Oakfield – Fort Kent railway line

Oakfield ME – Fort Kent ME, as of 1999
Society:	MNR
Route length:	152.4 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Tracks:	1
Legend from Brownville 0.0 Oakfield ME Route to St. Leonards 2.7 Smyrna Mills ME 10.0 Dudley ME ? Emerson ME 12.1 Hillman ME ? Shoney ME 18.4 Weeksboro ME ? Lakewood ME 24.3 Howe Brook ME 30.1 St. Croix ME ? Pride's Mill ME 32.8 Hawkins ME 39.6 Griswold ME 52.0 Masardis ME ? Levesque ME 58.9 Squa Pan ME to Stockholm ? Trafton ME 68.6 Ashland ME 70.8 Sheridan ME ? Wrightville ME ? Moody ME ? Skerry ME 87.4 Portage ME ? Buffalo ME ? Greenlaw ME 101.4 Nixon ME 108.3 McNally ME 114.1 Winterville ME 124.6 Eagle Lake ME 132.1 Wallagrass ME 138.4 Soldier Pond ME ? Michaud ME ? Labby ME ? Fort Kent Pit ? Bradbury's ME from St. Francis 152.4 Fort Kent ME after Van Buren

The railway Oakfield-Fort Kent is a railway line in Maine ( United States ). It is around 152 kilometers long and connects the cities of Oakfield , Ashland and Fort Kent . The standard gauge line is operated today by the Maine Northern Railway exclusively in freight traffic.

history

After the opening of the main line of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad (BAR) in 1893, the company began to build a branch line from Oakfield. The Ashland Branch was initially only intended to connect the city of Ashland and was put into operation on New Year's Day 1896. In the town of Fort Kent on the Saint John River , the desire for a railway connection was now voiced, so the BAR decided to extend its branch line there. The line was opened on December 15, 1902. Since the BAR did not want to bear the costs alone, they founded the Fish River Railroad together with local investors , which officially took possession of the extension line. The BAR leased the line and ran the business, but bought it after the line became profitable in July 1903.

Passenger traffic was very sparse from the start, but was maintained until 1954. After the cessation of passenger traffic, only goods traffic remained on the route, which was operated from 2003 by the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway . In 2010 the railway company announced that it wanted to shut down the line. The state of Maine then acquired the line and leased it to the Maine Northern Railway on July 1, 2011, which took over operations.

Route description

The line branches off in Oakfield in a triangle of tracks from the BAR main line and curves northwards. Past the Saint Croix Lake reached the track at Masardis the Aroostook River , in whose valley it runs through Squa Pan and Ashland. Near the settlement of Sheridan, it leaves the valley in a north-westerly direction to continue north over a large arch past Portage Lake . It runs on the east bank of Saint Froid Lake through Winterville and further on on the west bank of Eagle Lake . The outflow of this lake, the Fish River , gave the northern section of the railway its name. In its valley the railway runs to the mouth of the river in the Saint John River near Fort Kent. The entire length of the route is parallel to State Road 11.

passenger traffic

In the early days of the line, a pair of trains ran Houlton – Ashland – Fort Kent – ​​St. Francis the whole length of the route. The train did not stop at Oakfield, but rather drove the triangle from Houlton. In Ashland Junction, the nearest train station in the direction of Houlton, there was a direct connection to the express train to and from Bangor . In Squa Pan you could change trains to Van Buren and Fort Kent. A second pair of trains ran from Houlton to Ashland until around 1908. In addition, from 1911 to 1912, an Ashland – Presque Isle passenger train ran from Ashland to Squa Pan. From 1911 to 1912 and again from around 1920 the continuous train from Houlton also stopped in Oakfield and turned there.

The train routes were changed around 1930. The train from Houlton turned off at Squa Pan towards Van Buren and Fort Kent. A connecting train ran between Squa Pan and St. Francis. Continuous traffic to Houlton ended in 1938, from then on the train already ended in Oakfield. After the passenger traffic on the branch line in Squa Pan was discontinued in 1952, the train from Oakfield ran again continuously to Fort Kent, but was also discontinued in 1954.

The travel time from Oakfield to Fort Kent was three hours and 40 minutes according to both the September 28, 1913 and January 8, 1934 timetable.

Sources and further information

Individual evidence

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. ^ BAR timetables from 1906 to 1953.
3. ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued November 1913. Bangor & Aroostook RR. Page 149.
4. ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Edition February 1934. Bangor & Aroostook RR, Table 3. Page 63.

literature

• Jerry Angier, Herb Cleaves: Bangor & Aroostook. Flying Yankee Enterprises, Littleton MA 1986, ISBN 0-96155-743-5 .
• 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

• official website of the NBSR, the parent company of the Maine Northern Railway
• History of the Maine Railroad