Boston - Portland - Bangor, Express Passenger Service

I've never heard reference to Rumford Junction. What was that?

Rumford Junction is discussed in Wikipedia's Rumford Branch article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumford_Branch

MEC407 wrote:Rumford Junction is discussed in Wikipedia's Rumford Branch article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumford_Branch

The last 16.1 miles are the former Rangeley Branch from Rumford Junction on the Maine Central Back Road through Canton and Rumford to Kennebago north of Rangeley Lake.

Hmm....Interesting so there were two branches one headed northerly off the Lewiston Lower Road ("Farmington Branch")

The other headed northerly off the Back Road ("Rumford Branch").

So if I'm reading this right at one time there were two Maine Central branch lines that went through Rumford?

Nope, one to Farmington, one to Rumford.

The Farmington Branch ran from Leeds Junction to Farmington, through Livermore Falls;
The Rumford Branch ran from Rumford Junction to Rumford, through Whitney Brook;
The Canton Branch ran from Livermore Falls to Whitney Brook. This was the status as of the late 'forties.

See, you can get theyah from heah.

PBM

And to add a little more to that- the Farmington Branch was built as the Androscoggin Railroad from Brunswick to
Farmington by way of Lisbon and Leeds Jct. with a short stub branch from Crowleys Jct. into Lewiston to what would
become known as Maine Central's "Lower" station in Lewiston. The section between Crowleys Jct. and Leeds Jct. was
abandoned in the 1930's. The Rumford Branch once extended past Rumford to Oquossoc (west of Rangely) with Maine
Central control of the Rumford Falls and Rangely Lake RR. This trackage was abandoned after floods in 1936.

Please correct me if I'm wrong....

The Farmington Branch remnant is today what goes through Leeds Junction and all the way up through to Rumford correct?

Sorry for the topic distraction...perhaps I will just look at a map...but that probably won't clarify the names.

Regardless thanks so much for the discussion on signals and also for the information on some of the track rebuilding that was conducted on the MEC by the NERCOM.

Worth a thousand words, they say:

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=6784

PBM

Ok that makes a lot more sense...so what we have today is part of the Farmington Branch (Leeds Junction - Livermore Falls) running through to part of the Rumford Branch (Canton - Rumford) using part of the Canton Branch (Livermore Falls - Canton).

A larger/clearer version of that map can be seen at:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... 23_MEC.jpg

Can someone tell me what the historical significane of Bangor is to passenger travel headed north from the Boston area ? I'm aware that it has it's roots in railway travel including the Flying Yankee and probably stagecoach before the trains, and when I lived in Portland briefly in the late 70's, often times I would see a Greyhound bus heading north up 95 marked for Bangor. I would have thought Lewiston to be the northernmost city after Portland to be the terminal for northerly travelers as there just doesn't seem to be anything north of that. I have never been to Bangor. Is it an industrial center or college town ? I have always casually wondered about this but never went out of my way to find the answer so I thought that this post might be my answer.

To folks -- myself included -- who seldom get near Bangor, it might not seem like it is or ever was all that, but it's still a major population center. Part of that is the residual effects of its history as a commercial center ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangor,_Maine ), determined by navigation and forests. Bangor's money heydey coincided with, fed, and benefited from railroading's money heydey.

3rdrail wrote:Can someone tell me what the historical significane of Bangor is to passenger travel headed north from the Boston area ? I'm aware that it has it's roots in railway travel including the Flying Yankee and probably stagecoach before the trains, and when I lived in Portland briefly in the late 70's, often times I would see a Greyhound bus heading north up 95 marked for Bangor. I would have thought Lewiston to be the northernmost city after Portland to be the terminal for northerly travelers as there just doesn't seem to be anything north of that. I have never been to Bangor. Is it an industrial center or college town ? I have always casually wondered about this but never went out of my way to find the answer so I thought that this post might be my answer.

I'd respond that train travel in general was hit significantly by the development of the interstate highway system around 1960, and people could move about more quickly and efficiently by private car, especially on relatively short trips such as Boston to Bangor. I also surmise that since there are no big population centers in Maine beyond Bangor was the reason that it was the terminal for MEC trains, although BAR had passenger service going further up in to Maine.

>>Can someone tell me what the historical significane of Bangor is to passenger travel headed north from the Boston area ?

Ayuh. She be the head o' navigation on the P'nobsc't Rivva. That's why so many folks settled theya.

PBM

3rdrail wrote:Can someone tell me what the historical significane of Bangor is to passenger travel headed north from the Boston area ? I'm aware that it has it's roots in railway travel including the Flying Yankee and probably stagecoach before the trains, and when I lived in Portland briefly in the late 70's, often times I would see a Greyhound bus heading north up 95 marked for Bangor. I would have thought Lewiston to be the northernmost city after Portland to be the terminal for northerly travelers as there just doesn't seem to be anything north of that.

Both Greyhound and Concord Coach still run to Bangor.

3rdrail wrote:I have never been to Bangor. Is it an industrial center or college town ? I have always casually wondered about this but never went out of my way to find the answer so I thought that this post might be my answer.

It is all that and more. The Penobscot River still plays a very significant part in commerce in Bangor (Cianbro has a major construction facility at a former mill along the river). Also, very significantly, Bangor became a hub for commercial aviation in Maine, especially cargo and non-passenger related business due to the presence of the former Dow Air Force Base facility which eventually became Bangor International Airport. It has a 10,000+ foot runway which to this day is still the longest in Maine and by far one of the longest on the entire East Coast (it was at one time an alternate landing site for the space shuttle). The University of Maine campus in Orono (just to the north) is present as well as several other institutions of higher education.

Bangor also is the crossing between the former Maine Central, Bangor & Aroostook lines which intersected at Northern Maine Junction, just outside of town. The confluence of both a railroad junction, the presence of navigable tidal waters to the Atlantic and the relationship of the Penobscot and Kennebec Valley topography combined to make Bangor a naturally central point for many many things in the state. Significant to Boston it may not be, central, geographically speaking to Maine it most certainly is. Additionally, while many Americans may be accustomed to thinking of "nothing" being beyond the borders to the East we can confidently report that New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and yes, even Labrador all have very substantial economies of their own for which Bangor, Maine plays a part even if only by the transit of goods through the area. All of these factors together combine to make Bangor a continually significant settlement in Maine and will continue to do so almost as far into the future as one can possibly imagine.