Calais – Princeton railway
| Calais ME – Princeton ME, as of 1999 |
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| Route length: | 34.3 + 1.9 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dual track : | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Society: | PAR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Calais – Princeton railway is a railway line in Maine ( United States ) and in the Canadian province of New Brunswick . It is 34.3 kilometers long. The standard gauge line is still partly operated by Pan Am Railways in freight traffic. A stretch in Calais and the Woodland Junction – Princeton section have been closed.
history
The Calais Railroad was founded as early as 1832, with the aim of building a 3.4-kilometer-long railway line to transport wood from Calais to Salmon Falls (now Milltown). Later, an extension to Baring was considered, but this was not initially built. In 1839 the line to Salmon Falls went into operation. The tracks were made of wood with an iron tread, horses were used as traction means. As early as 1841, for economic reasons, operations were stopped and the railway was sold.
The Calais and Baring Railroad took over the facilities, converted it into a steam-powered railway on metal rails and reopened it in the spring of 1851. In July of the same year, the extension to Baring went into operation. The further extension of the line to Princeton was built by the Lewey's Island Railroad and opened in January 1858. Both railways went later on in the St. Croix and Penobscot Railroad , which in the 1870s planned a further extension to the Bangor – Vanceboro railway line . However, this extension was never built.
From 1898 the railway line was owned by the Washington County Railroad . After a dam was built near Woodland in 1905, the route had to be relocated slightly. At the same time, a track triangle and a short branch line to the center of the town of Woodland, which opened in 1906, were built. The passenger trains now ran from Calais to Woodland, where the locomotive was relocated before the journey to Princeton could continue.
On July 24, 1933, all traffic between Woodland Junction and Princeton ended and the line was officially closed in 1935. Only about 1.2 kilometers at Woodland Junction remained in operation as a parking facility. Passenger traffic between Calais and Woodland ended in 1946.
Since 1981 the route has been under the control of Guilford Transportation , which has operated under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 . In 1984, the Calais terminus was closed and around one kilometer of the line was dismantled. The line has been isolated from the rest of the US rail network since 1985 and is only connected to the Canadian rail network via the Saint Stephen – Milltown Junction line.
Route description
The route begins in Calais on Union Street at the corner of North Street. It runs on the southern bank of the St. Croix River to Baring. Here the route crosses the river and runs for a few kilometers over Canadian territory. Shortly before Woodland, the train crosses the river again. The Gleisdreieck is still in Woodland today, the northern branch of which, which formerly led to Princeton, is used to park freight cars. The short branch route to Woodland curves north around the city to end on its west side. The route to Princeton first leads north along the river, before turning north-west at Whiddens Farm stop . After a few kilometers, Princeton is reached, where the terminus was on Depot Street.
attachment
credentials
- ^ 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 .