Debec Junction – Houlton railway line
| Debec Junction NB – Houlton ME, as of 1999 |
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| Society: | last CP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | approx. 13 km | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks: | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Debec Junction – Houlton railway is a railway line in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and Maine ( United States ). It is about 13 kilometers long. The standard gauge line has been closed and dismantled.
The logging and farming town of Houlton was far from any railway line in the 1860s. A possibility of connection arose when the New Brunswick and Canada Railway (NB&C) built a railway line in the colonial gauge (1676 mm) that was common in Canada at the time from the coast of New Brunswick to the north parallel to the state border, which in 1868 went to Richmond with a branch to Woodstock has been completed. She received permission to build a branch line from this railway to Houlton. For the section lying in Maine, she founded the Houlton Branch Railroad . In 1870 the railway line, which was also built in colonial gauge, went into operation. NB&C was responsible for the entire length of the operation.
In 1879 the line was converted to standard gauge together with the main line . It was the last colonial-gauge railway line that was operated in Maine. Three years later, the New Brunswick Railway leased the railway and was in turn leased in 1890 by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), which later bought the participating railway companies and their routes. In 1949, passenger traffic on the railroad ended, freight traffic was maintained until 1987. When a flood destroyed a bridge over the Saint John River further north, the CP ceased operations on much of its network in New Brunswick. The branch line to Houlton was finally closed and dismantled in 1989.
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 .