Bucksport Branch

The Bucksport Branch is a railroad line in Maine that was operated by the Maine Central Railroad. It is now part of the Pan Am Railways system.

The Bucksport Branch junctions with the mainline at Bangor and continues south down the Penobscot River valley, passing through Brewer and terminating at Bucksport.

This 19 mi (31 km) branch was chartered in 1873 as the Bucksport and Bangor Railroad after its grade had been surveyed in the autumn of 1872. Construction of the line began in the spring of 1873 with trains beginning to run regularly over its whole length on December 21, 1874. The company was reorganized as the Eastern Maine Shoreline Railway in 1882, and leased as the Maine Central Bucksport branch in 1883.^[1] The last passenger train from Bangor to Bucksport ran on 27 January 1932.^[2] In the latter decades of Maine Central operation, two freight trains per day were typically pulled by a cab-to-cab pair of Maine Central's EMD SW7s and SW9s until the locomotives were assigned elsewhere in the Guilford system.^[3] The paper mill at the end of the Bucksport Branch has been the primary customer of the line for many years and with its shutdown by mill owner Verso Paper Corporation ^[4] The rail traffic on the line will diminish until another large customer can be found. The last rail car removal was on December 11, 2014. The train consist was GMTX 3005 and MEC 374, pulling sixteen tank cars and three boxcars.

Route mileposts

Milepost 0: Bangor.

Milepost 1.2: Brewer Junction with the former Calais Branch.^[5]

Milepost 9.4: South Orrington chemical plant originating or terminating 2,000 annual carloads in 1973.^[6]

Milepost 19.3: Bucksport large paper mill and Penobscot Bay seaport originating or terminating 18,000 annual carloads in 1973.^[6]

References

↑ Peters, Bradley L. (1976). Maine Central Railroad Company. Maine Central Railroad.
↑ Johnson, Ron (1985). The Best of Maine Railroads. Portland Litho. p. 111.
↑ The 470 Railroad Club (1981). Meet the Maine Central. KJ Printing.
↑ http://investor.versopaper.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=613615
↑ Maine Central Railroad (1917). Hand-Book of Officers, Agents, Stations and Sidings. Edwin B. Robertson.
1 2 United States Department of Transportation (1974). Rail Service in the Midwest and Northeast Region. United States Government Printing Office.

Maine Central Railroad Company

Lines	Main Line Bar Harbor Beecher Falls Belfast Bingham Brunswick Bucksport Calais Eastport Farmington Foxcroft Harmony Hartland Kineo Lewiston Livermore Falls Mountain Princeton Rangeley Rockland Rumford Skowhegan Vanceboro

Subsidiaries	Bridgton and Saco River Railroad Northeast Airlines Portland Terminal Company Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad

Named Trains	Bar Harbor Express Flying Yankee Gull

Steam Locomotives	Class C 4-6-2 470 Class H 4-4-0 Class K 0-6-0 Class L 4-4-0 Class M 2-6-0 Class N 4-6-0 Class O 4-6-0 Class P 2-6-0 Class S 2-8-2 Class W 2-8-0 501 519

Diesel Locomotives	Class DF EMD F3 Class DP EMD E7 Class DRS road switcher Class DS-1 yard switcher Class DS-4 branch line switcher

Penobscot River Watershed

Tributaries	Dead River East Branch Mattawamkeag River East Branch Penobscot River East Branch Piscataquis River East Branch Pleasant River Kenduskeag Stream Little Seboeis River Mattawamkeag River Middle Branch Pleasant River Molunkus Stream Narramissic River North Branch Marsh River North Branch Penobscot River Orland River Passadumkeag River Piscataquis River Pleasant River Sebec River Seboeis River South Branch Marsh River South Branch Penobscot River Stillwater River West Branch Mattawamkeag River West Branch Penobscot River West Branch Piscataquis River West Branch Pleasant River

Lakes	Allagash Lake Caucomgomoc Lake Chamberlain Lake Chesuncook Lake Lake Onawa Lower Wilson Pond Matagamon Lake Mattawamkeag Lake Millinocket Lake Pemadumcook Chain of Lakes Pushaw Lake Schoodic Lake Sebec Lake Seboeis Lake Seboomook Lake South Twin Lake Telos Lake Upper Wilson Pond

Towns	Abbot Bangor Bradley Brewer Brooks Brownville Bucksport Burlington Carmel Charleston Danforth Dover-Foxcroft East Millinocket Eddington Enfield Frankfort Guilford Hampden Haynesville Hermon Howland Hudson Island Falls Kenduskeag Kingman Lee Levant Lincoln Macwahoc Mattawamkeag Medway Milford Millinocket Milo Monson Oakfield Old Town Orland Orono Orrington Passadumkeag Patten Prospect Sangerville Sherman Smyrna Springfield Veazie Verona Winn Winterport Wytopitlock

Landmarks	Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Baxter State Park Fort Knox Gero Island Great Northern Paper Company Hundred-Mile Wilderness Katahdin Iron Works Maine Central Railroad Monson Railroad Mount Katahdin North Maine Woods Peaks-Kenny State Park Penobscot Indian Island Reservation Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory Ripogenus Gorge University of Maine Waldo–Hancock Bridge

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