Well, I can tell you from first-hand experience, he’s very busy!
I had the delightful pleasure to visit him at his new-ish railroad, the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. I’m telling you folks, you need to keep an eye on this operation–and not just because it has similarities to the Wisconsin Central that this home-grown dairy-state girl misses so much.
In many ways, the MM&A is similar to the WC: terrain, operating conditions, residents’ personality types, and the fact that lumber and paper mills comprise a large portion of the business. In other, very critical ways, though, it’s radically different: The lines’ histories, the volume of shippers online, and the general relativity of population and customer density. Also, Maine is a very harsh operating environment–much worse than Wisconsin. Right now the article I’m writing on the MM&A is scheduled for the March issue, I think. Keep your eyes peeled, because I’m very excited about this one.
As for other parts of my visit, well, I’ll start with Monday. I spent the entire day in the headquarters at Hermon, Maine, just outside Bangor. The senior executives are impressive with their knowledge and passion. Really, they’re a wonderful group of people dedicated to making this very isolated railroad a success. But they’ve had their challenges, including a major shipper going bankrupt the day the railroad’s sale was finalized, another shipper whose factory had a boiler explosion and fire, a couple serious derailments, and deferred track maintenance. Despite this, they seem to be making the right decisions in keeping costs in line with reduced revenue and still spending money where it needs to be spent to secure the railroad’s future.
Tuesday I went to Derby to visit the shop. And Randy’s home away from home. This complex is so cool, I don’t know where to begin describing it. It’s a far bigger shop than I would have expected for a short line, but it makes sense when you realize how very remote the railroad is. There