going-away shot of BM2 crossing the Sandy River was all we
could get as the train accelerated toward Madrid. (6d).
We chatted with the locals, and they advised that a gravel extra
was somewhere on the Androscoggin Sub. Apparently it had
trailed BM2 out of Dixfield earlier that morning. What was
not clear was whether the train had made the hill at Holman.
The guys reported that the empty train had gone down to the
Dixfield pit the day before and that coming back, the lead unit
should be former Conrail C420 2072, still in Conrail blue. Now
this was getting interesting! We all decided to head south in
hopes of running into him.
We got up to Knox and started to get that nervous feeling.
There were no signals to consult (the Allagash is a dark rail-
road) and we didn’t have a scanner radio. We all parked our-
selves on a hillside overlooking the farm bridge at Knox to
wait it out. Old man Knox himself came out to see what all
the excitement was about. He said he didn’t recall seeing or
6a-6b: M420 200 passes the rear of BM2 with caboose
#23 bringing up the markers.
6b
Journey to Allagash Part 1 - 7
MRH-Jan 2014
