Welcome to Southern Maine Rail Pics

By John Erickson

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Rail-fan Pictures in Waterville

Waterville is one of the main yards and usually has at least two switching crews on daily, and the crew from the Sappi paper mill in Madison, ME that comes down during the day. It also still boasts one of the major repair facilities, with a working 900ft. transfer table (44°34'05.3"N 69°37'00.1"W), a round house, and a working turntable (44°33'58.6"N 69°37'09.6"W).

Directions from Leeds Junction to Waterville
  • Head northeast on Greene Rd toward Leeds Junction Rd, 144 ft
  • Turn left onto Leeds Junction Rd, 1.1 mi
  • Turn right onto US-202 E, 17.2 mi
  • Use the right lane to merge onto I-95 N via the ramp to Bangor, 20.9 mi
  • Take exit 130 for ME-104/Main St toward Waterville, 0.2 mi
  • Turn right onto ME-104 S/Main St, 1.2 mi
  • Turn left onto Getchell St, 430 ft
  • Turn left onto College Ave, Destination will be on the right, 0.4 mi

The roundhouse can be found at coordinates 44°32'51.7"N 70°32'09.1"W. These directions came from Google Maps

Symbols

PanAm used a four character symbol to refer to each train that could tell you where the train started from and where it ended up. Long distance trains got four letters, the first two for the origin, and the last two for the destination. Switchers got two letters a dash and a number. The nicknames used could confuse this though (Sappi-3 was actually SP-3, I believe). The OCS (Officer and Crew Special) was a passenger train used to reward employees for good service and give dispatchers, company officers, and prospective customers a look at the lines. It usually consisted of three former parlor service cars pulled by two FP9 locomotives built in 1954. And the Oil Extra was a train that ran as a stop-gap measure during the Lac-Mégantic accident and Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway bankruptcy and sale to the Central Maine and Quebec Railway.

I will list the symbols I know with their end point city or town.

PanAm Symbol Descriptions
Symbol Place Symbol Place Symbol Place Symbol Place
AY Ayer, MA BA Bangor, ME BF Bellows Falls, VT BK Bucksport, ME
BO Boston, MA DJ Danville Jct., Auburn, ME DO Dover, NH ED East Deerfield, MA
LO Lowell, MA MA Mattawamkeag, ME NA Nashua, NH NM Northern Maine Jct., Bangor, ME
PL Plainville, CT PH Portsmouth, NH PO Rigby, S. Portland, ME RI Riley's, Jay, ME
RJ Rotterdam Junction, Rotterdam, NY RU Rumford, ME SE Selkirk, NY SJ Saint John, NB
SP SAPPI Mill, Hinkley, ME WA Waterville, ME WJ White River Jct, VT
PanAm Southern Symbol Descriptions
Symbol Discription Symbol Discription
22K Intermodal from Chicago (47 Street Yard) to Ayer 23K Intermodal from Ayer to Chicago (47 Street Yard)
16R Manifest from Binghamton to East Deerfield 11R Manifest from East Deerfield to Binghamton