BRUNSWICK — Police on Tuesday released more details about a dead body discovered Thursday afternoon along railroad tracks at Cook’s Corner. Investigators continue to appeal for assistance identifying the man.

Most notably, according to Brunswick detectives, the white male had a urine catheter strapped to his leg.

Officers responded just after noon Thursday to an area near Merrymeeting Plaza, where a man reported finding the body near a small campsite, Deputy Chief Marc Hagan said Friday.

Police found no identification, and now estimate that the man was 50 to 65 years old, approximately 5 feet, 7 inches tall, 160 pounds, with “ salt- and- pepper type dark hair” and a light beard and mustache.

The man was wearing tan pants, a brown knit hat, black work boots and two fluorescent orange sweatshirts under a dark tan coat, according to a release from Brunswick Police Detective Sgt. Martin Rinaldi.

The unidentified man may have been staying at a nearby campsite — a “makeshift tent from some tarps.”

Rinaldi said today that the man might have been dead for a while and that identification of the body has been hampered by the “ stage of decomposition (of the body), and that we had sub-freezing ( temperatures) and then it gets warm, and then freezing.”

The urinary catheter “isn’t common,” he said, and likely indicates an extended stay in a hospital, so detectives have checked local hospitals with no luck so far.

Brunswick police sent the body to the Maine Medical Examiner’s Office for forensic review. Meanwhile, they continue to investigate, seeking public assistance in identifying the deceased man and the circumstances of his death.

“We’ve had a ton of calls,” Rinaldi said, “and we have a few potential leads we’re chasing down.”

Hagan said Friday that the death did not appear suspicious. Police are not currently investigating any missing person cases.

Anyone with information about the man’s identity or anybody who was living near the tracks recently is asked to call Rinaldi at 725-6623 extension 162.

Update: 12/28/2011, 1:45 p.m.

Rinaldi said early this afternoon that the state medical examiner now estimates the man’s age at somewhere between 55 and 70 years.

Given the body’s condition based on decomposition, it could have been at the site anywhere from one week to several weeks, Rinaldi said.

Police also released more detailed information about items found in a backpack in the nearby tent, including zip-off hiking pants, a ventilated Gore-tex baseball cap manufactured by Carhartt; and an L.L.Bean-type felt fedora.

bbrogan@timesrecord.com