Part 1
As young teens, Joe and I had been fascinated by New England
railroads. We were especially fond of the railroads in Maine,
particularly the Maine Central, Bangor & Aroostook, Allagash,
and Atlantic Great Eastern. Our exposure to them was limited
to the railfan magazines of the time, but that was more than
enough to pique our interest. As we grew up, the itch to actu-
ally do some serious railfanning in Maine on our own became
unbearable.
Joe had spent time at school in Plattsburgh where he played
ice hockey, but transferred over to Scranton. He had recently
obtained his drivers’ license and had his car with him at school.
We were both juniors there, and were doing our share of seri-
ous partying. Now it was time to get serious about seeing some
trains. We had the wheels – we just needed a plan.
Interestingly, one of the railfan magazines had published an
interesting article, essentially a trackside guide to current
operations for the railroads of Maine. We picked up a copy at
the local hobby shop and studied it cover-to-cover. Where to
go? Maine Central? Bangor & Aroostook? Or maybe one of the
short lines such as the Belfast & Moosehead Lake or Aroostook
Valley? We considered all of the options and finally settled on
the Allagash Railway (AGR). The AGR had a cool mix of first-
and second-generation power from both EMD and ALCo, and
rumor had it that they recently picked up a bunch of vagabond
former-Conrail ALCos. As of the year before, they also had a
few F-units and a couple of RS3s still running around, but they
were probably in the deadline.
We booked a small mom-and-pop motel in the town of Weld,
Maine, located right next to the AGR’s Androscoggin Subdivision.
The weather forecast was typical for early spring in northern
New England – cloudy with a chance of rain the entire time. We
didn’t have time to be picky about the weather. We departed
Scranton at 9 p.m. and began the long, nine-hour drive to Weld.
We drove through the night, listening to an assortment of FM
radio stations along the way, as we tried to stay awake. Billy
Joel’s “You May be Right” and Blondie’s “Call Me” were big hits
back then. We heard each of them at least a few times.
The dawn broke gray as we arrived in Weld the next morn-
ing. We were tired but ready for action. We checked in at the
Mt. Blue Motel in Weld, grabbed a quick bite at the general
store in town, and tried to come up with a plan. We decided
to head for the division point yard at Madrid, around 19 miles
to the north. The trackside guide warned that the Allagash had
recently adopted a strict no-trespassing policy. The railroad
had always been friendly to railfans, but things had apparently
changed. We didn’t know what kind of reception we would get.
We arrived at Madrid a little while later. The reports were
correct. As we drove into the terminal, we were quickly con-
fronted by a railroad security cop. Fortunately, he was a
friendly sort. We explained what we were doing and he told
us about recent problems with vandalism, and that he just
couldn’t let us wander around the yard. He did say he’d call
the yardmaster to see if he could get us some information. We
could see AGR power lined up on the diesel servicing tracks
and inside the road’s brand-new, two-stall modern engine
house, but we couldn’t get close enough to get any pictures.
“As young teens, Joe and I had been fascinat-
ed by New England railroads.”
Journey to Allagash Part 1 - 2
MRH-Jan 2014
