End of the line E
verything reaches the end of the line at some point, be it a book, a baseball game, or, ulti- mately life itself. The same is true for railroads, either literally by arriving at the last station on a particular route, or more figuratively, reaching its end as an operating entity. Recently, when word started to get around here in Maine that long-idle equipment of the Belfast & Moose- head Lake Railroad was being readied for shipment, I knew that the B&ML had reached that point. And, since I had spent parts of fourteen years as a conductor on the line, this was a signifi- cant moment for me as well. Interestingly, the railroad began in the nineteenth century as an at- tempt to connect two countries. Early on, Belfast, Maine, as did several other Maine ports including Portland and Wiscasset, saw itself as a possible ice-free harbor for the Canadian cities of Montreal and Quebec City. After some initial ideas, in the 1860’s plans were formulated to build a rail line from the Maine coast through the Moosehead Lake region and on to Canada. As they always do, unforeseen circumstances arose and by the late 1800’s the B&ML had reached its full length of 33 miles between Belfast and a con- nection with the Maine Central at Burnham Junction. From 1871 until 1925, the railroad, re-gauged from 5′-6″ to 4′-8¹⁄₂″, was operated as the Maine Central’s Belfast branch. Tired of losing money, the MEC finally unloaded the line and it became the independent Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad on January 1, 1926. The B&ML in this con- figuration lasted until about 1990, carrying inbound carloads of feed for the poultry industry that flourished in Waldo County and outbound loads of pulpwood, fish, produce, and other com- modities. There was also a pretty good dairy business to several on-line creameries. Conventional passenger service, ending in 1960, consisted almost entirely of mixed trains to the MEC connec- tion at Burnham Jct. For the first twenty years the independent B&ML ran with classic short- line power: secondhand 4-4-0’s and 4-6-0’s. In 1946, the B&ML purchased two General Electric 70-tonners, Nos. 50 and 51, adding No. 52 in 1951. Eventually the line owned a half dozen of these sturdy locomotives, a couple of which still exist on the Downeast Scenic Railway (
www.downeastscenicrail.org) in Ellsworth and at the Brooks Preservation Society, as well (
www.brookspreservation.org). These classic forms of equipment and services, I have always felt, make the B&ML the perfect prototype for modelers desiring to replicate a shortline railroad. The small steamers, the 70-ton- ners, and the combines used in mixed train service are available from various makers. As for freight cars, classic 40- and 50-foot boxcars exist by the dozens, and other types of rolling stock can be scratchbuilt or kitbashed as one desires. Stations along the line were simple, often hipped roof structures and those at Brooks and Unity still exist on site. On line towns, with the exception of Belfast, were quite small and really haven’t changed much. Field research in Maine in our short but beautiful summer or striking autumn would be great. And, if you like snow . . . . In the modern era, post-1990 or so, the B&ML took on the role of a tourist railroad. Purchased by Unity businessman Bert Clifford, the line acquired a Swedish 4-6-0 and matching cars and ran trains out of both Belfast and, later, Unity. When I started my career as a summer conductor in 1994, we ran two trains daily from Belfast to Brooks and back, often threatened by the much feared Waldo Station Gang, carrying a couple of hundred passengers on each trip. Alas, however, the railroad’s luck ran out early in the new century and a slumping economy and disputes with the city of Belfast, among other issues, brought the creaking line to its knees in 2007. Today, essentially nothing exists of the railroad in Belfast, although the Brooks Preservation So- ciety does run occasional excursions westward from the city line. Some equipment still sits in the yard in Unity, but with the turntable removed and sold and the station and other buildings up for sale, the area is a mere shadow of its former self. I remember what fun it was to recruit kids from the waiting passengers to help turn that big Ten-wheeler on the “armstrong” table. Seeing the rusted turntable, cars, loco and tender, and m.o.w. equipment sitting on their “hearses” on the rotting siding at Burnham Junction, waiting to be hauled off to who knows where, simply reinforced the fact that the Belfast & Moosehead Lake has gone the way of so many other railroads, big and small, and with it, a part of our nation’s culture, personality and history. Rest in peace, Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad.
ROBERT BENNETT 38 AUGUST 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100