The Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad was a

standard-gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

shortline railroad that operated from 1871 to 2007 over a single-track grade from

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

to Burnham Junction in

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. Chartered in 1867, the line was built between August 1868 and December 1870 by the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad Company (B&MLRR), which was majority-owned by the city of Belfast until 1991. For its first 55 years, the road was operated under lease by the Maine Central as its Belfast Branch, which provided daily passenger and freight service to eight stations over the length of

Waldo County, Maine Waldo County is a county in the state of Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,607. Its county seat is Belfast. The county was founded on February 7, 1827, from a portion of Hancock County and named after Briga ...

. After the MEC cancelled its lease in 1925, the B&MLRR began running trains under its own name. Passenger operations ceased in March 1960, although in 1988, the railroad began operating summer tourist trains to offset a decline in freight traffic. In 1991, the city sold its interest in the money-losing railroad to private owners. In 2007, the railroad ended operations as the B&MLRR. Today, the line is operated by the non-profit Brooks Preservation Society as the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railway, and runs weekend

excursion train An excursion train is a chartered train run for a special event or purpose. Examples are trains to major sporting event, trains run for railfans or tourists, and special trains operated by the railway company for employees and prominent custo ...

s in the spring, summer and early fall between City Point, Waldo, and Brooks.

Organization and construction

The first attempt to bring a railroad to Belfast, a

Penobscot Bay Penobscot Bay () is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean in south central Maine, a stretch known as Midcoast Maine, in a broader Atlantic region known as Down East. The bay originates from the mouth of Maine's Penobscot River, ...

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

city that was Waldo County's

shire town A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equivalent term, shire town, is used in ...

, came on March 9, 1836, when the

Maine Legislature The Maine State Legislature is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. ...

passed "An Act to establish the Belfast and Quebec Railroad Company", but any prospects for financing the project were quickly killed by a provision in the

Maine Constitution The Constitution of the State of Maine established the "State of Maine" in 1820 and is the fundamental governing document of the state. It consists of a Preamble and ten Articles (divisions), the first of which is a "Declaration of Rights". Th ...

that prohibited public loans to build railroads and by the

Panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that began a major depression (economics), depression which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages dropped, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment rose, and pes ...

. A second attempt to raise funds for the Quebec route in 1845 also failed, as did an 1848 proposal for a line from Belfast to Waterville, and an 1853 proposal for a line from Belfast via Newport, Dexter, and Dover, to Greenville on the shores of

Moosehead Lake Moosehead Lake is a deep, coldwater lake located in Piscataquis County in Northwestern Maine. It is the largest lake in Maine and the largest lake wholly within New England, the second-largest lake in New England after Lake Champlain, and the l ...

. In 1867, a change in state law finally made it possible for cities and towns to help finance railroads through bond issues. The 47th Maine Legislature soon passed a bill to charter the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad Company, which was signed by Governor

Joshua L. Chamberlain Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (born Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain, September 8, 1828February 24, 1914) was an American college professor and politician from Maine who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army. He became a high ...

on February 28, 1867. On April 6, 1867, and March 28, 1868, the people of Belfast voted by margins of 865-27 and 854–50, respectively, to authorize the city to issue 30-year, 6-percent bonds to finance their purchase of B&MLRR stock. The bond money bought a total of 5,004 shares of preferred (1,400) and non-preferred (3,604) stock at $100 per share. This would eventually represent 83% of the company's outstanding shares, the rest of which were purchased by several other towns along the line (Brooks, Unity, and Thorndike), and by about 100 private investors, mostly from Belfast and

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. The corporation was formally organized on July 3, 1867, and after a year of planning, making detailed surveys, and acquiring additional financing, a contract was let to Ellis, Wilson and Hogan Co. of Canada on July 8, 1868, to build the line at a cost of $25,900 per mile. Ground was broken on the Belfast waterfront on August 4, 1868, at what would become the site of the road's terminal and main yard (milepost "0") for the next 138 years. The railroad's "Last Spike" was driven near Brooks on September 24, 1870, completing a line that stretched 33.07 miles from Belfast inland to Burnham Junction.

Operations

MEC Belfast Branch (1871–1925)

As the name of the railroad suggests, the original intent was to build the line 88 miles inland to Greenville on Moosehead Lake. Instead, the

Maine Central Railroad The Maine Central Railroad was a United States, U. S. class 1 railroad in central and southern Maine. It was chartered in 1856 and began operations in 1862. By 1884, Maine Central was the longest railroad in New England. Maine Central had expand ...

leased the road, which connected with the MEC's

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

- Bangor main line at Burnham Junction. Located at the far end of Waldo County, the connection was at milepost 97 of the MEC main line, some 14 miles northeast of Waterville (MP 83) and 41 miles southwest of Bangor (MP 138). Beginning on December 23, 1870, the MEC ran the line as its Belfast Branch.Cooper, Bruce C
"A Surviving Shortline Contemporary of the Central Pacific Railroad: The Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad"
BMLRR.com. Accessed 2011-02-08. The railroad prospered under the MEC, with three daily round trips for passengers. Most freight during this period was southbound, consisting largely of grain for poultry production in the area, as well as smaller amounts of fish oil, leather, coal, lumber and fertilizer. Outbound

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

originally included a large amount of processed

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

from Belfast's processing plants; shoes and other manufactured goods from Belfast; farm products from Waldo, Brooks, Knox, and Thorndike; and milk from the Turner Center Creamery in Unity.

B&MLRR (1926–2007)

With the decline in American railroad profitability in the 20th century, the Maine Central discontinued its lease of the Belfast Branch on January 1, 1926. The operation of the newly independent Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad fell to the city of Belfast, and for the first time, the B&MLRR began running trains under its own name. In the 1950s and 1960s, much of the freight was

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

feed for the area's

poultry houses Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chick ...

. The railroad dieselised in 1946 and scrapped its last steam locomotive (BML#19) in 1950. Through this period, the railroad continued to decline. Passenger service ceased on March 9, 1960, after the B&ML lost its

U.S. Mail The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal servi ...

( RPO) contract. There was a burst of good freight business in the 1970s, but by 1990, freight traffic had ceased as well. In the early 1990s,

heritage railroad A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

tourist trains began running.

Tourist railroad (1991–2004)

In 1991, the city sold its shares of the money-losing operation. The railroad changed hands rapidly since then. It operated diesel excursion runs from Belfast to

Waldo Waldo may refer to: People and fictional characters * Waldo (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Waldo (surname), a list of people * Waldo (footballer), Brazilian footballer Waldo Machado da Silva (1934–20 ...

and diesel-and steam-powered trains from

Unity Unity is the state of being as one (either literally or figuratively). It may also refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpoo ...

to Burnham Junction. The railroad's relations with the city of Belfast deteriorated. In 1995, it built a new station in Unity (MP 24.95) and moved its headquarters there. The year also saw the railroad purchase a

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

, SJ B number 1149, from the

Swedish State Railways The Swedish State Railways () or SJ, originally the Royal Railway Board (), was the former government agency responsible for operating the state-owned railways in Sweden. History The Swedish State Railways was created on 1 June 1888 as an ...

for its Unity excursions. In 2004, the railroad ceased operations from Belfast; the following year, the city evicted the railroad from its waterfront yard after the company failed to make lease payments on the property. The yard's

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

and tracks there were pulled up and sold off; the site is now occupied by the Front Street Ship Yard. The railroad suspended operations in 2007. In February 2009, th
Brooks Preservation Society
(BPS) entered into an agreement with the

Maine Department of Transportation The Maine Department of Transportation, also known as MaineDOT (occasionally referred to as MDOT), is the office of state government charged with the regulation and maintenance of roads, rail, ferries, and other public transport infrastructure i ...

to lease and restore the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad corridor with the intent of restoring railroad activity to Waldo County. BPS began railroad operations under the name Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railway, then changed to Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad.

Locomotives

References

External links

Bangor Daily News, ''Brooks rail restoration on track Preservation society plans summer locomotive, rail bike tours''
February 4, 2009
The Brooks Preservation Society

Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad
- Official website
BMLRR.com (An extensive illustrated history of the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad)

RailCyclers.com

Preservation Society Leasing B&ML Rail Line
Visited March 2, 2009
Video from WCHS channel 6 Portland. Preservation Society Leasing B&ML Rail Line. Starting this Spring, people will be able to tour Waldo County by train
Visited March 2, 2009
Video from WCHS channel 6 Portland. Old Rail Station Gets Revamped The Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad is a 140-year-old piece of Maine's history.
Visited March 2, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Belfast Moosehead Lake Railroad Defunct Maine railroads Transportation in Waldo County, Maine Maine railroads Rail infrastructure in Maine Belfast, Maine 1871 establishments in Maine 2007 disestablishments in Maine