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ue under a new owner while current owner RailWorld uses the proceeds to pay claims re- sulting from the derailment. A sale of MMA’s assets and those of its Canadian subsidiary Montréal, Maine & Atlantic of Canada would have to be approved by the U.S. and Canadian bankruptcy courts. At press time a buyer had not been identi-
fied, but in August, J.D. Irving, Ltd. said its Irving Transportation Services subsidiary was evaluating a potential MMA purchase. Irving’s New Brunswick Southern and Eastern Maine Railways are MMA’s main eastern connections at Brownville Junction, Maine, and Irving’s Northern Maine Railway has been operating 233 miles of state-owned former MMA track- age in northern Maine since June 2011. While MMA was a link in the crude oil supply chain to Irving’s Saint John refinery in New Brunswick, the company also has vast hold- ings in the paper and forest products indus- tries in Maine and eastern Canada. On MMA’s west end, the Vermont Rail Sys-
tem reportedly has been looking at the branch between Brookport, Québec, (a junction on the main line east of Farnham) and Newport, Vt. This line is the western connection of VRS’s Washington County Railroad between White River Junction, Vt., and Newport and serves a large feed mill on the border at Richford, Vt. Both transactions could be completed by
the end of this year. Rocky Mountain Railtours
EXPANDS SOUTH OF THE BORDER: The first runs of Rocky Mountain Railtours’ new Coastal Passage tour ran between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle, Wash., on Au- gust 24 and 25. The trains originated in Banff/Jasper, Alberta, on August 21 and 22 and returned to Canada later on the day of their arrival in Seattle. The six-car trains used Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station in- stead of the Rocky Mountaineer station in order to facilitate customs procedures. No more Seattle runs are on the docket for this year, but a dozen are scheduled for 2014.
Tacoma Rail
TRESTLE WILL BE REPLACED: The 100- year old, 1700-foot long single-track former Milwaukee Road curved timber trestle be- tween Portland Avenue and the Tacoma Dome passenger station at Freighthouse Square in Tacoma, Wash., will be replaced with a mod- ern, double-track span. Two single-track bridges over G and J streets will also be re- placed with double-track structures and im- proved signals will be installed on the line segment, which is owned by the city and man- aged by Tacoma Rail. Construction will begin in 2015 and the project should be finished by 2017. The new bridge is related to the Point Defiance Bypass Project, which will move Am- trak trains from their current route between Tacoma and Nisqually Junction over BNSF Railway’s former Great Northern route along Puget Sound to the inland former Northern Pacific Prairie Line, which runs along Inter- state 5. Sound Transit commuter trains began serving the line between Tacoma and Lake- wood in October 2012.
NS Helps NPBL Celebrate with a Heritage Unit
THE NORFOLK & PORTSMOUTH BELT LINE is a switching and terminal railroad that serves customers in Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Portsmouth, Va., and it’s celebrating its 115th anniversary with a locomotive painted in the bright red and maroon colors used on its EMD switchers in the 1950s. Jointly owned by Norfolk Southern and CSX, NPBL has been using solid black locomotives leased from NS, which designed this retro color scheme and painted GP38AC No. 5260 at the Chattanooga Diesel Shop. The inspiration for the vintage color scheme was Nor- folk Southern’s popular fleet of 20 Heritage locomotives that were painted last year in colors based on NS predecessors. Reportedly the Belt’s other unit, GP38-2 No. 5259, will also be re- painted in this scheme when it comes due for overhaul. Acquired by NS in the Conrail breakup, Nos. 5259 and 5260 were built as Penn Central 8042 and 8044.
VIA Rail Canada
GASPE TRAIN IS PUT ON ICE: VIA Rail Canada has suspended rail service between Matapédia and Gaspé, Québec, as of mid-Sep- tember, and says that no substitute bus serv- ice will be provided. VIA’s host railroad La So- ciété du chemin de fer de la Gaspésie has been
having problems with crossing signal activa- tion since it used an environmentally-friendly salt water-based vegetation control solution on its right of way this summer. The salt water causes heavy rust on the rails, which prevents light, short passenger trains from re- liably activating the route’s grade crossing signals and requires flag protection.
25 Little Balkans Days Excursions on the South Kansas & Oklahoma
WATCO’S SOUTH KANSAS & OKLAHOMA RAILROAD ran a series of excursions out of Pittsburg, Kansas, over Labor Day weekend in conjunction with the town’s Little Balkans Days festival. Webb Asset Management ex-Canadian National SD40-2 No. 4161 and ex-BNSF Rail- way SD40-2 No. 4159 operated in pull-pull mode with three ex-Massachusetts Bay Transporta- tion Authority (nee-Boston & Maine) RDC9s. On August 31, two one-hour round trips were op- erated, and on September 1 one round trip ran from Pittsburg to the Carona Railroad Depot Museum in Carona; lunch and a visit to the museum was included. Operating crews were pro- vided by Watco, while the cars were staffed by members of the Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Club, which maintains the Carona museum and its Kansas City Southern 0-8-0 No. 1023.
NORFOLK SOUTHERN
ANTHONY WESSEL
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