In 1985 the railroad purchased its first two non-leased locomotives, an EMD GP18, #503, and an EMD GP7, #302, from the bankrupt Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. The locomotives were painted in an attractive green and yellow scheme and went to work immediately. 302 was originally slated to work on the B&M line between Worcester and Gardner, but that deal fell through when the Providence & Worcester Railroad objected. The acquisition of the trackage between Manchester and Concord had bolstered the railroad's yearly carloads from 200 to nearly 2,500, much of which was due to Blue Seal Feeds at Bow Junction and International Salt in Bow. In the late 1980s the railroad was also operating a former B&M branch in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, switching the SD Warren Paper Mill in Skowhegan, Maine, and performing various maintenance-of-way contracts around New England. Less fortunate was a planned gravel operation on the former Maine Central's Calais Branch which fell through and a 1988 bid on the ex-Grand Trunk line in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont which went instead to the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad.