Cumberland & Knox runs first revenue train on Maine's Rockland Branch

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2 days ago

Short line Cumberland & Knox made its debut last weekend, running its first train over a 56-mile, state-owned former Maine Central branch that hadn't seen any freight action at all in eight months.
The move saw locomotive LTEX 1555, an ex-Canadian Pacific GP9u, pick up 12 covered hoppers from the CSX interchange at Brunswick, Maine, and haul them to Rockland, Maine, on Saturday. The cars were switched to the previously shuttered Dragon Cement plant at nearby Thomaston, Maine, on Sunday.
Cumberland & Knox, a subsidiary of Maine Switching Services, finalized its operating agreement with the state's Department of Transportation at the end of April. The previous operator, Midcoast Railservice, canceled its lease after the Dragon plant shut down; the facility provided about 90% of Midcoast's revenue.
A casualty of the earlier factory closure and Midcoast's exit was a plan to launch a pilot passenger service connecting Rockland with Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority-sponsored Downeaster Amtrak trains at Brunswick. The Maine State Legislature had approved a $3 million grant to help Midcoast get the project started with leased Rail Diesel Cars.But the money was programmed back into the state's multimodal transportation account because 'there was no scheduled passenger service on the Rockland branch moving forward in the current workplan,' according to Nate Moulton, Maine DOT's director of freight and business logistics, in response to a Maine Freedom of Access Act request.
Maine Switching's government affairs manager, Finn Kelly, tells Trains News Wire that passenger trains, probably starting with excursions, aren't out of the picture, but Cumberland & Knox's first priority is to cultivate freight customers to make the line economically viable.
'The new Dragon Cement owners want to see if importing material from Pennsylvania on a pilot basis works for them, and we're here to support that,' Kelly said. 'After reaching out, we've also had interest expressed from businesses that both previously used rail or are open to trying it now.'
Since the company's late April takeover, workers have been hi-railing the right of way to reconnect and test highway warning devices that had been deactivated for months. 'We're thankful that there are no immediate track issues,' Kelly said during a mid-May News Wire visit. 'The 120-pound rail this is built with and tie condition is superb on the Rockland Branch; it's a beautiful railroad.'No locomotive arrived on the property until last Saturday, when No. 1555 coupled on to 12 cars left by CSX next to the Downeaster's Brunswick maintenance facility. Four hoppers from Pennsylvania contained Portland Type III cement and the other eight were filled with ground granulated blast furnace slag, a by-product of the steelmaking process added to cement to give it additional strength.
The original plan to haul all 12 cars together to Rockland was altered by the day's driving rainstorm. 'There are a lot of tight curves on the branch, and you lose momentum going through them,' Kelly said. 'The train weighed over 1,700 tons, which is why due to both rusty and wet rails, we left half of the hoppers at Bath, Maine, 8 miles east of Brunswick.' Six cars were first hauled another 30 miles to a siding near Waldoboro, then the locomotive returned light to Bath to pick up the remaining six, arriving late Saturday night at Rockland.
Kelly says the train operated at restricted speed and he led or followed it in a Hi-rail vehicle to address instances of late signal activation or devices that wouldn't immediately shut off after the train passed. 'It was the first run in almost a year and we were very cautious; we encountered only minor hiccups,' he said. Sunday afternoon the cars made the short run to Dragon Cement's Thomaston plant.
An additional locomotive will soon be assigned to the Cumberland & Knox, and the company is expected to announce more customers.
Video by photographer Michael St. Louis' South Coast Rail Videos captured both the May 31 and June 1 moves.
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