Van Buren Switcher
Maine Northern Railway Train 521-11 switches LaJoie Growers on 4/11/2025.
LaJoie runs a warehouse here which loads and unloads products for the Twin Rivers Paper mill in Madawaska, since there isn't a whole lot of room at the mill. In addition to this LaJoie takes cars of fertilizer for local potato farms, in addition to shipping occasional loads of potatoes.
Behind me is the large Irving lumber transload, which can load 10-11 cars at a time with lumber from various mills in New Brunswick.
Once done working the US side, 521 will normally work the Irving mill across the river in Saint-Leonard, NB as well as dropping interchange traffic with CN. However on this day they didn't end up switching the mill.
At one point tracks continued south from here to Stockholm, where the line split with one leg going to Caribou and the other to Mapleton. The trackage from Caribou to Van Buren was pulled during the BAR's downsizing in the late 60-80's, while the Mapleton-Stockholm line survived for a few more years. After large plots of land were sold by the paper companies, the BAR got rid of the Mapleton-Stockholm portion after the loss of logs going to the paper mills.
A few customers remained in Van Buren until sometime in the 90's. Around 15-20 years ago, US Customs and Border Protection bought the remaining track running into downtown, to allow for a new border crossing to be built on the former right of way. Today the line dead ends around a mile south of this point.
Maine Northern Railway
Train: 521-11
4/11/2025
Van Buren, ME
MNR Van Buren Yard
Van Buren Switcher
Maine Northern Railway Train 521-11 switches LaJoie Growers on 4/11/2025.
LaJoie runs a warehouse here which loads and unloads products for the Twin Rivers Paper mill in Madawaska, since there isn't a whole lot of room at the mill. In addition to this LaJoie takes cars of fertilizer for local potato farms, in addition to shipping occasional loads of potatoes.
Behind me is the large Irving lumber transload, which can load 10-11 cars at a time with lumber from various mills in New Brunswick.
Once done working the US side, 521 will normally work the Irving mill across the river in Saint-Leonard, NB as well as dropping interchange traffic with CN. However on this day they didn't end up switching the mill.
At one point tracks continued south from here to Stockholm, where the line split with one leg going to Caribou and the other to Mapleton. The trackage from Caribou to Van Buren was pulled during the BAR's downsizing in the late 60-80's, while the Mapleton-Stockholm line survived for a few more years. After large plots of land were sold by the paper companies, the BAR got rid of the Mapleton-Stockholm portion after the loss of logs going to the paper mills.
A few customers remained in Van Buren until sometime in the 90's. Around 15-20 years ago, US Customs and Border Protection bought the remaining track running into downtown, to allow for a new border crossing to be built on the former right of way. Today the line dead ends around a mile south of this point.
Maine Northern Railway
Train: 521-11
4/11/2025
Van Buren, ME
MNR Van Buren Yard