Bangor and Aroostook Railroad

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Logo of the Bangor and Aroostook

The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad (BAR, also B&A) is a former railroad company in the USA . It was founded on February 3, 1891 and operated 873 kilometers of standard-gauge railroad lines in the US state of Maine . In Greenville Junction, Brownville Junction, Presque Isle and Houlton there were connections to the Canadian Pacific Railway , in St. Leonards to the Canadian National Railway , in Northern Maine Junction and Oldtown to the Maine Central Railroad . The company was based in Bangor . The BAR network has been part of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway since 2003 .

history

B&A train in Caribou, Maine in October 1940

The company was founded mainly to connect the northeast of the state of Maine to the railway network, as well as the facilities of the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad (route Greenville - Old Town ) and the Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railway (route Milo Junction - Katahdin Iron Works) connect and take over. Construction began in Brownville and the line reached Houlton in 1893. The flat landscape was much less of a problem than the severe and snowy winters.

B&A tracks in Brownville , Maine, 1912 postcard

The Bangor & Aroostook leased the Aroostook Northern Railroad , which operated a route from Caribou to Limestone , on November 27, 1897 and bought it for good on July 1, 1901. On the same day, the BAR also acquired the Patten and Sherman Railroad . The Fish River Railroad , which had extended the BAR's Ashland Branch to Fort Kent , was acquired in July 1903. In November 1906, the BAR took over the Schoodic Stream Railroad and leased the Northern Maine Seaport Railroad (NMSRR) on July 7, 1907 .

The BAR route network was completed in 1910 when the gap between Grand Isle and Fort Kent was closed. In order to get another connection to the Canadian railway network in addition to the connections in Fort Fairfield and Houlton, the BAR founded the Van Buren Bridge Company on January 30, 1913 , which opened the railway bridge from Van Buren to St. Leonards , Canada on May 1, 1915 .

B&A locomotive 191 (Class G) in Caribou, Maine in October 1940

The Allagash Line planned in the mid-1910s , which was to connect to the main line in Packards and run parallel to the Allagash River to the end of the branch line to St. Francis, was not built. It would have opened up the north-west of the state, which has remained almost uninhabited to this day.

In the 1909/10 financial year, the BAR owned 93 locomotives and 5576 wagons (5400 of which were freight wagons). The complete conversion to diesel locomotives was completed in 1952. The last passenger train ran on September 4, 1961.

In 1960, the Bangor and Aroostook Corporation was founded as a holding company. In 1964 the railway company was transferred to the newly founded Bangor Punta . This sold their shares in 1969 to the Amoskeag Company . In 1995 the company was taken over by Iron Road Railways , which went bankrupt in 2002. On January 9, 2003, the bankruptcy estate was acquired by Rail World Inc. and reorganized as Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway . In 2006, the Brownville – Houlton, Phair – Caribou and Van Buren – Fort Kent sections of the main line and the Brownville – South Lagrange – Searsport, Oakfield – Fort Kent, Squapan – Presque Isle and Van Buren – St. Leonards and the branch lines to Brownville Junction, East Millinocket, Limestone and Fort Fairfield. The last two lines are no longer connected to the rest of the network by the former main line, but via Squapan.

Route network

The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad network
magenta = route in operation in 2006
red = route closed

The BAR lines are mostly single-track. Only the Northern Maine Junction – South Lagrange section and the short section Packards – West Seboeis were double-tracked, but have now been reduced to single-track lines.

The following railway lines were part of the Bangor & Aroostook network (from south to north):

Vehicle fleet

Steam locomotives

At the start of operations, Bangor & Aroostook acquired the steam locomotives with the 2'B wheel arrangement that were customary at the time . Some were over 20 years old. This type was procured up to the beginning of the 20th century, plus various types 1'C, 2'C and C locomotives. In 1907, three “Consolidation” (1'D) locomotives were procured. These locomotives fulfilled the expectations placed on them, so that 24 more locomotives of this type were ordered by 1945. However, from 1929 onwards they were replaced by 2'D1 'locomotives from ALCO (M series) in freight train through traffic . The locomotives of this series were constructed very lightly and even undercut the similar construction of the USRA . In 1945 the last new locomotives and a year later the last used locomotives were bought.

Type 2'C locomotives were mainly used for passenger transport. From 1927 five “Pacifics” (2'C1 ') of the F series were added.

The last regular steam-powered train ran on July 22, 1951.

Diesel locomotives

BAR locomotive 357, used in Idaho

In July 1946 an EMD F3 was used for test drives. Due to the great savings potential that became clear, it was decided to convert the locomotive fleet to diesel locomotives in a relatively short time. In 1949 the conversion was largely completed, steam locomotives were only used for increased demand in winter. Diesel locomotives that were not needed in the summer were leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad .

The first vehicles were diesel locomotives of the types EMD F3 and EMD BL2 , later the types EMD GP7 , GP9 and GP38 were added. These were also in use until the Iron Road Railways bought the Bangor & Aroostook.

passenger traffic

In the sparsely populated north of Maine, there was little need for passenger trains from the start. The BAR therefore had the operational peculiarity that it generally did not offer any passenger transport on Sundays. Through trains on the Maine Central Railroad in the direction of Portland and on to Boston did not exist until the 1920s. The BAR's two express trains ran from Bangor via Houlton to Van Buren. Until the cessation of passenger traffic on this route around 1930, one of the express trains drove over the shortcut route at Medford . In addition to the express trains, there was a Bangor – Caribou passenger train and other passenger trains on shorter routes.

On most branch lines, two to four pairs of passenger trains ran every weekday, mostly as mixed trains . The train pairs Houlton – Ashland – St. Francis and Squa Pan – Van Buren – Fort Kent, which were the only trains with passenger transport on these routes. As early as 1930, passenger traffic on the Bangor – Searsport, South Lagrange – Old Town, South Lagrange – Packards and Brownville Junction – Katahdin Iron Works routes was stopped. The rest of the network followed until 1961.

The travel time on the main line from Bangor to Van Buren in 1913 was about eight to nine hours. The Houlton – St. Francis needed 7.5 hours for the route, from Squa Pan to Fort Kent (via Van Buren) it was five hours.

Special occurrences

The BAR was spared major railway accidents. However, on April 30, 1911, the BAR headquarters in Bangor was destroyed by a major fire.

attachment

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issue November 1913. Page 148.
  2. ^ Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, p. 3.
  3. ↑ http://supreme.justia.com/us/417/703/
  4. ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issue February 1934. Page 62.
  5. ↑ Article on bangorinfo.com

literature

  • Jerry Angier, Herb Cleaves: Bangor & Aroostook . Flying Yankee Enterprises, Littleton, MA 1986, ISBN 0-9615574-3-5 .
  • George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads 2nd Ed. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5

Web links

Commons : Bangor and Aroostook Railroad  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files