The Bigger Loss
Pan Am's flag fell today but just shy of two years ago we lost this road to another Class 1 buyout. I'd respectfully argue this was the bigger loss. I only got to see it once, and just days before the buyout at that. I'm sooo glad I made the effort in the midst of covid to go see then for the first and last time. Here is another frame from that day and the caption I wrote at the time with something I shared long ago:
Central Maine and Quebec Railway westbound Job 1 is departing Jackman at MP 73.6 on the Moosehead Subdivision with the Canadian crew on board having just swapped out with the crew that brought the train over from Brownville Jct. At left is the original Canadian Pacific station erected in 1910, now unused and derelict it amazingly was a stop for VIA Rail's Atlantic until 1994.
I was fortunate to photograph three trains on the Moosehead this day including this Job 1 with pure CMQ power, an SD40-2F "barn" and both of the road's AC400CWs. Job 2 featured a tired CP AC4400CW leader, a CMQ barn, another CP unit and a leader geep.
This would be my first and last chance to photograph the CMQ Railway on their last weekend of existence as the Canadian Pacific is taking back over their historic property on June 4th. And while it is going to be sad to see the CMQ go I suppose if anyone was to have to take over it is kind of nice to see a Class 1 return to Maine and on a line that was historically their own.
Construction began in 1886 on the International Railway of Maine (a CPR subsidiary) and was completed in June 1889. This route in conjunction with the purchase of several smaller roads to the east and the west in Canada and trackage rights over the Maine Central's former Eurpean & North American Railway line between Mattawamkeag and Vanceboro. This route across Maine gave CPR access to the ice free port of St. John, New Brunswick and made the road a true Transcontinental System.
For the next century the line would be an important link in CPR's network and as late as 1974 they continued to invest in the property when they purchased the former E&NA route that they had maintained trackage rights on for 85 years between Mattawamkeag and Vanceboro. However, within a decade CP Rail was seeing dramatic declines in traffic on its eastern lines and in 1988 the CP created an internal shortline known as the Canadian Atlantic Railway to operate all lines east of Megantic, QC in Maine, New Brunswick, & Nova Scotia. Over the next few years nearly all the branch lines in those two provinces were abandoned. By 1993, traffic had declined on the CAR's Saint John-Montreal route to fewer than 25,000 carloads per year (including Via Rail's Atlantic). This amount of traffic was unsustainable for the route, forcing CP Rail to apply for abandonment with U.S. and Canadian regulators, however the company was denied in lieu of selling the track to another operator. Several short line railroad companies subsequently entered into negotiations with CP Rail to purchase the entire CAR.
Negotiations for purchasing the lines in New Brunswick, Maine and Quebec with the short line operators fell through in early 1994 and CP Rail reapplied for abandonment of its line across Maine between Saint John and Megantic, later extended west to Lennoxville. An abandonment date of December 31, 1994, was established should no purchaser be found in the interim.
Ultimately in January 1995 two buyers were found which kept the historic route intact but split it between two operators. All trackage east of Brownville Jct. became the property of J.D. Erving limited which operated the lines seamlessly as the Eastern Maine Railway and New Brunswick Southern Railway.
Meanwhile the Moosehead Subdivision to the west and the CP lines in Quebec were sold to the Iron Road Railways which operated them as subsidiary Canadian American. Iron Road would also come to purchase other CP lines in Quebec and Vermont as well as the entire the Bangor and Aroostook system creating a more than 800 mile long system. However, this network would prove no more viable to Iron Roads than it was to CP and by 2002 Iron Roads was bankrupt.
In January 2003 Ed Burkhart's Rail World Inc. purchased the assets and created the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway to operate them. A bit over a decade later the MMA was itself bankrupt following the horrifying disaster at Lac Megantic. In March 2014, Fortress Investment's newly formed Central Maine & Quebec Railway acquired the line from the bankruptcy trustee. Having grown business and upgraded the physical plant to again make the road financially viable Fortress put it up for sale and in a strange turn of events Canadian Pacific was the winning bidder. So 32 years after CP first spun it off into Canadian Atlantic and three more operators after that, they are back on their historic home territory! What a strange twist.
Jackman, Maine
Saturday May 30, 2020
The Bigger Loss
Pan Am's flag fell today but just shy of two years ago we lost this road to another Class 1 buyout. I'd respectfully argue this was the bigger loss. I only got to see it once, and just days before the buyout at that. I'm sooo glad I made the effort in the midst of covid to go see then for the first and last time. Here is another frame from that day and the caption I wrote at the time with something I shared long ago:
Central Maine and Quebec Railway westbound Job 1 is departing Jackman at MP 73.6 on the Moosehead Subdivision with the Canadian crew on board having just swapped out with the crew that brought the train over from Brownville Jct. At left is the original Canadian Pacific station erected in 1910, now unused and derelict it amazingly was a stop for VIA Rail's Atlantic until 1994.
I was fortunate to photograph three trains on the Moosehead this day including this Job 1 with pure CMQ power, an SD40-2F "barn" and both of the road's AC400CWs. Job 2 featured a tired CP AC4400CW leader, a CMQ barn, another CP unit and a leader geep.
This would be my first and last chance to photograph the CMQ Railway on their last weekend of existence as the Canadian Pacific is taking back over their historic property on June 4th. And while it is going to be sad to see the CMQ go I suppose if anyone was to have to take over it is kind of nice to see a Class 1 return to Maine and on a line that was historically their own.
Construction began in 1886 on the International Railway of Maine (a CPR subsidiary) and was completed in June 1889. This route in conjunction with the purchase of several smaller roads to the east and the west in Canada and trackage rights over the Maine Central's former Eurpean & North American Railway line between Mattawamkeag and Vanceboro. This route across Maine gave CPR access to the ice free port of St. John, New Brunswick and made the road a true Transcontinental System.
For the next century the line would be an important link in CPR's network and as late as 1974 they continued to invest in the property when they purchased the former E&NA route that they had maintained trackage rights on for 85 years between Mattawamkeag and Vanceboro. However, within a decade CP Rail was seeing dramatic declines in traffic on its eastern lines and in 1988 the CP created an internal shortline known as the Canadian Atlantic Railway to operate all lines east of Megantic, QC in Maine, New Brunswick, & Nova Scotia. Over the next few years nearly all the branch lines in those two provinces were abandoned. By 1993, traffic had declined on the CAR's Saint John-Montreal route to fewer than 25,000 carloads per year (including Via Rail's Atlantic). This amount of traffic was unsustainable for the route, forcing CP Rail to apply for abandonment with U.S. and Canadian regulators, however the company was denied in lieu of selling the track to another operator. Several short line railroad companies subsequently entered into negotiations with CP Rail to purchase the entire CAR.
Negotiations for purchasing the lines in New Brunswick, Maine and Quebec with the short line operators fell through in early 1994 and CP Rail reapplied for abandonment of its line across Maine between Saint John and Megantic, later extended west to Lennoxville. An abandonment date of December 31, 1994, was established should no purchaser be found in the interim.
Ultimately in January 1995 two buyers were found which kept the historic route intact but split it between two operators. All trackage east of Brownville Jct. became the property of J.D. Erving limited which operated the lines seamlessly as the Eastern Maine Railway and New Brunswick Southern Railway.
Meanwhile the Moosehead Subdivision to the west and the CP lines in Quebec were sold to the Iron Road Railways which operated them as subsidiary Canadian American. Iron Road would also come to purchase other CP lines in Quebec and Vermont as well as the entire the Bangor and Aroostook system creating a more than 800 mile long system. However, this network would prove no more viable to Iron Roads than it was to CP and by 2002 Iron Roads was bankrupt.
In January 2003 Ed Burkhart's Rail World Inc. purchased the assets and created the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway to operate them. A bit over a decade later the MMA was itself bankrupt following the horrifying disaster at Lac Megantic. In March 2014, Fortress Investment's newly formed Central Maine & Quebec Railway acquired the line from the bankruptcy trustee. Having grown business and upgraded the physical plant to again make the road financially viable Fortress put it up for sale and in a strange turn of events Canadian Pacific was the winning bidder. So 32 years after CP first spun it off into Canadian Atlantic and three more operators after that, they are back on their historic home territory! What a strange twist.
Jackman, Maine
Saturday May 30, 2020