Crowleys Junction – Lewiston Lower railway line
| Crowleys Junction ME – Lewiston Lower ME, as of 1999 |
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| Route length: | 7.6 km | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Dual track : | - | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Society: | PAR | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The railway Crowley Junction Lewiston Lower is a railway line in Maine ( United States ). It is 7.6 kilometers long. The standard-gauge line is now owned by Pan Am Railways , which occasionally operate freight services on the railroad. The last kilometer of the route from an industrial area to the former terminus in Lewiston has been closed and most of it dismantled.
history
The line was created as a branch of the Brunswick – Farmington line of the Androscoggin Railroad and was opened together with this in 1861. It branched off in South Lewiston from this route in a track triangle and led westward to Lewiston city center, where it ended in a terminus on the bank of the Androscoggin River . The Androscoggin Railroad wanted access to the industrial city of Lewiston in order not to be dependent on the Portland and Kennebec Railroad , to which there was a tense competitive relationship. In 1874, the Maine Central Railroad took over operations.
The traffic density on the route was relatively high; the 1916 summer timetable provided for six pairs of trains on weekdays and four pairs of trains on Sundays, most of which had connections in Brunswick to Portland or Augusta . In the summer of 1931 there were still two weekday train pairs between Lewiston and Brunswick. Two years later, in 1933, passenger traffic ceased.
After the Maine Central Railroad wanted to shut down the last kilometer of the line in 1978, some of the railroad's customers there took over operating costs and agreed to continue operating the section until 1982. In the meantime, Maine Central had gone bankrupt and was owned by Guilford Transportation , since 2006 under the name Pan Am Railways . After the end of the contract, the section was shut down and dismantled the following year. Regular operation ended on the line. Around 1996, the connection points were expanded in Brunswick, so that from that point in time no more trains could run on the line - the line leading north from Crowleys Junction had already been shut down in 1938. The application for closure made in 1998 was withdrawn the following year and meanwhile the connecting switches have been reinstalled and the line is occasionally used again.
literature
- Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .
Web links
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 .
- ^ The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. June 1916. page 220.
- ^ The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. August 1931. page 81.