A couple of years ago I posted the coming-on view of this train at Northern Maine Junction. (see: Maine Central’s East Wind).
Last December, I located and scanned this trailing view.
As I mentioned in the earlier post; at the time I photographed a single Maine Central U25B with two flat and four Sealand trailers, I was decidedly unimpressed.
One locomotive, short train, no caboose?
What I was witnessing was the result of transportation deregulation that completely changed the American freight railroads.
Innovation spurred by deregulation that began as short intermodal trains such as this one, gradually evolved into mile-long transcontinental double-stack moves.
Will intermodal someday return to the Maine Central.
Tracking the Light is on the move today
(by rail, of course).
Well, on the day of the picture the train was northbound with 4 trailers! Thanks to both Brians.
Many of the loads were coming down to the U.S. market from eastern Canada. One of the reason the service failed was because the railroad couldn’t get enough back-traffic going the other way.
Those are excellent questions. Presumably the trailers arrived in New Haven by road for trans-loading on to the train for further shipment east. I don’t know any of the details, however. I photographed the train on several occasions, but never at its terminals.
That’s great news, and I guess my classic post is very timely!
Thanks for the up-date.
Brian how did those trailers arrive in NHV, by road or rail? If by rail how/where did they come from?
It just has, this week. Poland Springs water is shipping their product to Ayer in containers. The boxes are drayed to Waterville, where the intermodal ramp has been reopened. They run as a unit train (ten cars or so) to Portland, where the Icelandic shipping company Eimskip adds more boxes of various imported stuff; all of these containers then go to Ayer in a dedicated train and are unloaded and trucked around southern New England and New York from there. Empties have been returning in SEPO, the CSX train from Selkirk yard in Albany to Portland. Most prescient.