Rail transport in Maine
The history of rail transport in Maine began when the first railroad line opened in the northeastern state of the USA in 1836 and has spanned a period of more than 170 years. While freight traffic survived the financially weak times of the largest railway companies in the state, passenger traffic by rail initially ended at the end of 1994. However, after nearly seven years of interruption there with the Downeaster of Amtrak since the end of 2001. Express trains to Maine. There are also some museum railways . In 1924 the track network had its maximum extension of approx. 3830 kilometers. In 2005, 1,870 kilometers of railway line were still in operation.
history
Beginnings
In the 1830s, Maine was almost uninhabited except for the coast and the valleys of the major rivers. Nevertheless, the need to build railways arose early on. On the one hand, they wanted to achieve further immigration with cheap transport, on the other hand they needed the railways to transport wood, Maine's most important raw material, and to supply the cities with food, post and merchandise, which until then had mainly been done by ship. On February 17, 1832, the first Maine railroad company was established. The Calais Railroad wanted to build a horse-drawn tram from Calais on the St. Croix River along the river to Salmon Falls (now Milltown). In 1833, the Bangor and Piscataquis Canal and Railroad Company received permission to build a railway that would connect the suburbs north of the city of Bangor , mainly Old Town , to the city, as they did not have their own river port and the goods and passengers had previously been cumbersome Smaller boats had to be transported over the Piscataquis River or with carriages overland. This railway went into operation in November 1836 as the first rail transport. In 1839 the Calais Railroad followed, which consisted of wooden rails with an iron tread and was shut down again just two years later.
The construction of the railway to connect Maine to the rest of the United States' rail network soon began. Two major railroad companies, the Boston and Maine Railroad and the Eastern Railroad , competed. In Maine itself, the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad (PSPR) built against these two railways and the Portland – Portsmouth line was opened in 1842. The Eastern had already reached Portsmouth in 1840 and thus a connection to the PSPR, the Boston & Maine established the connection with the PSPR in 1843 at Berwick .
The next major construction project was a route from Portland to Montreal . The Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad opened this line from Portland in sections between 1848 and 1853. Unlike the railways previously operated in Maine, which were standard gauge , this one used the colonial gauge (1676 mm), as large parts of the Canadian rail network at that time had this gauge possessed. The Portland – Bangor connection, completed in 1855, was then also built in this gauge, as it shared the route to Canada between Danville and Portland. This line was extended beyond Bangor to Moncton in New Brunswick by 1871 . The standard gauge network also expanded and in 1857 the first railroad through the Kennebec River valley reached the town of Skowhegan . At Waterville this line crossed the broad-gauge Portland – Bangor line. Since more and more lines were converted to standard gauge in Canada, the railway companies in Maine, including the Maine Central Railroad founded in 1862 , which had acquired the broad gauge Portland – Bangor line and from 1868 to 1874 most of the lines in this area, decided to use standard gauge to remodel. In 1871 the Portland – Bangor line was re-gauged, followed by the railroad to Montreal in 1874 and finally the line from Bangor to New Brunswick in 1877.
The railroad's heyday
The opening of an important connection, the Mountain Division of the Maine Central Railroad , coincides with the re-gauging . The route led from Portland northwest through the White Mountains and northern Vermont , where there was connection to numerous other railways. It was also around this time, in 1875, that Maine's first narrow-gauge railway opened. The Aroostook River Railroad was a subsidiary of the New Brunswick Railway operating in New Brunswick , which wanted to connect some cities in Maine in the valley of the Aroostook River to their Cape Gauge (1067 mm) track network. In 1881 this network was converted to standard gauge and the Cape Gauge in Maine was history again. But by 1879 the Sandy River Railroad had already introduced another narrow track. In the for the United States unusual gauge of two feet (610 mm) almost all other narrow-gauge railways in Maine were to be built. By 1912, an extensive narrow-gauge network was built in this gauge in the center of the state as well as shorter routes in the south. From 1880 to 1883, the Bucksport and Bangor Railroad operated on three foot (914 mm) gauge tracks and the Orchard Beach Railroad operated five foot (1524 mm) gauge during the same period.
The Green Mountain Railway is a curiosity . On a 4 2/3 foot (1422 mm) track, Maine's only cogwheel railway carried hotel guests from Bar Harbor to a hotel on the summit of Green Mountain on Mount Desert Island from 1883 until its closure in 1890 .
Other standard gauge railways were also built. Particularly outstanding is the network of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad , which opened from 1893 to 1910 and opened up the entire north-east of the state. Only the planned Allagash Line , which would have opened up the still completely uninhabited north-west, was never built.
In addition to the railroads, Maine was also a tram country. Numerous overland trams connected the cities in the south of the country. The network extended from Portsmouth and Dover in New Hampshire, where there was a connection to other routes, via Portland, Lewiston and Bath to Waterville and Fairfield in the center of Maine. The Atlantic Shore Line Railway alone operated a 140-kilometer network around Portsmouth, Kennebunk and Saco along the coast. The Portland – Lewiston Interurban Railroad was next to the Aroostook Valley Railroad the only real Interurban route Maine, was only opened in 1914 and until 1933 connected the two eponymous cities directly. The largest tram company, however, was the Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville Street Railway , whose route network stretched 233 kilometers between Lewiston, Bath, Augusta, Gardiner and Waterville as early as 1910 and which also included city lines in Lewiston, Auburn, Augusta and Bath. In addition to these large overland operations, there were tram companies in Bangor (92 km), Benton (8 km), Biddeford (12 km), Brunswick (25 km), Calais (11 km), Fairfield (5 km), Fryeburg (5 km), Norway (3 km), Portland (164 km), Rockland ( RST & SG and RT&C , together 40 km), Skowhegan (20 km) and Waterville (17 km). The tram in Fryeburg ran as a horse-drawn tram until 1913. Maine's first electric tram was in operation in Bangor as early as 1889. The Portland streetcar followed in 1891, replacing a horse-drawn tram that had already opened in 1863. The last tram in Maine ran between Sanford and Springvale until 1947.
During the railroad's heyday, in the 1910s and 1920s, several major express trains ran to or through Maine, including the Boston – Halifax train, later known as Gull . Many trains from the direction of Boston handed through cars to the Maine Central Railroad, which reached Oquossoc , Farmington , Kineo , Greenville , Caribou , Calais , Rockland and other locations via branch lines . These direct connections were primarily used for tourist traffic to the lakes and seaside resorts of Maine and mostly only existed in summer.
Decline
The Great Depression in 1929 brought the railway heyday to an abrupt end. Industrial and railway companies went bankrupt, anyway more and more traffic was shifted to the roads, which resulted in the extensive expansion of the road network and the car industry and with it a sudden sharp decline in rail traffic. In addition, the increasing air traffic made passengers controversial for the railways. In Maine, the narrow-gauge railways first fell victim to competition from the road. From 1929 to 1943 all narrow-gauge businesses were shut down. Also on some standard gauge lines, including the lines to Kennebago, Kineo and Union, all traffic ended as early as the 1930s. After Maine's first railway line fell victim to a parallel line in 1869, the oldest main line, Portland – Portsmouth , also suffered this fate in 1944 .
After the financially weak times of both Boston & Maine, which declared bankruptcy in 1970, and the Maine Central Railroad in the 1960s and 1970s, in which many branch lines were closed, these two were taken over in 1981 (Maine Central) and 1983 (Boston & Maine) Companies by Guilford Transportation , Pan Am Railways since 2006 . The new owner continued to thin out the network. The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad also had to struggle with financial problems, but was able to save itself over the difficult time by closing down unprofitable routes, including parts of the main line. In 2003 it was reorganized in Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and acquired parts of the former Canadian-Pacific mainline , which also ran through Maine from Montreal to Moncton. The last passenger train in Maine ran on this route at the end of 1994. Some branch lines could be saved by local investors from the closure, whereby some smaller railway companies emerged, including the Maine Eastern Railroad and the Eastern Maine Railway . The main Portland – Montreal route is also operated by a local rail company, the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad .
End and rebirth of passenger traffic
In the 1930s, the railroad companies had to invest to hold the passengers. They focused on service and more and more companies offered air-conditioned trains and streamlined trains. The Flying Yankee (Boston – Bangor) from Boston & Maine started around 1936, later followed by the other express trains from Boston & Maine and Maine Central and also the Potatoland Special and the Aroostook Flyer from Bangor & Aroostook. Nevertheless, these investments could not stop the development and the number of passengers continued to decline. In 1953 there was still passenger traffic on the main lines and to St. Francis, Greenville, East Millinocket, Rockland, Farmington, Calais and on the Mountain Division of the Maine Central Railroad to Vermont. The Aroostook Flyer was the last passenger train in the north of Maine until 1961. In 1965, Boston & Maine ended its passenger services to Maine, and in 1967 it was the Canadian National Railway that ended rail passenger services in Portland with the discontinuation of its weekly express train to Montreal. The old main station in Portland had already been demolished in 1961, the Canadian railway station in 1966. The Atlantic Limited operated from Montreal to St. John until 1994, with an interruption of several years in the 1980s .
On December 15, 2001, public rail passenger transport returned to Maine. Since then, the Downeaster has been connecting Portland with Boston four times a day, five times since 2007. A new passenger train station was built in Portland for this purpose. In Maine, the train still stops at Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Wells. Since 2003, the Maine Eastern Railroad has been running regular summer passenger services between Brunswick and Rockland on the Portland – Rockland railway line . The Downeaster was extended to Brunswick in 2012, so that there is now a direct transfer option between the two passenger train services. However, there are plans to run some Downeaster trains to Rockland in the summer.
Rail transport in Maine today
Regular operation
Seven railway companies currently share the freight traffic in Maine. The two largest, MMA (504 miles / 811 kilometers) and Pan Am Railways (372 miles / 599 kilometers) are classified as Regional Railroads by the Association of American Railroads . Together they operate three quarters of the route network. Four other companies are considered Local Railroads :
- Eastern Maine Railway ( Brownville Junction - Vanceboro route , 105 miles / 169 kilometers)
- Maine Eastern Railroad ( Brunswick - Rockland and Brunswick - Augusta routes , 93 miles / 150 kilometers)
- St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad ( East Deering - Gilead route with branches to Norway and Lewiston, 85 miles / 137 kilometers)
- New Hampshire Northcoast (a few hundred yards on the New Hampshire border north of Rochester ).
In addition, Turners Island LLC operates approximately two miles of sidings in Portland . It is known as the Switching and Terminal Railroad and connects the city's freight yards with one another. The Pan Am route from Calais to Woodland is a curiosity. After the Bangor – Calais line was closed, it is isolated from the rest of the Maine railway network and is only connected to the Canadian railway. In addition, the route runs for a few kilometers over Canadian territory.
The Amtrak and the Maine Eastern Railroad operate passenger rail transport in Maine .
Museum railways
Three museum railways are currently in operation in Maine, all on a gauge of 610 millimeters. The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Portland has set up a museum on a disused section of the main line to Montreal. The Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway currently operates a four-kilometer section of their former route. The associated museum is located in Sheepscot . A short stretch of the extensive narrow gauge network of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad has been rebuilt at Phillips and is used by the Phillips Historical Society with replica vehicles. Until 2008, the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad also operated museum trains between Burnham Junction and Belfast on their own route, on which regular freight traffic ended in 2005. For economic reasons, however, the operation was closed.
The Seashore Trolley Museum is located near Kennebunkport . It was founded in 1939 and is one of the oldest tram museums in the world. Today the museum houses over 200 tram cars, mainly from New England, and operates a two-kilometer museum tram route on the original route of the Atlantic Shore Line Railway .
See also
literature
- George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. 2nd Edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5 .
- George W. Hilton and John F. Due: The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA, 1960, ISBN 0-8047-4014-3 .
- Ronald D. Karr: Lost Railroads of New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell MA 1996, ISBN 0-942147-04-9 .
- Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .
- Robert L. MacDonald: Maine Narrow Gauge Railroads . Arcadia Publishing, Charleston SC 2003, ISBN 0-7385-1179-X ( Images of Rail ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ maine.gov
- ↑ Statistics by federal state ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) AAR
- ↑ All numbers in this paragraph are from Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, pp. 2061-2073.
- ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued November 1913. Boston & Maine Railroad. Pages 178-202.
