Brownville – Saint-Leonard railway line

Brownville ME – St. Leonard NB
Route length:	304.0 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	-, formerly Packards – West Seboeis
Society:	Brownville – Bowden: CMQR Bowden – Van Buren: MNR , partly closed Van Buren – St.-Leonard: EMRY
Shared use:	Brownville – Bowden: MNR
Legend from Derby 0.0 Brownville ME to Brownville Junction Pleasant River Brookport – Mattawamkeag route ? Mill Brook ME 17.4 Schoodic ME from South Lagrange 23.5 Packards ME 30.6 West Seboeis ME 36.4 Long "A" ME ? Ingalls siding ? Perkins ME 44.6 Norcross ME ? North Twin ME Penobscot River (western branch) ? Quakish siding Connection to the Millinocket Industry Park 53.3 Millinocket ME Millinocket Stream ? Bowden ME (formerly Schoodic Junction) to East Millinocket MMA / State of Maine property line Penobscot River (east branch) 67.6 Grindstone ME ? Summit ME 82.6 Davidson ME 85.8 Stacyville ME ? Siberia ME 91.9 Sherman ME ? Patten Junction ME according to Patten Moluncus Stream 100.4 Crystal ME ? Belvidere ME Fish Stream Mattawamkeag River (west branch) 109.8 Island Falls ME Goods connection 120.2 Dyer Brook ME 123.9 Oakfield ME to Fort Kent ? Ashland Junction ? Bennett ME ? Timoney ME 135.0 Ludlow ME 141.6 New Limerick ME Meduxnekeag River 151.8 Houlton ME Meduxnekeag River (south branch) ? Industrial connection ? Littleton ME Wiley Road 165.0 Littleton ME ? Hill ME ? Sharp ME 171.7 Monticello ME Meduxnekeag River (Northern Branch) ? Foster ME 179.9 Harvey ME 189.6 Bridgewater ME 195.5 Robinson ME 200.5 Mars Hill ME 208.6 Westfield ME from Fort Fairfield 216.1 Phair ME (formerly Fort Fairfield Junction) ? English ME ? Aroostook Farm ME ? Deering ME to Mapleton 225.3 Presque Isle ME BAR station ? Saunders ME Connecting track to the CP Presque Isle Junction – Washburn Junction route Aroostook River Former connecting railway to Caribou Road ? Perry ME ? Gooding's ME ? Riverview ME ? Scott's ME 238.8 Maysville ME ? Dow ME 248.8 Caribou ME to Limestone ? Barrett's ME ? Caribou ME Ogren Road ? Ben Thomas Siding 263.6 New Sweden ME ? Rista ME 271.2 Jemtland ME Madawaska River 275.4 Stockholm ME after Squa Pan ? Collins ME ? Watson ME ? Martin ME 302.1 Van Buren ME to Fort Kent (Canadian Junction) Saint John River / USA / Canada state border Connecting track to Tide Head from Moncton (St. Leonard INR Junction) Tide Head connecting track to Quebec City

The railway Brownsville-Saint-Leonard is a railway line in Maine ( United States ). The last kilometer of the route is in the Canadian province of New Brunswick . The route is 304 kilometers long and connects the towns of Brownville , Houlton , Presque Isle , Caribou and Saint-Léonard .

The standard gauge line is closed between Houlton and Phair and between Caribou and Van Buren. The Brownville to Bowden section is owned by the Central Maine and Quebec Railway . The Maine Northern Railway has a right of joint use on this section . Maine Northern also operates the Bowden to Houlton and Phair to Caribou sections which it has leased from the state of Maine. The short section from Van Buren to the state border belongs to the Eastern Maine Railway , the Canadian section of the New Brunswick Southern Railway . Only freight traffic takes place on all remaining sections.

history

In the northeast of the state of Maine, especially in the valley of the Aroostook River , several cities were founded early on, including Caribou and Presque Isle . These cities and also the capital of Aroostook County , Houlton , were to be connected to the railroad network. The Aroostook Railroad , founded on April 10, 1854, had dedicated itself to this task, but did not start construction.

In the decades that followed, the cities mentioned were connected to the railway network, but to the Canadian one by Canadian railway companies. But they also wanted a direct connection to the US railroad network. So one founded the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad , which built a railway line from Brownville to Houlton, where the line of the Houlton Branch Railroad ended, to which, however, no track connection was built. After only two years of construction, the 152-kilometer line went into operation on December 24, 1893. On December 5, 1894 Presque Isle was reached and on January 1, 1895 the route was extended to Caribou.

The city of Van Buren further north, however, was still not connected to the rail network. So the BAR decided to extend its main line further north. From November 16, 1897, the trains ran to Van Buren.

At the beginning of the 20th century there were plans to build another main line from New Brunswick via Van Buren towards Brownville. The Saint John River was a natural obstacle that first had to be overcome. The BAR founded a subsidiary, the Van Buren Bridge Company , and began building a railway bridge over the river in 1913, which opened on May 1, 1915, exclusively for freight traffic. The subsequent railway line from Van Buren to St. Francis was opened in 1910. The rest of the planned route, the so-called Allagash Line , was never built.

After passenger traffic on the entire route ended on September 4, 1961, the route between Houlton and Van Buren was closed in sections from 1975, only the Phair – Caribou section is still in operation. First traffic ended in 1975 between Monticello and Bridgewater . In 1979 the connection between Caribou and Stockholm followed . From 1980 there were no more trains between Houlton and Monticello, from 1982 between Stockholm and Van Buren and from 1984 between Bridgewater and Phair. Since 2003, the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) has operated freight traffic on the remaining sections of the route, which was reorganized in 2014 under the name Central Maine and Quebec Railway .

In February 2010, the MMA announced that it intends to shut down its entire network north of Millinocket except for a short stretch from Saint-Leonard to Madawaska, including the Millinocket – Houlton and Phair – Caribou sections. On October 20, 2010, the state of Maine bought these sections of the route, but for legal reasons this could only take effect after the Surface Transportation Board had formally issued the decommissioning permit on December 28, 2010. The state put the lines out to tender and leased them on July 1, 2011 to the Maine Northern Railway, a subsidiary of the New Brunswick Southern Railway (NBSR) from Canada, which took over operations between Millinocket and Houlton and between Phair and Caribou. She agreed a right of joint use between Brownville and Millinocket. On June 19, 2013, the MMA also sold the section from Van Buren to St. Leonard, namely to the Eastern Maine Railway, which is also a subsidiary of the NBSR. Since then, the NBSR has operated freight traffic north of Bowden with its trains.

Route description

Brownville Station , Maine, 1912 postcard

The line branches off in the town of Brownville ( Piscataquis County ) from the Derby – Katahdin Iron Works railway line and runs northeast. It passes under the Eastern Maine Railway north of the city . It then runs west of Schoodic Lake and Seboeis Lake and east of the Twin Lakes through unincorporated area to Millinocket in Penobscot County . A larger freight station is located here, which serves as a loading station for Deutsche Bahn's main customer, a large paper factory. Shortly after the city branches off to the southeast, the route to East Millinocket .

In the further course the route crosses the Penobscot River in Grindstone . As far as Sherman , the route is parallel to State Road 11, which is crossed several times. Overall, it is quite winding and mostly does not run in river valleys. From Sherman, where it crosses the Aroostook County border, the route runs parallel to Interstate 95 and Highway 2 to the county seat of Houlton . The continuing line towards Presque Isle has been closed, so that Houlton station is now a terminus.

BAR train in Caribou, Maine in October 1940

The disused line runs from Houlton further north parallel to the Canadian border and US Highway 1 . At the level of Sharp , part of the route was built for a new route for the highway. The railway then winds its way north and meets the Aroostook River in Presque Isle . It crosses the former Aroostook Valley Railroad and the river over a large bridge and continues along the western bank of the river to Caribou.

This is where the now out of service line leaves the valley and runs north-west to Stockholm. As the terrain becomes more hilly in this area, the route becomes more curvy again. It leads from Stockholm in a north-easterly direction to Van Buren, which is initially bypassed in the south. The freight yard is located at the southernmost point of this bypass. On the northern outskirts of the city, the route turns off the route that continues in the direction of Fort Kent and leads over the Van Buren Bridge to St. Leonard, Canada, where the route ends in a large freight yard. In St. Leonard the line joins the main line of the Canadian National Railways .

passenger traffic

Initially, three trains ran from Brownville to Caribou, two of which continued to Van Buren. There were also trains on the Oakfield – Fort Kent line , which usually ran on the main line to Houlton. After the shortcut east of Brownville opened in 1907, some of the mainline's trains ran over this new connection. This ended in the late 1910s. In addition, a train ran from around 1920 to 1938 on the Phair – Fort Fairfield to Presque Isle. The trains on the Squa Pan – Stockholm line ran from the opening of the line in 1910 to 1940 via Stockholm to Van Buren.

Express trains on the route were the train called Aroostook Flyer from 1935 , which ran between Bangor and Van Buren and was discontinued in 1954, as well as the Potatoland Special , which had this name from around 1944 and had through cars to Boston . The Potatoland Special initially also ran to Van Buren, from 1960 only to Caribou. It was the last passenger train on the Brownville – Saint-Leonard line and was last on September 4, 1961.

Sources and further reading

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mike Walker: SPV's comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. (2nd edition) Steam Powered Publishing, Faversham 2010, ISBN 1-874745-12-9 .
2. ↑ Vermont Business Magazine, February 5, 2010.
3. ↑ Article on trains.com from 21 June 2013
4. ↑ BAR timetables from 1906 to 1961.

literature

• Jerry Angier, Herb Cleaves: Bangor & Aroostook . Flying Yankee Enterprises, Littleton MA 1986, ISBN 0-96155-743-5 .
• George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. 2d edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5 .
• Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .

Web links

• Central Maine and Quebec Railway
• New Brunswick Southern Railway
• History of the Maine Railroad