After being selected to take over maintenance and operations of the Rockland Branch Railroad early this year, Maine Switching Services is readying the rails as it prepares to begin hauling freight in the coming weeks.

The Unity-based company formally signed a contract with the Maine Department of Transportation Monday, but there are several steps that need to be completed before engines can return to the line, said spokesperson Finn Kelly.

“The railroad is more than running trains, so we are starting operations,” Kelly said.

That includes reactivating railroad crossing signals that have been down for months and sending the first engine to the region, Kelly said. The company had been waiting to sign the contract before moving equipment, he added.

He said trains should be riding the rails by the end of May, with Maine Switching operating under the title of the Cumberland and Knox Railroad, but it’s too early to say precisely when the first shipment will take place or how frequently trains will run.

The line had been without an operator since Midcoast Railservice announced in summer 2024 that it would terminate its lease on the roughly 56-mile stretch. The state released a request for proposals to take over service in September, and Maine Switching was selected from five proposals, the department said at the time.

Though the current contract only includes freight service, the new operator is interested in expanding to passenger service, the company said in a written statement.

Several companies have already expressed a desire to ship products and materials on the freight line, including Thomaston-based Dragon Cement Products, which will be the largest customer at launch, Kelly said.

“That is the big company that has committed to it,” Kelly said. “We are working with all of the former customers who were shipping by rail in addition to some new companies that have reached out to us.”

Maine Switching is “dedicated to supporting industrial and economic growth along the Rockland corridor,” Joe Feero, the company’s president, said in a written statement.

Kelly said that being able to support local businesses will be a key indicator of the railroad’s own success.

“We are providing a service for them, and if those businesses are successful, then so are we,” Kelly said.