I Wander How Many Trains Run Up To Maine
Eh?[:)] Passenger trains – one, these days, the Downeaster from Boston (North Station – the change from the rest of Amtrak can be done, but it’s a chore[:(]). However, that said, there are a number of railroad companies which run from somewhere to or through Maine – and I am probably behind on the names! (sorry[8]): Boston & Maine/Guilford Transportation is the old Maine Central, and wanders all over the State. Major gateway is in the southwest, through Dover, New Hampshire. Then there is the St. Lawrence & Atlantic (somebody help – is that the current name?) from the northwest to Portland and sundry other places, and the Bangor & Aroostok which got bought by somebody I forget who (used to run the last BL2s – immaculate). And a line of the Canadian Pacific, from Montreal to New Brunswick. And I may have missed a couple!
All the lines have decent, if not BNSF style, traffic counts.
www.guilfordrail.com has maps of their system by state, which also show some of the other roads too. Maine is not exactly a booming RR state. There are some places of interest…South Portland, Bangor and Waterville. The Maine Coast Line runs from Rockland to Brunswick with a few customers. They also do excursion trips in the fall. They still use an Alco RS11 I believe as primary power.
The St lawrence & Atlanti, which is now a Genessee Valley Trasportation subsidiary runs the fformer Grand Trunk line from Norton, VT to Yarmouth Jct, ME. I believe a subsidiary of the St Lawrence & Atlantic also operates the former CN./Grand Trunk line in the Province of Quebec.
Guilford (Maine Central) still runs between Bangor and Mattawamkeg, ME; they sold their Mattawamkeg - Vanceboro line to what was then the Canadian Pacific which used to have trackage rights on that line. The Canadian Pacific used to run across the central part of Maine to reach St John, New Brunswick, but it got out of the service in 1994 when it sold part of its trackage in Maine to the Eastern Maine and part to the Canadian American Railroad; the Canadian Amereican Railroad along with the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was owned by the Iron Road Railways which went bankrupt in 2002.