Bangor – Bucksport railway line

Bangor ME – Bucksport ME,
as of 1999

Route length:

31.1 km

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Dual track :

%

Society:

PAR

Legend

		by Vanceboro
		Calais Junction
		Bangor ME MEC / EMRY station (until 1883)
		Former access to the MEC / EMRY train station

	0.0	Bangor ME Union Station
		to Cumberland
		Penobscot River
	approx 4	Brewer Junction ME (formerly Brewer)
		to Mount Desert Ferry
	5.2	South Brewer ME (formerly Brewer Village)
	approx 8	North Orrington ME (formerly Freeman's)
	approx. 9	Sobin's ME
	approx. 10	Pierce's ME (formerly Pierce's Crossing)
	10.9	Orrington ME
	11.9	South Orrington ME (formerly Mill Creek)
	approx. 18	Hink's ME (formerly Hink's Landing)
	approx. 20	North Bucksport ME
	22.9	Bucksport ME Center (formerly Winterport Ferry)
	approx. 26	Chipman's ME
	approx. 29	Meddo ME
	31.1	Bucksport ME

The railway Bangor-Bucksport is a railway line in Maine ( United States ). It is 31.1 kilometers long. The standard gauge route is now operated by Pan Am Railways exclusively for freight traffic. Passenger traffic is stopped.

The port city of Bucksport at the mouth of the Penobscot River in the Atlantic had developed into an industrial center in the 19th century. RP Buck, descendant of the city's founder and local businessman, tried to connect the city to the railway network in the 1870s. The main lines in nearby Bangor were built in colonial gauge (1676 mm), which is why Buck chose this gauge for his railway. He founded the Bucksport and Bangor Railroad and built the railway line that initially ended at the Maine Central Railroad station in Bangor. The railway was opened on December 12, 1874 and at the same time leased by the European and North American Railway (E&NA). The route crosses the main route directly after the branch and the Penobscot River and then runs along the east bank of the river to Bucksport. The terminus in Bucksport was on Main Street at the corner of McDonald Street.

In the meantime, the Maine Central Railroad had converted its main line to Bangor to standard gauge . E&NA therefore decided to re-track its network - and thus also the route to Bucksport - which was completed on September 12, 1877. However, the company ran into financial problems and sold the route to Bucksport to an investor from Augusta. This wanted to extend them along the coast. In order to keep the cost of purchasing the land as low as possible, he decided to continue operating the railway as a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of three feet (914 mm). On October 10, 1880, the existing route was therefore re-gauged.

Again, this condition should only last for three years. After Maine Central had leased the railway in 1883, it rebuilt the line to standard gauge in May of the same year. At the same time, the former terminus of Maine Central in Bangor was abandoned and the trains had to go backwards from there to the city's main station . It was not possible to build a direct connecting curve because the Penobscot valley is quite narrow at this point and no new river bridge was wanted. With the opening of the branch line to Mount Desert Ferry a short time later, the line received a further boost. Now, for the first few kilometers of the railway line, express trains ran through cars to Boston and later even to New York and Washington. All of these trains had to drive backwards from Bangor station to Calais Junction so that they could then enter the railway line forwards.

In 1936, passenger traffic to Bucksport was discontinued and buses took over the transport tasks. As early as 1930, the MEC had replaced some passenger trains with their own buses, and mixed trains took over passenger transport . The passenger station in Bucksport on McDonald Street had already been closed in 1935. It has been restored in recent years and is owned by the Bucksport Historical Society . The last passenger train between Bangor and Brewer Junction ran on November 27, 1957.

After Maine Central got into financial problems, Guilford Transportation took over from 1981 , since 2006 under the name Pan Am Railways , the traffic to Bucksport. The route no longer has signaling devices. Once a day there is a freight train from Portland to Bucksport and back, which supplies a paper mill in Bucksport with chemicals and transports its products and oil. Local freight traffic only takes place sporadically.

Individual evidence

^ Mike Walker: SPV's comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. Steam Powered Publishing, Faversham 1999, ISBN 1-874745-12-9 .

literature

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

Web links

Pan Am Railways
[history.php http://maineanencyclopedia.com/railroads/ History of the Maine Railroad]

[1] Mike Walker: SPV's comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. Steam Powered Publishing, Faversham 1999, ISBN 1-874745-12-9 .