Lewiston Junction – Lewiston railway line

Lewiston Jct. ME – Lewiston ME, as of 1999
Legend from Portland 0 Lewiston Junction ME (wedge station) to Iceland Pond Rumford Junction – Kennebago route 2½ Littlefields ME Little Androscoggin River 6½ Freight station south of Auburn Cumberland Center – Bangor route 8th Auburn ME GTR station Androscoggin River 9 Lewiston ME GTR station

The railway Lewiston Junction Lewiston is a railway line in Maine ( United States ). It is closed today between Littleton and Lewiston . The remaining section is operated by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad exclusively in freight traffic.

On February 2, 1872, the Lewiston and Auburn Branch Railroad Company was founded to connect the cities of Lewiston and Auburn to the main Portland – Montreal line of the Grand Trunk Railway . The junction with the GTR was called Lewiston Junction . The standard gauge , 8.71 km long line was opened on July 13, 1874. Initially, only passenger trains ran, as the main line of the Grand Trunk Railway was still in colonial gauge and was not switched to standard gauge until September 26, 1874. After this work was completed, freight traffic to Lewiston was also started.

Before that, on March 25, 1874, the Grand Trunk Railway leased the railway company. The tracks of the railway belonged to the towns of Lewiston and Auburn . The operation was led from the beginning by the GTR, or today its successor company, the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad . The passenger trains ran after all trains on the main line and usually only commuted between Lewiston Junction and Lewiston. Continuous trains to Portland were rarely offered.

In 1956, passenger traffic ended on the route. In 1980 the section north of Littleton was closed, but part of this line up to the junction with the Cumberland Center – Bangor railway went back into operation around 1988. The bridge over the Androscoggin River between Auburn and Lewiston is now used for pedestrians and cyclists.

literature

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

Web links

• Collections Canada - History of GTR
• Model Trains Museum - History of GTR

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 1999.