Portland – Portsmouth railway line

Portland ME – Portsmouth NH,
as of 1999

Route length:

83.4 km

Society:

		Connecting track to the GTR
	0.0	Portland ME Commercial Street (formerly Canal St)
		Route to Rockland
		Fore River
		Turner's Island Yard 3
		South Portland Port Railway
		former route to Portland
	approx. 2	South Portland ME (formerly Pleasantdale, Cape Elizabeth)
		Rumery Industry Park
		Connecting track to Portland
		Connecting track towards Cummings
		Cummings – Portland route
		former connecting track towards Portland
	approx. 7	Scarboro Crossing (formerly Rigby)
	9.8	Oak Hill ME (formerly Scarboro)
	13.8	West Scarboro ME (formerly Dunstan)
		Route to Old Orchard Beach
	approx. 18	PS&P Junction (1881–1885 only)
		Connection to the Saco industrial park
	22.3	Saco ME East (formerly Saco)
		Saco River
	24.3	Biddeford ME
		Link to Cummings
	37.9	West Kennebunk ME (formerly Kennebunk)
		Kennebunk River
	42.4	Chicks ME (formerly Wells Branch)
	?	Hobbs Crossing
	46.3	Highpine ME (formerly Wells)
	?	Soon Hill Crossing
	?	Perkins ME
		Range from Portland
	54.8	North Berwick ME
		Route to Cummings
	62.4	Agamenticus ME (formerly South Berwick Junction)
		former route to Wilmington MA
		former route from Intervale Junction
	66.4	Jewett ME (formerly Conway Junction, Brooks Crossing)
	?	Gould Corner
	73.2	Eliot ME
		Stretch of York Beach
	82.1	Kittery ME (formerly Kittery Junction)
		Sarah Mildred Long Bridge ( Piscataqua River )
		Range of Dover
	83.4	Portsmouth NH
		Route to East Boston

The Portland – Portsmouth railway is a single-track railway line in Maine and New Hampshire ( United States ). It is 83.4 kilometers long and connects the cities of Portland, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire . Most of the normal-gauge line has been closed. Only a short section in South Portland is still operated by Turners Island LLC , as well as a siding in the Biddeford / Saco area and the Kittery –Portsmouth section by Pan Am Railways .

history

Two railroad companies, the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) and the Eastern Railroad (ER), had begun building railroad lines from Boston to Portland in the late 1830s . To counter these two companies, the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad (PSPR) was founded in 1837 and the construction of the route from Portsmouth to Portland began. Elaborate bridges had to be built at both ends: over the Fore River in Portland and over the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth. In between, the Saco River was crossed at Saco . It therefore took five years to complete the route. On November 21, 1842, the line went completely from Portland to Portsmouth in operation. In Portsmouth, the Eastern line, which is already in operation, joined. In 1843, the Boston & Maine at Agamenticus (then South Berwick Junction) reached the railway line.

Both companies, ER and B&M, leased the PSPR and thus the Portland – Portsmouth railway line in equal parts from April 28, 1847. In 1870 the lease with Boston & Maine was terminated, which then built its own line parallel to the PSPR. After the ER was taken over by B&M in 1883, some express trains from Boston in North Berwick switched between the old and the new route.

After the new central station in Portland was opened in 1888 , the through trains ran from Rigby on the B&M route. Only a few local trains ran to Commercial Street Station until 1894. Around 1916 the bridge over the Fore River was shut down and demolished, and the freight trains to Commercial Street now had to use the new route. The line remained in operation up to the southern bridgehead and is still in operation today.

Local passenger traffic between North Berwick and Portland ended in 1926, and in the following years only express trains ran the old main line without stopping. In 1939 the river bridge in Portsmouth also had to be shut down, the trains ended in Portsmouth or were diverted via the main west line. On November 11, 1940, the new Sarah Mildred Long Bridge was finally opened. Around 1942 a three-kilometer-long port railway to the shipyard there was built in South Portland.

In November 1944, the North Berwick – Rigby section came to an end. After all traffic had ceased, the route was dismantled. The tracks were only preserved between Biddeford and an industrial connection east of Saco East. In September 1952, the Kittery – North Berwick section was finally shut down and dismantled. Part of the route later merged into Maine Route 236 . Until 1983, about one kilometer of the line was operated as a siding in North Berwick. Around 1990 the port railway in South Portland was shut down.

In 1993, for the time being, regular freight traffic to South Portland ended. Only since 1998, after being taken over by the Turners Island Railroad, later Turners Island LLC , have the systems been used again on a regular basis.

Route description

The route begins at Commercial Street Station in southern Portland and exits the station in a south-westerly direction. It runs almost in a straight line to North Berwick. It crosses the “new” main line of the Boston & Maine in Rigby , the Saco River in Saco and the B&M main line again in North Berwick. In the city of Biddeford , the route runs right next to the B&M line. A connecting track was built here probably long before the old main line was closed in 1944.

After the junction with the B&M route in North Berwick, the route turns south. Agamenticus was the connecting station to the Boston and Maine Railroad until 1873, which was dismantled after the opening of the B&M main line to Portland. In the next train station, Jewett , the main line branched off into the White Mountains , over which numerous excursion trains from Boston and Portsmouth drove, especially during the winter sports season, but also in summer. In Kittery, the connection to the naval shipyard branches off, which is still used occasionally by the US Navy.

passenger traffic

Until 1873, passenger traffic was very active on the entire route, as the express trains of both the Eastern and the Boston & Maine had to use this route to Portland. In addition, the trains ran between Portsmouth and Jewett in the direction of the White Mountains and some PSPR local trains to Portland. Between 1873 and 1883 the route was only used by the Eastern Railroad, as the Boston & Maine now had its own main route to Portland. Only after the merger of the two companies did trains from the western main line use the "old" route again. Although the new route of the Boston & Maine was a few kilometers longer, it was more lucrative as it linked many up-and-coming coastal cities more directly. It is not surprising, then, that the 1921 timetable only included two weekday passenger trains and two daily express trains on the Portland route. In the opposite direction only one passenger train and two express trains ran on working days and another express train daily. From 1926 onwards, only express trains ran without stopping over the route. Local transport was only available between Portsmouth and North Berwick. From 1952 there was no more passenger traffic on the entire route, only freight trains drove on the remaining few kilometers of the route.

attachment

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 .
↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued June 1921. Boston & Maine Railroad, Table 43. page 41.

literature

Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .

Web links

[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] Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued June 1921. Boston & Maine Railroad, Table 43. page 41.