Today, Saturday 4-12-14, the Maine Eastern Railroad sponsored a Touch a Train event. It was a fund raising event for the New England Steam Corp which a non-profit that is raising funds to buy and restore MEC 470, the last steam locomotive to operate on MEC in 1954. For more details click here (any and all donations to this project would be appreciated).
The event took place at the Rockland, ME train station, and included a locomotive and number of other examples of rolling stock on display, and available to walk through.
The tour started with ME-488, an EMD FL-9 diesel one of 2 that ME uses to pull their passsenger trains. The FL-9 is interesting in that is has a 2 axle truck on the front and a 3 axle on the back to support the additional weight of the steam generator.
Inside we started with the engineer's control stand
Then the engine compartment, looking back from the door
then looking back from the other end.
It was too crowded in back to get a picture of the steam generator
Next back was the Morristown & Erie dining car Penobscot Bay. M&E is the parent company of Maine Eastern
Looking into the dining area from the kitchen
Then coach ME1003 'Ash'
Maine Eastern plans to use the caboose as a ticket office at the RR stop in Wiscasset, ME. It originally was built for SOO.
The Russel snowplow was originally built for NH, and included an opporunity to go inside! The plow got a lot of use this winter.
Inside lookng forward from the back wall. The galvanized pipe on teh left is a stove pipe. The 2 white verticle cylinders operate the flanger. Looking into the shadows at the front are 2 air reservoirs to supply the cylinders.
Standing at the ladder to the operators seats and looking back, the white cylinder at the top is one of 2 that operates the left side wing. The other cylinder is under the floor. A similar pair of cylinders run the other wing
Here I am sitting in the left operators seat, looking to the right side
Wiscasset Watervile and Farmington brought their replica of a 2 foot gauge milk reefer that ran on WW&F about 100 years ago. They have a museum exhibit inside. During the summer this car sits next to the dock next to US Rte 1 in Wiscasset.
As I was going home I stopped in a store parking lot across from the ME yard in RTe 1, and took a couple of pictures. The 5 stall roundhouse and turntable were built by MEC back in the steam era and are stil in use by ME
Dragon Cement owns a number of 'whaleback' covered hoppers that are used to transport Portland cement from their plant a few miles away in Thomaston to a barge loading on the Rockland waterfront.
I hope you have enjoyed the tour, maybe next time you can visit in person. For more info on Maine Eastern RR including train schedules, click here.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Thanks for the cool pictures, esp the inside ones. And here I was wondering what a 4-12-14 was going to look like.
jmbjmbnd here I was wondering what a 4-12-14 was going to look like.
oo-OOOOOO-ooooooo
MAybe a centipeed tender?
Wow! That is the first vintage covered wagon I've ever seen equipped with an early second generation control stand and 26L brake, even the Paducah GP10 rebuilds I worked on with Conrail were not updated to that degree. Nor were Conrail's OCS train E8's set up like that.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
Thats Awesome! I plan to go on a trip on that train this summer, maybe spend the night in Rockland
You now can pick up Amtrak is Dover NH (or Boston), ride to Portland, then on to Freeport and Brunswick. Then connect to Maine Eastern to Rockland with a number of stops along the Maine mid-coast. This year, it was just annonced that a free shuttle bus will available at Newcastle station that will take passengers around Newcastle and Damariscotta. For $5 there will be 2 round trips a day fron Newcastle to Boothbay.