Lower Road bridge abutments demolished

[Benjamin Richards]

I noticed the past two weeks or so driving through Richmond (ME) that the MEC Lower Road bridge abutments at the north end of town were being demolished and the embankments cut back. I couldn't find any more info about that, whether it was possibly part of a road construction project, or just unfinished business from removing the bridge itself back in 2017.

That line would have made a nice place for 470 to stretch her legs (pipe dream, I know...)

[John Kokas]

Let's hope there will be a possible future for 470 on the Rockland Branch.

[Mike Fox]

It was on the States 3 year plan 2 years ago to remove them. My understanding was if the bridge was ever reinstalled, it would be higher. Which means building the grade up two feet.

8/27/22



Google image from 9 years ago

[Mike Fox]

And just for the fun of it, I looked up the States Estimated cost for removal, $102 ,000.

[Benjamin Richards]

Driving down 196 today I noticed this line appeared to be plowed out. I took a detour down Tedford where there's a grade crossing, and it was definitely plowed out by a hi-railer in the past day or so. You can see the tire marks in the snow.
I also noticed over the summer that after storms, downed trees are cut up.

This is odd considering it doesn't go anywhere. Who is maintaining it and why?

[Mike Fox]

Most likely the State of Maine.

[Ed Lecuyer]

There was a report released this week about rail service on the Portland-Bangor travel corridor. Two alignments are proposed: one is to use the lower road via Brunswick and Augusta, the second is an extension of the proposed service from Portland to Lewiston-Auburn. So the lower road is not "dead" yet, and I suspect the hi-rail activity was related to this initiative.

FYI, the alignment for Portland to Lewiston passenger rail has not yet been chosen; three are proposed: PanAm/CSX all the way to Lewiston, PanAm/CSX then ex-Grand Trunk via Yarmouth Jct., or ex-Grand Trunk all the way from Ocean Gateway in Portland to Lewiston. (As noted in the study, this 3rd option would evict Maine Narrow Gauge from their leased ROW on the Eastern Prominade.)

[Graham Buxton]

If you are not intimately familiar with the Maine superfluous gauge railroad lines Ed referred to, this link to Open Railway Map may be useful. It should open showing the area under discussion:

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=43.77753930104478&lon=-70.25001525878906&zoom=10

[Mike Fox]

State of Maine Department of Transportation periodically inspects their ROW and after the recent storms is more likely what was done.

I did see last week the City of Auburn is putting it's support for turning the Ex-GT line from Danville Juction to Deering into a trail until rail concept, which would effectively kill any futire rail use more than likely.

[Benjamin Richards]

It would certainly be awful if MNGRR were forcibly expelled from their location. However, it would be nice if the Downeaster actually dumped you off somewhere useful in Portland; the current station site is not conducive for actually taking the train to the the city (unless you are going to the children's museum, which we did once). While that's currently a minority of riders, if intra-state service is expanded, it will become more important. The Ocean Pier appears to be a logical choice, but it would do to Portland what Boston already suffers from: no through-running.

And if you think your favorite rail preservation project is "hard", compare that to the idea of restoring street running on Commercial Street...

[Ed Lecuyer]

The various studies are predicated on moving the Portland station to somewhere along the CSX/PanAm mainline and away from Thompsons Point. The issue is that the good station sites are not available - and the shopping plaza where Union Station was has just been sold to Maine Medical Center.

If the ex-GT route is chosen, there is no provision for connecting to the Downeaster south of Portland - one of the major drawbacks of selecting that route. Instead, they propose a cross-platform connection at Yarmouth Jct.