Cumberland Center – Bangor railway line

Cumberland Center ME – Bangor ME, status 1999
Society:	PAR
Route length:	Original route: 206.3 km, today approx. 205 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	(formerly partially)
Legend from Portland 0.0 Cumberland Center ME (formerly Cumberland Junction) (0.0) to Rockland (Royal Junction) (2.2) Walnut ME (end of the 2-track section) (5.0) Walnut Hill ME (new letter) 5.5 Walnut Hill ME (old letter) approx 8 Wescustago ME (9) 10 14.3 Gray ME approx. 16 Penny's ME 21.7 New Gloucester ME ? Rowes ME from Portland 29.5 Danville Junction ME to Iceland Pond 33.0 Rumford Junction ME (formerly Poland Springs Junction) to Kennebago approx. 34 Hacketts Switch ME (formerly Hacketts) Lewiston Junction – Lewiston route 38.3 Auburn ME Androscoggin River 39.6 Lewiston ME (formerly Lewiston Upper) about 40 Fairgrounds ME 51.7 Greene ME 56.7 Leeds Junction ME (formerly Leeds) to Farmington Brunswick – Farmington route Junction from the direction of Farmington 62.3 Monmouth ME 66.1 Annabessacook ME 71.1 Winthrop ME Lake Maranacook 76.3 Maranacook ME 80.3 Readfield ME ? Hoyt's ME 93.0 Belgrade ME approx. 98 Lakeside ME 100.7 North Belgrade ME (formerly Messalonskee) 107.5 Oakland ME (formerly West Waterville) to Bingham Messalonskee Stream about 113 Crummet's ME Messalonskee Stream from Brunswick 117.2 Waterville ME Kennebec River (121.4) Fairfield ME (formerly Kendall's Mills) 121.8 Benton ME (formerly Kendall's Mills, West Benton) to Skowhegan Kennebec River (122.5) 122.6 130.8 Clinton ME 139.4 Burnham Junction ME (formerly Burnham) to Belfast approx. 145 Halfway ME 150.8 Pittsfield Center ME (formerly Pittsfield) according to Harmony 157.6 Detroit ME 162.1 Newport Junction ME (formerly Newport) after Dover-Foxcroft 166.4 East Newport ME (formerly East Newport (Eastville)) ? Stetson ME 175.6 Etna ME about 180 Damascus ME 182.0 Carmel ME ? Dabscook ME 189.1 Hermon Pond ME approx. 196 Hermon Center ME South Lagrange – Searsport route Connecting tracks towards South Lagrange and Searsport 197.1 Northern Maine Junction ME approx. 200 Lanes siding Connection to Bangor International Airport approx. 204 Bangor Yard 206.3 Bangor ME Union Station to Vanceboro

The railway Cumberland Center Bangor is a railway line in Maine ( United States ). It is 206.3 kilometers long and is part of the main Boston - Halifax line . The standard gauge route is now operated by Pan Am Railways exclusively for freight traffic. Two sections of the original route, about 15 kilometers long, have been closed because they have been replaced by other routes.

history

prehistory

Railways began to open up the state of Maine in the 1840s . In 1842 the first trains reached Portland from Boston and from 1848 the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad ran further north, first to Danville on the Androscoggin River , and from 1853 to Montreal . The city of Bangor on the Penobscot River had a railway connection since 1836. However, this line was isolated from the rest of the railway network throughout its life and a connection to Portland was urgently required in order to be able to reach the city quickly in winter when the rivers are frozen over. Waterville , already an important industrial site on the Kennebec River at that time , was not yet connected to the rail network. To change this, the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad and the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad were founded in 1845 . The companies intended to connect their namesake rivers. In Waterville, the two routes should meet.

Construction and re-gauging

Since the line is a branch line of Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad was planned and was to branch off from this in Danville, the same gauge of 1676 mm was chosen as the railroad in the direction of Montreal was built. The track construction began after the opening of Atlantic & St. Lawrence at the end of 1848 and on July 3, 1849, the first 41.6 km long section to Winthrop was put into operation. Waterville was reached on December 5th of the same year.

Since the Kennebec River had to be crossed in Waterville, further construction work was delayed. It was not until December 1853 that the bridge and thus the continuation of the railway line to Kendall's Mills , now Benton, was opened. From November 1854, the trains ran to Pittsfield and in August 1855, after seven years of total construction, Bangor was reached. The terminus in Bangor was a few hundred meters north of what would later become Union Station .

In November 1856, Androscoggin & Kennebec leased Penobscot & Kennebec and operated the entire route. The two companies merged in 1862 to form the Maine Central Railroad . The rail line became the centerpiece of a rapidly growing rail network between Portland and Bangor. As early as 1855, the route had received competition. From that point on, it was possible to travel between Waterville and Portland on the Portland and Kennebec Railroad on standard-gauge tracks. There was no reloading of goods in the direction of Boston, especially since Portland & Kennebec shared the terminus of the line from the direction of Boston from 1861 onwards. For this reason, Maine Central decided on the one hand to lease Portland & Kennebec, which took place in 1870, and on the other hand to convert their existing line to standard gauge so that the goods could not be reloaded in Waterville. However, since the line would then hit a track of different gauge at its western end, it was also planned to extend the railway beyond Danville south to the Portland & Kennebec main line near Cumberland . Both construction projects were completed in 1871.

Route relocation and current operation

Over the years, some sections of the line have been expanded to double tracks. This particularly affected the section between Danville and Auburn. From 1907 the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad used the section from Northern Maine Junction to Bangor. For this reason, the nine kilometers were also expanded to two tracks. Since they wanted to double-track between Danville and Portland, but the route north of Cumberland could not be extended due to the development, it was decided to swivel the route east to the Royal River and a new line, the so-called Walnut Hill Diversion , to the former Build Portland & Kennebec Main Line. In 1912 this railway went into operation and the winding section of the old route from Cumberland Junction (now the Cumberland Center) to Gray was shut down after only 41 years.

The railway bridge over the Kennebec River near Waterville, inaugurated in 1853, had to be urgently renewed in the 1910s. Since the Maine Central had two parallel lines between Waterville and Fairfield / Benton, it decided to shut down one of them, namely the old main line with the bridge in need of renovation. A new bridge was built east of Fairfield and the trains from then on used the Portland & Kennebec line between Waterville and Fairfield, which was then doubled. The so-called Fairfield Diversion was opened around 1918 and at the same time the second section of the main line Cumberland Center – Bangor was closed.

With the decline in train traffic, most of the second mainline tracks were removed again in the 1960s and 1970s. Today the railway is single-track except for longer sections at the larger stations and a 2.2-kilometer stretch from Royal Junction to Walnut. Passenger traffic ended west of Waterville on February 6, 1960 and between Waterville and Bangor on September 6 of the same year. After the bankruptcy of the Maine Central Railroad, Guilford Transportation , known as Pan Am Railways from 2006 , took over operations on the route in 1981 .

Route description

Original route

The line turns off the Portland – Rockland railway line at Cumberland Center station and initially leads at an acute angle to this line to the northeast. The section, which was closed in 1912, is easy to see because the route is now used through a dirt road. After crossing Tuttle Road, the route turns north and is overgrown and partly overbuilt by a golf course. In Cumberland Center, the railway ran on today's Val Halla Road and further east parallel to Cumberland Road. In this area, the route is still used today through a dirt road. After crossing The Lane, the route is overgrown again. Shortly before the Sligo Road Extension, the route turns north-northwest. After the level crossing over Mill Road, the route meets the new line opened in 1912. From here the line is in operation and initially continues to the north-northwest. Along the Royal River and crossing it twice, the route makes an extensive curve to the northeast to finally reach Danville Junction. This is where the oldest part of the line that crosses the Portland – Island Pond railway begins .

In addition to Washington Street, the route now runs to Auburn , where it crosses the Androscoggin River . Then the train crosses the urban area of Lewiston and continues northeast to Leeds Junction . Here there used to be a track crossing at an acute angle and today, after the branch leading to the south has been closed, a track triangle over which the trains to Rumford run. Shortly after the train station, the route runs along the eastern shore of Cochnewagon Lake and continues along Maranacook Lake , which is crossed at its narrowest point. Leading to the northeast, the route reached at Belgrade the Messalonskee Lake , on the entire north-western shore, the train runs along. After Oakland , the railway turns briefly to the southeast and meets the Brunswick – Skowhegan railway in Waterville .

From Waterville station, which was an intersection station until around 1918, the line is closed again. It crossed the Kennebec River here and led on its eastern bank to Benton . Here it meets the existing route again and leaves the river valley northeast. Parallel to Interstate 95 , the train runs to Pittsfield , where it turns east and crosses the urban area. In Newport , the line crosses Interstate 95 and touches Sebasticook Lake . It now runs curvy to the east, along the Etna Pond and parallel to US Route 2 . Shortly before Bangor is the large Northern Maine Junction freight yard , where the South Lagrange – Searsport line of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway passes under . On the southern edge of the city of Bangor, the line turns into the river valley of the Penobscot River , on whose banks the Bangor freight yard is located and, a little further north, the city's main railway station, the Bangor Union Station, was located a little further north . Here the line merges into the Bangor – Vanceboro railway line .

Walnut Hill Diversion

The railway branches off from the Portland – Rockland railway line and swings to the north. It runs in a straight line to the North Yarmouth Memorial Highway . After crossing it, there is a long left curve. Always along the Royal River, the route then runs in a straight line in a west-northwest direction to Mill Road, where it meets the old route of the main route.

The route certainly meets modern demands. All road crossings are made through underpasses or overpasses, only a few field paths cross at the same level. The straight route also allows higher driving speeds than would have been possible on the old route.

Fairfield Diversion

The line branches off at Fairfield Station from the Brunswick – Skowhegan railway line and runs northeast over the Kennebec River. To cross the river, a convenient location was chosen, where three small river islands lie side by side. The bridge is around 560 meters long. On the other bank, the line meets the main line again, the section of which from Waterville to this point was closed when the line was built.

passenger traffic

At first, passenger traffic on the route was sparse. The 1870 timetable shows only one daily pair of trains from Danville Junction to Bangor and another from Danville Junction to Lewiston. The travel time for the entire route was six hours or six and a half hours in the opposite direction.

Soon, however, the population density increased along the route and more trains were used. During the heyday of the railways, up to nine trains ran in each direction on weekdays and up to five trains on Sundays. As early as 1913, the offer was significantly restricted. Nevertheless, up to six working day trains ran east of Waterville until the cessation of passenger traffic in 1960 and finally two pairs of trains between Portland and Waterville.

The most important trains on the route were the Gull express train , the Boston – Halifax through car, the Flying Yankee , the Pine Tree Limited and the Kennebec Limited on the Boston – Bangor route, and the Penobscot , which ran between Boston and Calais , and the through car handed over the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad to Van Buren . In the direction of Bangor, the Flying Yankee, the Gull and the Penobscot drove the entire route, in the direction of Portland only the Flying Yankee. The other trains ran via Augusta .

attachment

credentials

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 .
2. ^ Travelers' Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines in the United States & Canada. Edition June 1870. KBS 16.
3. ^ Official timetables of the Maine Central Railroad from 1906 to 1958.

literature

• George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. 2nd 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

• Pan Am Railways
• History of the Maine Railroad