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  • New England Railroads that Never Were

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

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 #1247128  by trainsinmaine
 
A few days ago I was investigating an old thread in this forum having to do with the partially-built-but-never-operated Lee and New Haven Railroad. Fragments of the intended ROW, constructed in the 1870s, can be found between Otis, MA and the Connecticut border, along with bridge abutments and culverts.

I'm wondering how many other incomplete railroads exist in New England. I am aware of the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington roadbed between Farmington and New Sharon, ME, and the Kennebec River bridge abutment that stands in Winslow; also the partially-constructed extension of the line between Burnham and Pittsfield. There are also the two fragments of roadbed for the original ROW of the Massachusetts Central/Central Massachusetts in Hardwick, MA, and of course, the monumental attempt to build the Southern New England Railway, many sections and structures of which can still be seen.

There were several other rail lines or branches that were at least surveyed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but I don't know whether any of them saw any actual construction. Three that I know of were here in Maine: an extension of the Bangor and Bucksport Railroad (later Bucksport Branch of the MEC) beyond Bucksport through Surry to Ellsworth, with a branch to Blue Hill; a proposed extension of the Bangor and Aroostook up through the Allagash to meet the already-existing line to St. Francis and Fort Kent; and a proposed extension of the Rumford Falls and Rangeley Lakes beyond Kennebago to somewhere in Quebec. I read or heard some time ago that the RF&RL extension was actually partly laid out, though I have never been up into that area to check it out. Beyond that, however, I'm not aware that any construction ever took place on the other two. Does anyone know? Are there still more in the six-state region that I don't know about?
 #1247186  by Mikejf
 
I have a grade of what would have been a trolley line just down the road from me. Construction started with clearing and rough grading, but they never got around to paying the workers. Must be about 10 miles graded.
 #1247189  by dcm74
 
jbvb wrote:It may not fit your criteria, but the Hampden RR east of Springfield, MA was completed and dismantled without a train having been run on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampden_Railroad" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Not totally true. One inspection train was run on May 9, 1913, after the railroad was completed. A second inspection train was run in November 1914, in an effort to convince the B&M to purchase the completed railroad. There were never any revenue trains.
Last edited by dcm74 on Sun Feb 02, 2014 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #1247271  by charding
 
What about the Southern New England Railroad, known as the Titanic Railroad because the person building the line went down with the Titanic…here are still some remnants of the line around like a couple of granite bridge abutments.
 #1247317  by Cosmo
 
charding wrote:What about the Southern New England Railroad, known as the Titanic Railroad because the person building the line went down with the Titanic…here are still some remnants of the line around like a couple of granite bridge abutments.
That was mentioned in the original post, but there is much room for elaboration.
 #1247374  by Mikejf
 
Trainsinmaine, starts in Norway by Norway lake (lake Pennesseewassee) and I have located it as far as Papoose Pond Campground in Waterford, with the start of a spur heading towards Bridgton or Harrison also being constructed near the intersection of 37 & 118. Road construction has hidden some of it, time is slowly taking care of the rest. I would like to map this before it is totally gone, when time permits...
 #1247412  by FLRailFan1
 
How about the most famous Never were Railroad?? It is nicknamed the Titanic RR, because Hayes the head of the CN wanted a route to Providence to keep the NH from controlling EVERYTHING. That is 'Southern New England Railroad'.

Connecticut Railroad has a few more, too.
 #1247417  by wally
 
FLRailFan1 wrote:How about the most famous Never were Railroad?? It is nicknamed the Titanic RR, because Hayes the head of the CN wanted a route to Providence to keep the NH from controlling EVERYTHING. That is 'Southern New England Railroad'.
and noted in the original post by the thread starter. and again by another poster later. who'll be the third?
 #1247454  by Cosmo
 
FLRailFan1 wrote:How about the most famous Never were Railroad?? It is nicknamed the Titanic RR, because Hayes the head of the CN wanted a route to Providence to keep the NH from controlling EVERYTHING. That is 'Southern New England Railroad'.
Connecticut Railroad has a few more, too.
[RANT WARNING! EXTREME Sarcasm I Use!]
1) Hayes wanted to leverage the NH into a trackage rights deal for access to deep water ports in NY and New England. It had less to do with the NHRR "controlling everything" and more to do with HH's dream of a coast-to-coast CANADIAN railroad.
2) Hayes was the President of the GRAND TRUNK Railroad, NOT the CN. The CN was formed from the remnants of the GT AFTER WW1.
Now, I fully realize that it is not as easy for everyone to do all the on-site exploration that I did with Larry Lowenthal's book open in my passenger seat, and that not everyone has the same eye for detail that I do (my memory having at one point been assessed as "50-50 recall, even as such,) and with multiple-paged forum threads, not everyone reads all the posts before hitting "return," but there is NO excuse for not reading all of a thread THIS short. before posting.
[END RANT]
(Oh, and my apologies to Otto for stealing- er... BORROWING his "snark-card.")
 #1247594  by CVRA7
 
The Grand Trunk president was Charles Melville Hays (no "e"), perished with male members of his group after making sure the women were safely aboard lifeboats. His body was recovered and was buried in Montreal.
 #1247613  by Cosmo
 
CVRA7 wrote:The Grand Trunk president was Charles Melville Hays (no "e"), perished with male members of his group after making sure the women were safely aboard lifeboats. His body was recovered and was buried in Montreal.
My bad. Like I said, "50-50 recall."
 #1247804  by AVR Mark
 
There were two up here in Aroostook county that I have heard about. The first was during the construction of the "Aroostook Railroad" (became the Bangor and Aroostook) the Maine Central started building the connection to it north from the Danforth area to Houlton. According to what I have heard, the route was surveyed, cleared and graded about half way to Houlton before the Maine Central discovered that the "Aroostook Railroad" was going to connect with the Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railroad and became the Bangor and Aroostook. I have heard that the right of way is still clearly visible. The second one was the Aroostook Valley Railroad, an electric trolley line which eventually ran between Presque Isle, Washburn, Crouseville, and New Sweden with a branch to Caribou. When this was being planned, they were going to try to build from Presque Isle to somewhere in Quebec, mostly straight through the woods. When construction started, the Bangor and Aroostook saw this as a threat and built a line from Mapleton through Washburn to Stockholm where it connected to existing BAR tracks. There was a race to get to Washburn first and the AVR got there first and built the start of the line heading to Quebec. They only built about one mile out of town before construction stopped and never was continued. A group of "Potato Houses" was built in this area on the west side of Washburn. The construction of the Aroostook Valley Railroad was financed by bonds which were sold to the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which maintained control until about 1980 when it was sold. By that time there was almost no "Potato traffic" and only a few other customers including an oil company in Caribou that received oil by tank car. A huge storm caused a lot of damage including a large washout of the track in Caribou. At that point all the track was abandoned all the way back to Presque Isle.

Mark