Suddenly, the flashers started going. Yes! Soon AGE RS11 895
came into view and stepped across the crossing. The crew had
to set out a couple of empty pulpwood flats on the team track,
which was south of the crossing in the pitch black. We had just
a minute to get set up and rip off a couple of bulbs on the grain
store and on the nose of the 895 (21). A quick word with the
crew revealed that they would make it into Madrid unopposed,
since MB1 (Madrid-Bethel), usually a night train, was set back
eight hours. That would put him through Weld at 3 a.m. We
weren’t sticking around for that. It wasn’t long before DA2
thundered out of town. It appeared that day one had come to
an end. We crawled back to the motel and crashed…hard.
20
20: The 500 couples onto an empty CP Rail boxcar
spotted on the grain shed siding.
Journey to Allagash - 4
April 20th dawned cold with what appeared to be a mostly
clear sky. There was frost everywhere. We got up before the
sun, and decided to get trackside as soon as possible, just in
case MB1 was late getting out of Madrid. We headed toward
the crossing by the farmhouse near Milepost 7. We got there
and were amazed to find a train canned just north of the cross-
ing. It looked like a “Lumberjack,” with a string of loaded pulp-
wood on the head-pin. Power was M420 205 and C425 250.
After just a few minutes, a taxi pulled up, and out popped the
relief crew. It turned out that this was actually Second AD1, a
tonnage-relieving second section of yesterday’s “Lumberjack!”
We didn’t have long. The sun was beginning to rise in the east-
ern sky, glinting off the rails and silhouetting the farm house on
21: DA2, the empty “Lumberjack” pauses at Weld to
set out empty pulpwood racks. Atlantic Great Eastern
Alco RS11 895 is in the lead.
21
MRH-Feb 2014
