Somerset And Kennebec Railroad
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The Somerset and Kennebec Railroad was a 19th-century
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 ...
railroad which became part of 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 ...
.


History

The railroad was built in stages to serve mills along the
Kennebec River The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 natural river within the U.S. state of Ma ...
upstream of
Augusta, Maine Augusta is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Maine. The city's population was 18,899 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Maine, 12th-most populous city in Maine, and third ...
, where it connected with the Portland and Kennebec Railroad. These two connecting railroads were built to
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 ...
at a time when most Maine railroads were built to Portland gauge. The Somerset and Kennebec reached Waterville in 1853, Fairfield in 1855, and Skowhegan in 1856. Maine Central Railroad leased the two connecting standard gauge railroads in 1870, and converted its previous Portland gauge lines to standard gauge the following year. The downstream end of the Somerset and Kennebec became the northern portion of the Maine Central "lower road" main line, while the upstream portion became Maine Central's Skowhegan Branch. Most of the Skowhegan Branch was abandoned in 1971.


Railway mileposts

Maine Central mileposts reflect main line distance from Portland and branch line distance from the branch junction with the main line.


Lower Road

* Milepost 62.3: Augusta agent's station * Milepost 66.2: Kennebec * Milepost 70.0: Riverside agent's station * Milepost 73.7: Vassalboro agent's station * Milepost 80.1: Winslow agent's station * Milepost 81.7: Waterville agent's station


References

{{Kennebec River Predecessors of the Maine Central Railroad Rail infrastructure in Maine