On February 13, 2024, I headed out to find L071 as it came east out of Waterville. As we prepared to track down the L071, we got some alternate info that changed our plans-- the night turn job L072 had not made it back to Hermon, and that it was still east of Old Town somewhere waiting for the local crew NM-1 to finish it's trip to Hermon. Better yet, the westbound had three geeps in their train along with a rebuilt ET23DCM, so we decided to head east to find them instead. On the way up Route 2, we came along the train as it hustled west through Greenbush, so we retreated down to the 41 post in Milford. It didn't take long before they arrived, and we proceeded to chase them down through Old Town, Veazie, and Bangor before they arrived at Hermon. The eastbound L071 would be waiting at the west end of Hermon when they arrived, where the trains would swap crews, with the NM-1 assuming the eastbound and the L071 crew assuming the westbound for the return to Waterville. Interestingly enough, L071 would drop the 310 at NMJ, and the rebuild would either be cut out or it would die before L071 departed west. With only two geeps on point of the 39 cars, we knew we were in for a show with several steep grades ahead of them on the trek west between Hermon and Waterville. The first grade being Hermon, it was apparent as they approached that the units were laboring on the heavy train. With the sound of both the supercharged and the turbocharged units pounding, we would shoot them at both Carmel and East Newport as they lost some speed climbing the grades. Arriving at Pittsfield, we knew that the eastbound from Hermon to Mattawamkeag would be leaving NMJ soon with none other than 9280 on point, the only ex. Pan Am unit to ever receive CSX paint. So, we returned to Hermon just in time to find the L072 crew climbing on, which we would chase as far as Milford before light ran out. With two incredible lashups and some amazing EMD action on the east end, there is not much more I can ask for from the road jobs up here!