Austin Junction – Kineo railway line

Austin Junction ME – Kineo Station ME, as of 1999
Society:	most recently MEC
Route length:	82.6 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Tracks:	1
Legend from Oakland 0.0 Austin Junction ME to Bingham 3.4 Bingham Heights ME (formerly Moscow) 13.2 Deadwater ME Jackson Brook 17.4 Dimmick ME 19.6 Lake Austin ME (formerly Bald Mountain) 27.0 Baker's ME 32.2 Troutdale ME (formerly Mosquito) 39.6 Lake Moxie ME 47.3 Forsythe ME Kennebec River 53.8 Moore's ME 57.6 Indian Pond ME 62.5 Misery ME 65.3 Marrs ME Lac-Mégantic connecting curve Brookport – Mattawamkeag route 72.7 Somerset Junction ME Brookport connecting curve 82.6 Kineo Station ME (formerly Rockwood)

The railway junction Austin Kineo is a disused railway line in Maine ( United States ). It is 82.6 kilometers long.

history

The Moosehead Lake in northern Maine was at the turn of the 20th century, a major tourist destination. The lake had been accessible by railroad since the 1880s, but with a major detour via Bangor . The Somerset Railway , which had completed its Oakland – Bingham line in 1890 , offered a way to connect the lake more directly and thus significantly shorten the travel time from Boston and New York .

A further construction from Bingham was not possible because the development of the place was in the way. So one joined the northern continuation of the route shortly before Bingham. An Austin Junction stop was built at the junction and another Bingham Heights stop was built on the eastern outskirts of Bingham . The line went into operation on February 22, 1905 to Deadwater . In 1906 Troutdale was reached and on March 4, 1907, Rockwood was finally reached . The terminus was renamed Kineo Station shortly afterwards , although the place Kineo itself was on a peninsula on the other bank of the lake and was only accessible via a ferry. The railway company built a large holiday hotel in Kineo.

The trains first went to Bingham, except in the summer, then pushed back to Austin Junction and drove over the new route to Kineo. They didn't stop at Bingham Heights then. From the start, only one pair of trains went to Kineo per working day. In the summer, the trains to Kineo ran through cars from Boston and New York without the detour via Bingham, but with a stop in Bingham Heights. Two pairs of trains drove to Kineo on weekdays, one on Sundays.

In 1907, the acquired Maine Central Railroad Company , the majority shareholder of the railway company and led from 1911 to operate on the now Kineo Shortline mentioned railway line. Due to the unfavorable location of the hotel on the other side of the lake and the global economic crisis that began in 1929, income on the route fell rapidly from this time on. On July 22, 1933, the entire Austin Junction – Kineo Station line was shut down and dismantled. Five years later, the hotel was also closed.

Route description

The route runs on the eastern outskirts of Bingham and further north along the Jackson Brook , which it crosses shortly after Deadwater. From here it goes over a hill further north to Moxie Pond , on the western bank of which the route continues. Some bays of the lake were crossed by dams. At the northern end of Moxie Pond, the railway crosses the lake's drain and heads north to Squaretown , where it meets the Kennebec River . This is where the dam is located, which has dammed the Indian Pond , a naturally existing lake, to such an extent that the railway line is partially flooded from here. From the northern end of the lake, the route now continues to the Somerset Junction junction station , where the Canadian-Pacific mainline Montréal – Halifax was crossed at the same level. A connecting curve enabled continuous operation from the direction of Montréal to Kineo Station, which, however, was not used for passenger traffic. Along a tributary of the Kennebec River, the route continues to Moosehead Lake, where the terminus at the ferry terminal in Rockwood was.

Today, almost the entire route, with the exception of the section flooded by the dammed Indian Pond , is used by an unpaved road.

literature

• Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .

Web links

• History of the Maine Railroad

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MMike Walker: SPV's comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. Steam Powered Publishing, Faversham 1999, ISBN 1-874745-12-9 .
2. ^ The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. January 1910. page 155.
3. ^ The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. July 1911. page 223.