One Last Wreck - a photo on Flickriver

One Last Wreck

            Pan Am Railways Train WA-R smokes it up as they pass through the "Dirty Lew" on 1/16/2022. 

At the time Pan Am was in the process of cleaning up several derailments around the network. In December of 2021 Sappi-3 stacked up about 15 cars on the Hinkley Branch, two of which the 175 ton road cranes couldn't rerail. The "repaired" section through the derailment site ultimately resulted in 4 more derailments over the following months. While it seemed like Pan Am had the intention of leaving those two loaded paper cars for CSX to clean up, not wanting to bring out the two wreck trains, a derailment in Saco caused by the crew of PO-3 running a derail for the second time in a week, resulted in several LPG cars flipping over. 

Since those weighed too much for one of the road cranes to rerail, they brought out both the Waterville wreck set with the 200 ton Brownhoist crane and support cars and the East Deerfield wreck set with a 250 ton Brownhoist and two Cat 583H pipelayers. 

In the end, the flatcar the exB&M pipelayer rode on and its support car got kicked out at North Chelmsford, after one of the friction bearing trucks overheated. As a result, the wreck crews had to use just the cranes to rerail the cars, normally only doing one per day. 

Since the train was already in Maine, the decision was made to send it to the Hinkley Branch to recover the two paper cars. 

So on the morning of 1/16/2022 the train was supposed to depart Rigby before sunrise, to get into position at the derailment site in Hinkley.

Well, per the usual train WAPO lost enough of its units, that it died in Portland blocking the busy Forest Ave. With no available power or crews, the train had to block the single track main until a maintainer got enough of the units going to get the train to Rigby. By that point the original crew had timed out and it was some time before a yard crew could be freed up to come and drag the train into Rigby. 

Several Downeasters piled up waiting for the traffic jam to clear as well. This resulted in the wreck train finally getting out after lunch.

Things wouldn't be smooth sailing, in Cumberland Center the leader MEC B40-8 5973 sprung a coolant leak and ran out of water, before shutting down. Not long after taking the Backroad at Royal Jct the train had to stop due to sticking brakes. There were several more stops at New Glouster and Danville Jct before the issue was finally resolved. By the time they were rolling across the L/A bridge light was quickly fading. 

Due to traffic I got behind them at Leeds Jct and didn't pick them up again until Readfield (despite the 20 MPH restriction for plain bearing cars I think they were going faster). By that point all the light was shot.

The train would rerail the two cars over the following days before the Waterville set was left at Waterville, while the ED set languished at Yard 8 in Portland for a few months before returning to East Deerfield prior to the takeover. 

Since then the equipment has been scattered. The 470 Club got the Waterville baggage car and idler flat, the rigging car, the MEC dozer rigging car, B&M wheel car and the exMEC flatcar. The Railroad Museum of New England got the exB&M troop sleeper and the exB&M caboose that was welded to a flatcar. The Batten Kill and the SC&H got the other flat car, the ED baggage car, the exB&M flatcar and the 250 ton crane and idler, however I think they have since passed up the the latter two. I believe the Waterville dining car is still up for grabs, while the 200 ton crane despite being donated to the 470 Club, was sold to a buyer out of PA. The two Cat 583H's were sold to a company in the MA area which does work for CSX and a few other railroads.

The loss of the Pan Am wreck train was truly the end of an era for railroading in North America. The retirement of the train under CSX marked the end of the wreck train, something which had been used by railroads to clean up wrecks for over 100 years. It is worth noting a few railroads still retain a few cranes, however to my knowledge, none still employ a dedicated train and I haven't heard of any cranes being used in the modern era.

Pan Am Railway
Train: WA-R
1/16/2022
Lewiston, ME
ST District 1 Freight Main Line

Taken in: United States / Maine / Auburn / Auburn (show map)

Taken on: January 16, 2022

Tags:

MEC

ME more »

Maine

Pan

Railways

WA-R

Train

Lewiston

1/16/2022

District

Freight

Main

Line

B40-8

5973

5963

Auburn

Adroscoggin

River

Tracks

Railroad

Bridge

Trestle

Waterfall

Smoke

Wreck

Baggage

Car

309

Tool

546

Idler

524

Flat

Crane

3365

200

Ton

Brownhoist

250

3366 « less

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