The colors of Spring were well on their way in mid-May 2013, and Pan Am Railway's Bucksport Branch was alive and well while still shipping out paper like it had for over 80 years. May 19th's version of train WABK was still in Orrington, Maine as I was practically sitting on the town line with Bucksport. High hood GP40 #370 was in charge of the "down" train as the boxcars up front were empties waiting on their next loads of finished product from the Verso mill. Nobody knew at the time that Verso would sell out on the area within 18 months. By December of 2014, the mill saw it's last shift and was sold to a scrap dealer. 500+ workers lost their jobs that month, and a town lost it's identity as well as it's paper trains. Scrap trains lasted until 2017, but nothing has run the length of the branch since then. Except for a couple miles of the North end, the branch--including this location--remains in place but unused.
