Maine Eastern Railroad's West End, August 25, 2012

This "Scenic Excursions" railroad runs from Brunswick, ME 51 miles east and a little north to Rockland, ME.  Brunswick is 26 miles north east of Portland.  Maine Central (MERR) is state owned and operated for the state by the Morristown and Erie Railway of New Jersey.  There is some freight service.  The passenger trains make two round trips daily (Rockland to Brunswick and return), one in the morning and one in the afternoon four days a week from May through October.  There is some variation in the schedule in the Fall.

 

While MERR has a handful of locomotives, FL9 488 seems to be doing all the passenger work this summer.  Here she is with the first westbound train in a cut in a residential neighborhood in Bath, ME just after passing the station on time at 9:20 a.m.

The train is seem about 1/4 mile short the station in Brunswick.

At the Brunswick Station/Visitor's Center.  A regional bus line uses the station as will the Downeaster when it is extended beyond Portland to Brunswick.  The first car is a square-end observation/parlor car.  Next is a diner followed by three coaches.

The train is wyed in Brunswick.  Here it is backing around the northwest leg.

The wye has three grade crossings of local streets and a crew member flags each one.  Here, as the train pulls forward, he is rolling up his flag at the last one on the northeast leg.  The 45 minutes between arrival and departure times at Brunswick was more than sufficient to execute turning the train.

Arriving back in Bath as the morning eastbound.  Bath is the typical Maine central-coast town.  Filled with vacationers in the beautiful summer weather, and then there is the Maine winter.

Just east of the Bath depot is a double-level lift bridge over the Kennebec River.  The top highway-level is obviously not used by U.S. Route 1 traffic which now uses the bridge to the left.  I wonder if that street light works?  Changing the bulb would be interesting.

This last picture was taken along the Sheepscot River in Wiscasset, ME about 20 minutes later.  Nobody boarded at Wiscasset that morning.

MERR's web site may be found at:
http://www.maineeasternrailroad.com/