why did the eastern route fail?

[aline1969]

The Sanford line, I grew up walking that right of way in Alfred and in 2002 I help tear up the last pirce of track over in westbrook, the museum was granted the rail. Though Sanford was not known for its railroad but more so for the electric frieght that went from sanford to kennebunkport.

[HSSRAIL]

In terms of passenger traffic the Eastern Route Had more potential because it included Portsmouth, NH. This is not to say that I think the Eastern Route was needed all the way to Portland but it would have been nice to have thru service Boston, Portsmouth, and Portland, ME.

[jbvb]

The reason the PS&P (later bought by the Eastern in its war with the B&M) ran inland was a Maine law that forbade RR construction less than 100 feet above sea level, except with permission from the legislature. Shipowner interests lost power fairly rapidly, and by the time the B&M built closer to the coast, the law had been repealed. Harlow neglects this point in "Steelways of New England", but I read several much older histories in the Newburyport public library in the 1960s

I believe the B&M double-tracked its coastal route because that that was where the population was, so the local freights and non-express passenger trains ran there. The old PS&P RoW runs fairly close to the Maine Turnpike south of Biddeford, which was a pretty thinly settled area until the 1980s. Also, the PS&P had somewhat steeper grades, though I belive it was generally straighter. Once the focus of WWII shifted to the Pacific, the CTC on the Western Route rendered the PS&P superfluous, and there was no local traffic to support it as a branch.

The Eastern between Boston & Berwick lacked the western connectivity provided by the Stony Brook, but other problems contributed to it not getting upgraded for heavier locomotives after about 1920: First, the four drawbridges were going to be expensive to rebuild or replace, and second, digging out the Salem Tunnel would be both costly and a political issue. Had the New Haven gotten a little farther along with their Boston Harbor tunnel project, this might have been dealt with a' la' the Lynn grade separation.

[HSSRAIL]

Thru service to Portland, ME via Portsmouth, NH continued after the line East of North Berwick was removed in 1944. I show that the line from Kittery, ME to North Berwick was abandoned in 1952. Since B&M started acquiring diesels during WW II does anybody know if these trains that were truncated to Portsmouth, NH in 1952 as a result of the abandonment were steam or diesel powered? When service thru Kittery to North Berwick was stopped were those steam trains or diesels?

[Jonny Bolt]

Eastern Route was not more "direct" than the Western Route anyway. Once it reached Kittery, the Eastern Route took a sharp turn inland to rejoin the Western Route near Berwick.

Western Route has the connections through the Lowell Branch and Stony Brook to be the bridge line between Maine Central and the West. Eastern Route has nothing but a redundant connection to Boston, a decreasingly important connection over the last 50 years. That's why Maine state highway Route 236 was built on the abandoned Easten Route grade between Kittery and Berwick in 1958.

I don't think any of you who talk of the Eastern Route and the Downeaster realize that the Eastern Route has been _gone_ east of Kittery for more than 50 years.

I have to disagree. The Eastern Route was far from redundant. It runs along the coast where many cities are on the water, trade routes right? It also connects these resort destinations. We can't even fit all the cars down here at Hampton Beach in the summer, and you claim the Eastern Route is "redundant"? Ummmm, I definitely disagree with that.

And who can we thank for the highway construction? Dwight D. Eisenhower, that's who.

America has forgotten its past, its roots, and has chosen high gas prices, gas guzzling SUV's and truck freight on busy highways.

What do you mean by "gone". The Eastern Route has not been "gone" east of kittery for more than 50 years. The Portsmouth Branch in Hampton was used up until this year, and the Portsmouth Branch IS part of the Eastern Route.

What's truly redundant in this little resort destination, is all the Humanoids on the road. The traffic. The cars. The trucks. The stench.

[alexander]

I have to disagree. The Eastern Route was far from redundant. It runs along the coast where many cities are on the water, trade routes right? It also connects these resort destinations. We can't even fit all the cars down here at Hampton Beach in the summer, and you claim the Eastern Route is "redundant"? Ummmm, I definitely disagree with that.

The Eastern Route was redundant and paralleled the better Western Route. As a freight railroad, the Eastern Route offered fewer connections to the west for the B&M and a longer route to Boston compared to the Western Route. Connections to the west are more important than connecting to Boston. As far as water "trade routes" are concerned, Portsmouth, Newburyport, Beverly, Salem and Lynn became irrelevant shipping ports long ago. Not much left of clipper ships, whaling, and the spice trade to have been of any use to the railroads.

Perhaps in the 1950s-60s the B&M should have kept the Eastern and maintained the extra 60 or so miles of railroad that they didn't need for any reason so they could have gone bankrupt sooner.

What do you mean by "gone". The Eastern Route has not been "gone" east of kittery for more than 50 years. The Portsmouth Branch in Hampton was used up until this year, and the Portsmouth Branch IS part of the Eastern Route.

Portsmouth and Hampton are _west_ of Kittery. Hello?

What's truly redundant in this little resort destination, is all the Humanoids on the road. The traffic. The cars. The trucks. The stench.

Gee, that's deep.

[Jonny Bolt]

wow, you come off as pretty uppity.

You seem to know it all and have it all figured out. But the Eastern Route was better served for passenger rail anyway. Too bad it faded away. I don't recall anyone ever praising it as some Freight Rail Juggernaut. It's use and place in history was and is an excellent passenger rail route for coastal resort destinations. Even your uppity attitude can't change that

On a positive note, now I hope this line is revived for passenger rail again sooner rather than later. Because it will be all the more satisfying being able to laugh at folks such as yourself who don't even live here and experience our influx of traffic in the summer, parking problems, and the overwhelming need for transportation alternatives etc etc, especially considering this town is considering turning Hampton Beach into a YEAR ROUND destination in the future.

I truly believe it's attitudes such as yours that really hold this area back from utilizing something that is right under our noses.

[b&m 1566]

The Western route is better for through traffic both for freight and long distance passenger service such as the Downeaster. The eastern route is good for commuter traffic and local freight service. I would like to see the eastern route revived for both and I only wish the line could still be continued to Berwick just for a second alternative. When the switch from trains to cars came about, people didn't think of the future and traffic problems but hindsight is always 20/20. I will have to agree; the B&M did the right thing by abandoning the line in order to survive because at the time it just wasn't needed. However this line should have been reactivated to Portsmouth years ago when at the time money wouldn't have been as big of an issue, as it is now. Officials new years ago that the traffic problems were going to grow as new developments popped up and populations crew but choose not to deal with the issue then and still haven't done anything about it now.

[Cowford]

Alexander doesn't seem uppity... more accurately "spot on."

1. The use of the word redundant was to describe the Eastern as a through route. 2. Considering the coastal area of new Hampshire as part of a "trade route" is a misunderstanding of the term. 3. The remaining route has no significant industry on which to build a freight traffic base. 4. For commuters, possibly the MBTA will one day extend service as far as Portsmouth. Don't hold your breath - NH will have to cough-up a good portion of the $50-70 million needed to do so.

And THANK YOU, President Eisenhower, for making the Interstate Highway System a reality.

[truman]

Thru service to Portland, ME via Portsmouth, NH continued after the line East of North Berwick was removed in 1944. I show that the line from Kittery, ME to North Berwick was abandoned in 1952. Since B&M started acquiring diesels during WW II does anybody know if these trains that were truncated to Portsmouth, NH in 1952 as a result of the abandonment were steam or diesel powered? When service thru Kittery to North Berwick was stopped were those steam trains or diesels?

I would have to say its a given that the diesels were given the gravy jobs on the Western division as steam was being pushed off onto the branches. The Geeps started arriving in 1950 to supplement the F's and E's that had arrived in the forties. Then of course the Budd cars started to arrive, so I imagine it was a trickle down effect of diesels pushing steam to the branches and yards, and in turn they were being replaced by RDC's on commuter and eventually all passenger trains. We know that steam powered commuter trains did last into the mid fifties, and I understand that they did go at least as far as Portsmouth. Yet another regular in commuter service on the Eastern between Boston and Portsmouth was the Fairbanks Morse Talgo train.

[wolfmom69]

I have been enjoying the thread on the "failure" of the old Eastern Route. and finally have some down time to add a few observations.
First the comment on lack of local industries along the line is right on. Even when the Eastern was originally built, as the P.S. & P. ,it tended to be on the "outskirts" of several localities with some industry; Biddeford & Saco come to mind. As far
as I know, the brick Eastern freight house is still standing on Main St. in Biddeford, and the huge textile mills, built a bit later, had to move their goods a short distance to/from here. The B&M.or "western division" went right through the mills complex in these two cities.
The B&M Bulletin has had 2 great articles on the Eastern. One was on the last passenger train run in 1952 from N. Berwick to Portsmouth in 1952, and what this remaining section of track was like then. The other, and more recent, by Frank Kyper, is called "A Vestage of the Old Eastern", about the "stub" that was left from the old AR Tower area, just west of Biddeford to serve Saco Brick and the Sears warehouse in Saco, by North ST. (Rt. 114) when that section of the line was abandoned in 1944. Later, numerous spurs were bult of this to serve "industries" that had been built there after W.W. II. (and is active today).
The date 1944, for the abandonment, dismantling of the section between Rigby and North Berwick(with the exception of a couple of "stubs" left like the above mentioned one in Saco) is "interesting." Timetables show that passenger service had
declined on the Eastern during the 20's and 30's. as well as freight, but then W.W. II came along, with its huge increase in
traffic, especially petroleum. Tankers, were being sunk by German U-Boats, of the U.S. East Coast at such a high rate, in 1942, a period in which the U-Boat crews called "Happy Time" due to the nearly total local of U.S. safeguards or defensive
measures, that coastal shipments of refined petroleum. was sent by rail, even in unit trains, from U.S. refineries to the northeast. By 1944, the "Battle of the Atlantic" had been U-Boat eradicated, and tankers were once again handling much of the oil traffic. So, the Eastern, was torn up. Another short section was kept in N. Berwick to serve Simplex cable(now Pratt & Whitney) and a Swenson Granite quarry east of N. Berwick. This segment was torn up in mid 1970's.
Even earlier "abandonments",in the Greater Portland area, give a clue as to the Eastern's status in the B & M's overall picture. Their shops, and most of the freight yards on Turner's Island in S. Portland, as well as the Eastern's diagonal trestle across Portland Harbor, were dismantled in the 1920's. While the building of Rigby yard and complex in the 1920's, as a consolidation, had much to do with this, the Eastern had begun it's slow decline. Ironically, the section of the Eastern from
Rigby to Turner's Island ( tracks still there as "The Turner's Island RR") got a great deal of use in W.W. 2, when "the Burma
Road" trackage was bulit from Turner's Island to serve the new shipyards in S.Portland. The Burma Road lasted until the 1980's and now a "recreational trail", as is much of the Eastern in S. Maine, known as "ET".

Bud

[cpf354]

Actually there were block signals over the entire route.

True. The line had block signals after 1913, but according to H.B. Crouch, most of the through freight had been diverted to the Western division by 1911.

Ahhh, Mr. Crouch should know. I have a WN&P 1916 ETT that showed the block signals. Kind of curious though that they would have intsalled them AFTER the through freights were gone.
Good story in one of the B&M Bulletins by a WN&P trainman who worked the entire division. One of his assignments was the "Deering Rounders" from Ayer to Deering Jct.

[truman]

Remembering the height of the cold war, and fleets of school buses running to and from the then booming shipyard from all directions, I have to wonder, if the Kittery - S, Berwick section could have held on longer, could the railroad have taken advantage of the situation, running dedicated Budd cars to and from gate two?

Arthur Eugley Jr. did a photo essay in the B&M Bulletin in 1991 (vol. 18, no.1)entitled Portmouth to North Berwick in 1952.(August) Actually, he rode from N. Berwick to Portsmouth on his trip, which is curious because he states that the photo's were taken from the rear of Eastbound train #250 as part of a trip from Old Orchard beach Maine to Hampton NH. In the text he also notes that the Eastern was a good standby in the event of an emergency, but it came equipped with some serious grades. Although this was not the very last train, which ran in September, the consist was diesels pulling regular coaches. Another note, at the time of abandonment, there were only three trains on the weekday schedule, two westbound and one east.

[jbvb]

By 1952, Boston-Portland service was normally all diesel. The Eastern was the last bastion of steam commuter service, but that centered on B.E.T. and Salem. As the B&M added diesels, they closed engine terminals and/or removed the steam servicing equipment. I don't know if Portsmouth lost its steam facilities with the 1952 diesel deliveries (RS-3s, GP-7s), but the 1954 RS-3s certainly made them redundant.

Based on old Bulletin articles, I believe the WNP& had a "last hurrah" around 1920, with lots of extras and a few accidents. I've no evidence to back this up, but I've wondered if this was related to bridge strengthening projects on the Western Route to allow it to handle the S-1 2-10-2s. Once that was done, the WN&P lost its usefulness (the traffic that had been supporting the rural trolley lines in that area pretty much vanished around the same time).

[B&Mguy]

As a railfan, I would also very much like to the see the Eastern Route someday reactivated for passenger service. This area has really changed in the years since it was abandoned, and it now seem that rail service to areas like Hampton Beach and Kittery, ME could be very beneficial to local residents and businesses. I don't see a large demand for freight service in the area, but I'm not entirely familiar with the businesses in the area. I think there are three major hurdles for restoring this line, and in no particular order, they are:

1. The state of New Hampshire not wanting to fund it, as well as the environmental impact of trains running through the salt marshes. (Funny how this was never a concern in the past)
2. The need to completely rebuild the bridge over the Merrimack River in Newburyport. This bridge has probably not been used since the early 1980s, and at this point is probably ready to be demolished.
3. Security around the Seabrook Nuclear Plant. The ROW could probably be rerouted around the plant, but this would probably open a whole new can of worms with residents and environmentalists. Does anyone know if the ROW is still intact through the plant property?

Now, as far as the logic behind the Eastern Route being abandoned, I can understand why. The B&M was constantly looking for ways to trim the fat off their system when times got tough. Redundant lines were easy targets because alternative service was nearby, and if freight service was marginal as well, it just made the most sense. The Plymouth-Woodsville ROW is a similar example. Even through it was a scenic route, it was roughly paralleled by the Northern Line to the south, and the B&M did not need two routes to Vermont.

Like I said, I do feel that there's a chance that the Eastern will someday be reactivated, but it will likely face a long uphill battle for the reason listed above.