Sunday L052 Heads Up the Rumford Branch -7/9/23

On Sunday, July 9, 2023, I was doing some chasing around Waterville (see: • EMD Sound on a Road Fr... ) and I decided to head west toward Greene to scout a possible eastbound Rumford job. The past couple of months have seen the Rumford service split between a branch local L054 and a mainline local L053 meeting somewhere around Leeds Jct or Lewiston to do their train swap during the week; however, recently, the weekday L054 power has been operating all the way from Jay to Portland on Saturdays, returning from Portland back to Jay on Sundays, oftentimes with fresh power. These operate as L051 west and L052 east, designated as Portland based crews operating the entire distance from Portland to Jay. I decided to explore this new pattern after finishing with M426, and almost by surprise, stumbled onto them at Leeds Junction as they waited for papers up the Rumford Branch. With two engines and 52 cars, these guys had their work cut out for them especially on the steep grade at Livermore Falls. I hope you enjoy this Sunday chase on the Rumford Branch!

[@jackseamon7064]

Great work! Thank you for sharing your high quality videos.

[@steventurner820]

I was on the Downeaster this day, saw both of those engines at Rigby in the line of engines. Believe the whole line was 7518, 517, 502, 345, 383, 313.
Yay, more different symbols for the Rumford haha

[@alanwbelcher]

It seems like the speed restrictions are slower each time you make a video. Pretty soon the towns will start charging taxes on the value of the train that crawls along.

[@HinckleyBranchRailfan]

Great catches! So this means 4 trains a day up the Rumford Branch with L054, L053, and L051/52?.

[@BranchlineGeepProductions]

No, L051/52 are weekend jobs, will likely run as needed. L053 also does not operate on the Rumford Branch.

[@HinckleyBranchRailfan]

⁠Right, forgot that L053 doesn’t go up the Branch. They interchange west of there.