Guilford's Waterville (ME) Shops August 1989

A look around Guilford Transportation Industries ex-Maine Central Waterville (Maine) Shops in August of 1989. See the deadline, live power, the turntable in use and even the transfer table being used...anything on the roster is here from switchers to SD45's. Video by Richard 'Moose' Ouellette. If you like our stuff, Please comment and/or subscribe!

[@JohnR.1968]

Love the pickup truck loco riding the transfer table😂

[@j.sterling9167]

That's what we called the Available Parts department in the East Deer field Engine house. Why just take a look, at our finest engines standing tall and ready for stripping even the FRA won't go near them for fear they might be swallowed up by a rouge time vortex. I guess it was true what they said, Guilford, we know how to run a railroad into the ground!

[@williamh.jarvis6795]

I still have one of those bumper stickers. It isburied somewhere in one of my two storage units, after my forced move from my former apartment building, after 36 years there. Pictured in it is the capital letter G, sunken into the ground.

[@j.sterling9167]

@@williamh.jarvis6795 It was the greatest truth ever produced during the era.

[@chuckabbate5924]

​@@j.sterling9167It's high time someone tell the unvarnished story and call out Mellon for the felon he is

[@chuckabbate5924]

What a disgrace. Guilford ripped off the taxpayers for millions.

[@susanlamarre4952]

GREAT VIDEO - So sad to see what once was. Glad it has been preserved. THANKS!

[@justadoginmaine]

Operated that turn table ( which had a screaming loud back up diesel engine) and the transfer table many times. Unit 689 was being put into the wash bay. The second and third bay over from that is the drop table bays for changing traction motors. Most of the death row guests went under the torch and was scrapped. I might just have been in the engine house that day.

[@fastcar405]

This is what Tim Mellon did as he destroyed railroad's. Such a shame.

[@snydedon9636]

We have always referred to him as mellonhead. A real dirtbag for sure.

[@jeffreyaumand6447]

No doubt about it Guilford sucked big time...

[@SignalHillProds]

Awesome video. Cool shots of the turntable and roundhouse. It's a damn shame that almost everything in the video is long gone, but at least we have videos like this to keep the memories alive.

[@mikeshobbiesandrandomstuff]

some of these are still in service today...they wake me up some times

[@jaredkennedy6576]

I grew up about 20miles from there, I used to love going across the bridges from Winslow into Waterville, and going up to the yard. We'd usually stop at the odd lots reseller (Marden's?). I remember when they had the streets all torn up once, the cobblestones and streetcar tracks are still under all that pavement.

[@GiacomoVeteran]

I moved back to MAINE where I was born around March 1969 from California. I attended Waterville High and learned so much about my Families secrets, names, places, history. Lacombe, Ferrario, Veilleux, Maheu, and others. My mother and her parents were BORN IN BEAUCEVILLE, CANADA. I was Born in Maine. (Waterville). I met lots of 'Mainers' at Waterville High and also by frequenting FOXY's Pool Hall on Main street. Arthur Ganya Ice Skating, Hockey Rink. He was a retired Maine State Trooper . Very cool dude....Mr. Ganya. Yes, many of us have amazing stories of this place. I met Steve Hunter of Mercer, Maine here. Mark Carter was a cool dude who once worked on an OIL DERRICK OUT AT SEA. LaChance, Paul and Patricia his sister. Becky Veilleux,Trudy Hawkes. Danny Veilleux I thumbed across country with in 1969. Maine to California. Rough trip! We saved a girl from two old drinks in a car. They wanted jharm her. He beat them up! Then ran and headed to CAL. She got away and decided, smartly, to go back home. Why id girls thumb alone back then? CRAZY! I had some great friends in Maine. South End. Paul Coates,. Pat Coates. I went to Canada with them in 1970 in a truck. Crazy trip! Bunch of Hippies. Thanks for the memories

[@nhrrman]

Thanks alot for the info, its always interesting to hear from railroaders. Craig

[@nhrrman]

You are correct sir! There may be a few more in that group that didn't get the torch. Craig

[@schushoe]

Awesome video! It's sad these things get abandoned. :(

[@Firstclass91]

Wish that i could've seen MEC in action, too bad. Great video.

[@mec253]

Everything Guilford came in contact with instantly turned into junk.

[@j.sterling9167]

Everything Mellon came in contact with turned to instant shit.

[@jeffaumand1323]

Poor excuse for a railroad(s) Mellon destroyed everything. What a goddamn shame...

[@jeffaumand1323]

B&M and Maine Central might not have been perfect, but were great railroads before Guilford/ST and Pan Am so called. Everything about them sucks...

[@mec253]

@@jeffaumand1323 I couldn't agree more. ......and that's not just the opinion of many, the proof exists !! Guilford/PanAm was nothing but pure destruction !! That can not be denied.

[@Mountaindivisionrailfan252]

Yep. From what I believe, the MEC wasn’t bankrupt, so they were still running when Guilford, the massive billion dollar random company out of nowhere purchased it. They painted all the locomotives how they wanted and it looked disgusting. I am overexaggerating, but MEC (now CSRR) 252, N&W (now CSRR) 216, MEC (now CSRR) 573, and a couple others were kept alive to this date. That’s why Conway Scenic is important. Keeping history alive.

[@nhrrman]

Thanks, glad you liked the vid, Craig

[@wagrailroad]

Thank you! I miss the MEC orange.

[@Mountaindivisionrailfan252]

Come check the Conway Scenic and I’ll guarantee you’ll be happy.

[@district2productions]

@@Mountaindivisionrailfan252 yep

[@CyberSoldat]

A lot of butchered locomotives. Kind of sad when you think about it.

[@kddaniels5965]

seems like a big waste. if i could i would be restoring as many as poss.

[@Maine_Railfan]

Guilford raped that railroad.

[@philipconnolly7887]

They stripped the good parts off of them to keep the other running ones going.My brother n law has worked in the engine house since 1988 and said most of them were worn out .

[@rj4590]

I like the big SD45 getting on the turntable.20 cylinder 645 prime mover.(Hustle Muscle) as they were first dubbed.

[@imodelrr]

It was a sad day seeing all those locos sitting and waiting for the torches. I also noticed MEC 958 now operating in Lincoln, NH, HOBO as #958 Thanks for the videos

[@luisp5036]

14:34 looks like a cabin of an alco S-2 locomotive

[@steventurner820]

At 12:29 you can see the 404. Notice how it has a shorter nose then the U18 next to it. This unit was involved in a runaway and derailed, so the nose was replaced with a U25 nose

[@jeffaumand1323]

If there wasn't one photo of Guilford/ST Pan Am wouldn't bother me in the least.

[@lionel0824]

Sad to see all those classic engines sitting around waiting for the torch Trevot

[@nhrrman]

A few of the U18's that you see in the video were repaired and ran again after this video was made. There are a couple of reasons for them being retired when they were. Equipment trusts generally run 15 years, which is also the amount of time for the average diesel of that era to wear out. Also Guilford was primarily an EMD road, so if you eliminate non standard locos from the roster you don't have to stock parts or train labor to repair them, Craig

[@nhrrman]

What a way to go, though!

[@andyconnrock]

Very cool to see MEC GP38 252 still in her original livery. Similar to what it has now at Conway Scenic.

[@MyBlueLantern]

Thanks for sharing, awesome !!

[@nhrrman]

Thanks for watching Dan, Craig

[@goodeye03]

What a shame that Mellon bought out all of the area's railroads. After reading about what he and Fink did it's no wonder why all of the equipment looks like it belongs in the boneyard that you have in this video. Like a rich kid with a real train set..Who doesn't understand people make a living doing this...Glad I worked for Amtrak..

[@TonyFleetwood]

sweet, a turntable and a transfer table!

[@patricknoveski6409]

#616 / turn key ready. No payments till September. Lets wrote it up ! 🙃

[@dumbbuff]

Amazing how many of the U18s were there dead

[@sgt2dog]

Awesome!

[@NERRP2017]

About the only thing that made it out of pan am alive were gp40-2’a and gp40-2w’s and the 2 gp7 hu’s 55 and 72, which have since Been sold offf to Heber valley road in Provo Utah to be preserved becuase they couldn’t keep running costs on them low anymore

[@GP9railfan]

Guilford Fail System at its finest

[@jeffaumand1323]

It was a fail system alright, old Mellon made money for sure. The last strike that took place in 1987 - 88 as a union locomotive engineer I was out of work for over 6 months. I certainly didn't make money. A difficult time for alot of employees, but eventually I went elsewhere as they treated me like shit because I honored the strike. But there was life beyond Guilford/ST/Pan Am. I have the utmost respect for the ones who stayed. Except of course the scabs...

[@supertouring]

Your killing me, your freakin killing me.

[@Mountaindivisionrailfan252]

0:21, we all know where that one went.

[@9005067]

Howdy ,i really enjoyed that video

[@NorthernMaineProductions]

Thanks Craig! i thought that it was odd that even MEC bought these locomotives? they were also primarily an EMD road!

[@tropicalties3806]

The MEC you knew ended in 1981 when Guilford started up. The new RR had a different agenda.

[@nhrrman]

One of the earliest Diesel Era magazines has an excellent article on the MEC U18B's, and I believe they reprinted it and its available...check their internet site, Craig

[@NorthernMaineProductions]

queston to maine central fans,, were the independence class locomotives that bad? a magazine i have here says that maine central purchased these in 1975, that would have made them only 14 years old at this time! and just look at them all junked out looking and torn to hell what a shame! i could see the gp7's and 9's they were quite old a this time

[@natevince3154]

Yeah, Gilford put a lot of equipment, including the independence class into an early retirement.

[@JohnR.1968]

#689 just fit inside that roundhouse height wise

[@jeffaumand1323]

A damn shame for sure. Took the Maine Central and Boston and Maine and destroyed them...

[@fhowland]

What a depressing place.

[@kuoasify]

its kind of hard to watch what they do to locomotives makes me sick to my stomach i dont mind if they rebuild them but when they make them go to waste and scrap them then i just have stop watching because how hard it is to see it go

[@bigboy4016]

At least 252 was saved.

[@andrewwilson5631]

Nice. Where do you find these old videos? They are cool!

[@snydedon9636]

Sad. This is the result of one very selfish owner who sucked every penny out of the business and never put anything back in. And it gets worse from here.

[@oddjobz9858]

Railroad Alcatraz hauntingly sad

[@earthangel6480]

EARTH ANGEL GRAVEYARD???? HOW SAD. IT'S LIKE OLD IRON HORSES PUT OUT TO PASTURE?😢😪😔

[@becomeinformedmaine6884]

Now Known as PanAm Rail

[@Maine_Railfan]

More like Pan Am Fail System.

[@mmandmcb14]

Maine Central 958 at 13:41.

[@st.lawrenceatlanticrailpro4790]

To bad they scrapped all Maine Central GP38s except for 252 Conway Scenic got that one.....

[@Maine_Railfan]

Quite a few are still around.

[@st.lawrenceatlanticrailpro4790]

@@Maine_Railfan Yes just realized that sorry

[@turbo1438]

11:37 I have sat in that.

[@tillertruck7613]

Sad!

[@micheldescoteaux7192]

So sad, they should have stop buying more pieces of crap and invest their money into rebuilding their fleet ! The owners is a bonehead!

[@micheldescoteaux7192]

Went up to Maine this past weekend, and visited Waterville junction, was not happy with what I saw 😞 Tear it up and rip it out!, as the old saying goes.

[@justincase7937]

All that stripped scrap what a waste