Aroostook Valley Railroad
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The Aroostook Valley Railroad was a railroad that operated between Presque Isle and
Caribou, Maine Caribou is the second largest city in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. Its population was 7,396 at the 2020 census. The city is a service center for the agricultural and tourism industries, and the location of a National Weather Servic ...
from the early 1900s to 1996. The railroad operated maroon interurban cars with grey roofs on 1200
volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, Voltage#Galvani potential vs. electrochemical potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units, International System of Uni ...
DC power until 1945.


History

Arthur R. Gould purchased a Presque Isle
sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...
in 1889. He began to investigate
log driving Log driving is a means of moving logs (sawn tree trunks) from a forest to sawmills and pulp mills downstream using the current of a river. It was the main transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe and North America. History ...
on the
Aroostook River The Aroostook River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 tributary of the Saint John River in the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brun ...
as the supply of local logs was exhausted. He needed a railroad to move logs from the river to his sawmill; and recognized the possibility of using the river's water power to generate electricity. The railroad was founded in 1902 and the Maine Railroad Commission granted it approval to operate on 1 July of the same year. Its survey of the planned route was approved the next year, but not until 20 June 1910 was construction completed and the safety certificate approved. The AVR's official opening was on 1 July 1910; at the time it operated of track between Presque Isle and
Washburn, Maine Washburn is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, Aroostook County, Maine, United States. It was incorporated on February 25, 1861, and named after Israel Washburn, Jr., Israel Washburn, the governor of Maine at the time. The population was 1,527 ...
. In 1911, of track was added, extending the line's terminus to
New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...
and in 1912 track was extended to Caribou, a further . The line was electrified for the early part of the railroad's history. Gould considered extending the railroad to Lac-Frontière, Quebec through additional sources of timber and electricity, but after the World Wars this plan was dropped. In 1932, the
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
acquired a controlling interest in the railroad by buying Gould's share of the company for a price of $225 a share. Passenger service to New Sweden was discontinued in the late 1930s. With the onset of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Presque Isle's airport was converted to a military base for ferrying aircraft to Europe; and the railroad built a branch line to handle fuel and equipment shipments to the airfield.


Traffic

The railroad's traffic consisted largely of potatoes. Five thousand carloads were carried in an average year. Other farming products made up the bulk of the rest of early freight traffic, including hay, fertilizer, grain, flour and starch, as well as logs and lumber for Gould's sawmill. During its early years, the railroad made about $60,000 a year from freight traffic, about twice the amount made from passenger service. Passenger travel declined through the 1920s and 1930s. Military freight traffic became significant with the onset of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Military shipments to the airfield were as much as eight or ten carloads per day; and the railroad began carrying passengers in a highway bus to avoid passenger schedule conflicts with expedited military freight shipments. Freight was interchanged with the
Bangor and Aroostook Railroad The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was a United States railroad company that brought rail service to Aroostook County, Maine, Aroostook County in northern Maine. Brightly-painted BAR boxcars attracted national attention in the 1950s. First-genera ...
at Washburn, and with the Canadian Pacific at Washburn Junction, near Presque Isle. Inbound heating oil and coal were important car loadings in later years; and a few loads of road salt and farm machinery contributed additional income. The railroad served Skyway Industrial Airpark occupants on the former
Presque Isle Air Force Base Presque Isle Air Force Base was a military installation of the United States Air Force located near Presque Isle, Maine, Presque Isle, Maine. In the late 1950s and early 1960s it became a base for Strategic Air Command. The original airport was ...
after the base closed in 1961, including
International Paper Company The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 39,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31 ...
and Indian Head Plywood Company.


Electric rolling stock


Diesel era

In July 1945, the electrification was ended, and the AVR bought two
GE 44-ton switcher The GE 44-ton switcher is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Electric between 1940 and 1956. It was designed for industrial and light switching duties, often replacing steam locomotives that had previously been assigned thes ...
s numbered 10 and 11. Switcher number 12 was later added in 1949. On 7 August 1945, passenger service on the line was ended. Aside from the three switchers, the railroad operated a
caboose A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting; as well as in keeping a lookout for load ...
, maintenance-of-way
flatcar A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on trucks (US) or bogies (UK) at each end. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry extra heavy or extra large loads are mounted ...
number 101, and converted steeplecab snowplow number 53 through the later years. The flatcar was painted black with white lettering, while the other rolling stock was painted dark blue with yellow lettering and striping. Canadian Pacific MLW S-3 number 6500 worked on the line briefly in 1978 in an attempt to retire the aging 44-ton switchers, but was too heavy for the 70-pound rail. During the 1970s, the railroad's potato traffic, its major revenue source, dropped, due to
Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
's extension to
Houlton, Maine Houlton is a town in and the county seat of Aroostook County, Maine, United States, on the Canada–United States border. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 6,055. It is perhaps best known for being at the northern terminus of Int ...
, as well as bad crops during this time and the
Penn Central Railroad The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania Railroad, ...
's unreliability in handling potatoes shipped by rail in southern New England. Canadian Pacific sold the railroad in 1980 to an investment group seeking the regulatory advantages of a home railroad for their fleet of leased
boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...
s. The line north of Washburn was abandoned in 1983. An April 1987 flood destroyed two Canadian Pacific bridges, causing the AVR to lose its connection with the CP at Washburn Junction. Fewer than 1000 cars were handled on the surviving of trackage in 1989, and the railroad ended operations in 1996.


References

{{Maine railroads Defunct Maine railroads Maine logging railroads Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiaries Defunct companies based in Maine Transportation in Aroostook County, Maine Presque Isle, Maine Caribou, Maine Railway companies established in 1902 Railway companies disestablished in 1996 1902 establishments in Maine 1996 disestablishments in Maine 1200 V DC railway electrification