track.
Far more expen$ive than maintaining existing track.
Glad to see it going in. Were grade crossing signals also reinstalled?
though its only about ten miles from north conway to fryburg.
The Newport to Dover Foxcroft branch is another line they should restore.The huge log yard is still up in Dover Foxcroft past the fairgrounds where they used to go.I know it would cost a lot but the money they've wasted on trying to keep rte. 7 and 15 up so that all of the log trucks coming from there and points north over the last 30 years would've completely rebuilt the rail line.Pleasant River Lumber which isn't that far from Dover Foxcroft could've used the log yard as a place to load centerbeems up.I hope someday that this branch line which is now a ATV and Snowmobile trail gets a second life as a major wood hauling line which actually could be connected to Cmq's line in Milo if they wanted to shorten the transfer between Cmq and PAR and come down through this line to Newport it actually might save millions of taxpaying money wasted on tar trying to keep the roads maintained.
yeh its 1.6 million per mile 29.8 miles of new ties, crossings, 132 CWR, and high speed turn outs is we will say 32 million at the moment. And about a mile spur up to pleasant river lumber co. so 33.6 million.
No not really, they need to fix the Mallison Falls bridge in S Windham before they can continue is what I am hearing.
good luck; by the video: those rails looked jacked"
Rail to trail is bad, though building trails beside rail lines is good!
Are they keeping the old crossing signals?
Is there any news on weather they r planning to use the track and maybe they have too fix tbe other part of the line. They returned the tracks not to use them seems a bit strange.
+Ginger Rail Yeah, I'm not exactly sire what the future hold for this line.
All the taxpayer money spent on this, and it's never seen much, if any usage... There was talk at doing more work to the mountain division, but this work was the last anything has happened to this rail line
When the main central division was closed in the 1990's, wouldn't the towns rip the tracks or was that up to the main central railroad to decide that? But I'm happy about the new tracks and it being open again! To bad it'll be open to freight traffic and not have a scenic railroad that have passenger service and would tell people all Bout the history about the Maine central division!!! :) If you've been to Conway scenic, they have a great history about the Maine central division (ex.crawford notch, Frankenstein trestle, the Victorian and notch station)
The state of Maine bought it from Fryeburg to Westbrook after Guilford abandoned it.
@trainlover479 Umm I think they were Just going to Windham ME for now but I thought I heard talk about them going up to Fryburg. I am not 100% sure though. I don't want to say anything that might not be true lol
@trainlover479 I don't think so.
yay for tracks being reinstalled! w00t!!
Well this video hasn't aged well 🤔
Unfortunately
what the update on them? still bein used
I love to see old train beds being used again for track not trails. This brings hope that someday that tracks that r long gone may come back. This is a happy day.
+Ginger Rail Myself, I miss the B&M's old Cheshire branch, where I grew up around (in Keene, NH). However, looking at the rails in the Cheshire County I can somewhat see why B&M deemed the line as being redundant. (Maybe, they should have , at least NOT OUTRIGHT have destroyed the R-O-W, such as, by filling in those rock cut where road bridges once crossed and removal of all the steel trestles.
William H. Jarvis cool to see another Cheshire admirer on here. I recently walked the beginning of the branch in ashburnham as far as a could north until it got too flooded. Believe it or not there was still rail in place in spots, it was actually quite amazing despite the flooding. Right now I am searching but finding very few photos or video of the line in action. Do you know of any places where I could find some?
Are they gonna be using it for frieght or passenger?
Answer: A scenic passenger train ride
l love the sight of snowmobiles being run over by trains.
good thing.
Tedium and a hell of a lot of ballasting to do.
Is it true that CMQ wants to buy out the line or was that a rumor?
To bad they used 1880 technology, how about welded rails, Maine Clackity Clack down the track
FYI the rails are continuous welded. The bolted rail joints most likely are temporary.
Love it!
Any new updates?
how long do you think this will take
Hard to say, I am not sure
Anyone know the progress on the line?
One of the main projects was rebuilding the Mallison Falls Bridge in South Windham which is now completed. That is all I have for progress
What railroad will use the line?
CSX Corporation
Whats the status of the line ???
THOMAS81Z Not much has changed. The rail stops in South Windham and starts up again there. There is a section in South Windham where the tracks were ripped up. Then from there west towards Fryeburg, the tracks are in place, but are just very old and rotted out. Most of the track would have to be replaced I'm pretty sure. However, this track in this video is still looking good!
love it
4 snowmobile riders dislike this video lol