Houghton – Porters Siding railway line
| Houghton ME-Porter's Siding ME | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Society: | most recently P&RF | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 7 km | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks: | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Houghton – Porters Siding railway is a railway line in Oxford County , Maine ( United States ). The standard-gauge line is seven kilometers long and has been closed since 1905.
After the line of the Rumford Falls and Rangeley Lakes Railroad reached Houghton in 1896 , various logging companies built forest railways on this line to transport wood and workers. There were also several logging camps north of Houghton. The railway company therefore took a branch from Houghton to Porters Siding into operation in December 1896, which led north-east along the Swift River from Houghton. The line had an intermediate station and was declared a public railway. Nevertheless, it was only used to transport wood and forest workers. There was no scheduled passenger traffic. In Porters Siding, a logging settlement Township E was built , but it was later abandoned. The Houghton Logging Railroad , which opened at the same time, joined the railway line here.
From 1899, the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway ran after it had leased the Rumford Falls & Rangeley Lakes and their railway lines. In 1905 the deforestation in this area ended and the forest railway and the branch line to Porters Siding were shut down and dismantled.
literature
- Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .