Oakland – Bingham Railway

Oakland ME – Bingham ME, as of 1999
Route length:	65.8 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	-
Society:	PAR
Legend from Cumberland Center 0.0 Oakland ME to Bangor 5 Hoxies ME Martin Stream 9 Otis Hill ME 12.6 Beluga ME 17th Bangs ME 20.9 Norridgewock ME Connection to the Dodlins quarries (1.6 km) Kennebec River 33.6 Madison ME Kennebec River 34.3 Anson ME 40.6 North Anson ME Carrabassett River 48.9 Embden ME Kennebec River 54.4 Solon ME 64.4 Austin Junction ME after Kineo 65.8 Bingham ME

The railway Oakland Bingham is a railway line in Maine ( United States ). It is 65.8 kilometers long and decommissioned north of North Anson . The rest is owned by Pan Am Railways , which only operates freight services from Oakland to Madison .

history

The Somerset and Kennebec Railroad had built a railway line along the Kennebec River to Skowhegan in the late 1850s . After it became clear that they would not extend the route further north as initially planned, local investors founded the Somerset Railroad in 1860 . Initially it was planned to build further north along the river from Skowhegan to North Anson, but this proved to be inexpedient because the route towards Portland had to make a major detour through the course of the river. Another alternative route was a railway from Oakland northwards, but then the line would have had to be built in colonial gauge (1676 mm), since the following line to Portland had this gauge. The start of construction was delayed for financial reasons.

After the Cumberland Center – Bangor railway had been switched to standard gauge in 1871, the costs of building a railway connecting this line fell because a narrower strip of land was required. Construction work began soon after, and in 1873 the first trains ran to Madison . On January 26, 1874, the planned route to North Anson went into operation. At Norridgewock on the Kennebec River, a 1.6-kilometer branch route to quarries on the west bank of the river was built. A few years later the railway company went bankrupt and was reorganized into Somerset Railway . The planned extension to Bingham could therefore not be built initially.

Only after the company's finances had been consolidated was it possible to continue building the line. It was opened to Embden in 1888 , to Solon in 1889 and finally to Bingham in 1890. The number of passengers on the route was never particularly high, with the exception of the vacation season in summer; most of the income was generated from freight transport. In the summer through cars drove on the route as far as New York City and Boston . That ended after the branch line to Kineo on Moosehead Lake was closed in 1933 . Just two months after the closure, the last passenger train also ran between Oakland and Bingham on September 24, 1933.

In 1979 the route between North Anson and Bingham was closed and most of it was dismantled. Freight traffic between Madison and North Anson also ended, but this section remains operational. In 1981 Guilford Transportation took over the route and has been operating under Pan Am Railways since 2006 .

Route description

The line branches off at Oakland Station from the Cumberland Center – Bangor railway , a formerly two-track main line, and runs northwards initially along the Martin Stream . At Norridgewock, the railway crosses the Kennebec River for the first time and continues northward on its eastern bank. The line crosses the river again at an acute angle between Madison and Anson stations. A few kilometers further north is North Anson, today's end point of the route. The bridge over the Carrabassett River , which flows into the Kennebec here , is now used as a footpath and road across the river.

The route continues northwards and crosses the Kennebec for the last time at Solon . The bridge now serves a road. Just before Bingham is the Austin Junction junction , where the route to Kineo continued northwards until 1933. The route to Bingham turns here to the northwest and ends one and a half kilometers further in the village of Bingham. The tracks between North Anson and Bingham have been dismantled.

literature

• 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

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 .