longest B&M branch?

Seems the Central Mass and Cheshire branches would be "right up there." Others?

The Conway Branch from Jewett was quite a bit longer than the Cheshire as was the Worcester to Contoocook Branch.

Of the four branches already mentioned, here is their mileage; Cheshire: 53 miles; Central Mass: 99 miles; Portsmouth, Great Falls & Conway (Conway branch): 73 miles; Contoocook-Worcester: ("Boston, Barre & Gardner"-[Worcester-Winchendon]=36, "Monadnock"-[Winchendon-Peterborough]=16, "Peterborough & Hillsborough"-[Peterborough-Hillsboro]=17, "Contoocok Valley"-[Hillsboro-Contoocoock]=14.5)83.5 miles. (Lindsell, 2000)(Karr, 1995)

the newburyport mustve been in the 30-40 mile range

Worcester, Nashua and Portland --- 147 miles.

If you count both ends of the Eastern, after the Newburyport bridge was taken out of service in 1965 (as I believe both ends were serviced as branch lines for some time), it would total 55 miles. Boston-Newburyport=37; Salisbury-Portsmouth=18. I feel like the WN&P definitely wins it, too bad not much is left of it, other than Worcester-Ayer.

What was the miliage of the Keene-Nashua branch?

The Nashua to Keene branch, prior to its demise due to," torrential rains following a thaw caused Moose Brook, northeast of Hancock, to overflow, and Rice's Trestle, which bridged the brook a few hundred yards beyond Coolidge Crossing (Longview Road) in Hancock, collapsed" (Lindsell, 2000, pg.113), was actually originally made up of two railroads. First, the Wilton/Peterborough stretched from Nashua City Station to Greenfield, a length of 25 miles. At Greenfield, the Wilton/Peterborough met the Manchester and Keene which stretched between Greenfield and Keene, a length of 30 miles. The Keene-Coolidge Crossing length was abandoned in 1938 (due to the above mentioned events), while the Coolidge Crossing-Elmwood length aws abandoned in 1939. On the W/P, there have been no abandonments, although trains have not travelled past South Lyndeborough ((to the former mills in Greenfield and Bennington (Peterborough & Hillsborough)) in some time. In total, the line was 55 miles, about 1/4 the total distance of the once gigantic WN&P.

How about the Berlin Branch, it was over 100 miles...

By the Berlin Branch do you mean from Woodsville-Berlin? If so, the branch was just a total of 59 miles. it was comprised of the first 29 miles of the "White Mountains Railroad" from Woodsville-Whitefield Jct., and the "Whitefield and Jefferson Branch" of the "White Mts. RR" which ran from Whitefield Jct.-Berlin Mills, a total of 30 miles. (Lindsell, 1999, pgs.330-331). Even if one was to include in the Berlin Branch the entire 54 miles of the WMRR, from Woodsville-Groveton Jct, and the 24 miles of the SLA from Groveton Jct.-Berlin Mills, that only makes 78 miles. On a side note, the original "Atlantic & St. Lawrence" aka Grand Trunk, CN, SLA, etc from the GT Station in Portland to Berlin Mills was 98 miles.

Technically, the Berlin line was not a branch. What GTI named it I'm not sure, but up to the end of independent BM operations, the WRJ-Berlin line was the Berlin Route Main Line.

Well if newpylong meant "Berlin Branch" as in WRJ-Berlin, it in fact was 109 miles, but still shorter than the WN&P.

cowford's post brings up an interesting point. During the heyday of the B&M and the MEC, which routes were considered Divisions, which Subdivisions, and which Branches? I know the Eastern, the Northern, and the Fitchburg were Divisions, but beyond that I'm a little lost. What about the WN&P, the Central Mass., the Connecticut River, and the Cheshire?

Same with the MEC --- at various times, for example, I've heard the Bangor-to-Calais route referred to as the Washington County Branch, the Calais Sub, and the Calais Branch.

Also, as we all know, some of the B&M routes were (until recently) leased, not purchased. The Vermont & Massachusetts was finally dissolved just a short time ago when the PanAm Southern was created. Do some of these lease arrangements still exist on paper?

I know all this info. is available, but I'm not certain where I would look online.

In its latter days, MEC was segmented into one division (Portland) and two subdivisions (Mountain and Eastern). The Mountain consisted solely of its main line to St J. Technically, it started at Mtn Junction, MP 1.28, but the PT owned the line up to MP 7.31. The Portland division included two main lines, the Lower Road which extended from S.Portland to Bangor, and Back Road, with diverged from the Lower Road at Royal Jct and rejoined the Lower Road at Waterville. (PT owned MP 0 to MP 6.56.) The Eastern subdivision consisted of all lines east of Bangor and had one main line, that which extended from Bangor to Keag to Vanceboro (Keag-Vanceboro was owned by MEC until sold to CP in 1974, but MEC continued operating under trackage rights.) The only change I can think of over the years is that the Mountain was considered a division up into the late teens, I believe. As the Calais branch never operated as a through route, I'd suspect it was never considered anything but a branch.

trainsinmaine wrote:cowford's post brings up an interesting point. During the heyday of the B&M and the MEC, which routes were considered Divisions, which Subdivisions, and which Branches? I know the Eastern, the Northern, and the Fitchburg were Divisions, but beyond that I'm a little lost. What about the WN&P, the Central Mass., the Connecticut River, and the Cheshire?

The Cheshire was part of the Fitchburg Division I believe. The Conn River was it's own division and branches like the Ashuelot were part of the Conn river division. Don't know about the others.