WATERVILLE — It was cold and windy Friday as Gov. John Baldacci emerged from the Pan Am Railways repair shop.
Railway officials, including President David Fink, had just given Baldacci a tour and explained a new “supplemental energy system” developed at the shop, that will be used for the first time this winter to save on fuel costs for trains.
Pan Am’s repair shop in Waterville is the company’s largest in New England. It’s also where new train features such as the supplemental energy system are developed.
The cold-weather system runs on electricity generated by hot water, and kicks in when a train is idling to save on its fuel consumption. The 100-horsepower engine system goes on and off as needed, Fink said, reducing operating costs and the environmental impact of idling locomotives.
Company engineer Gordon Long said the energy-efficiency project began about a year ago and, now that a prototype is complete, the company hopes to build about one per month.
When idling, a train typically burns about seven gallons of diesel fuel an hour, Long said. The new system will use about one gallon per hour, and can run for many hours at a time.
Baldacci said the rail project highlighted the importance of improving the state’s rail system for economic development. “More of our freight needs to be on the rails, not the roads,” he said.
Baldacci’s tour of the rail facility was just the beginning. Boarding a Pan Am business train, the governor was joined by other state officials, major shippers, and officials for Pan Am Railways, St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad and the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority for several stops at rail projects in Maine.
They went to a ribbon-cutting of the Danville Junction Gateway Project in Auburn, which will improve freight service and reduce shipping times, then to Royal Junction to observe Pan Am crews installing new rail for the Downeaster expansion to Brunswick.
The final stop was at Rigby Yard in South Portland to view the recently completed Portland Wye Project.
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