The Maine Coast Railroad was a railroad company that operated on tracks owned by the Maine Department of Transportation between 1990 and 2000.
10-631: The company started operations in 1990 after a contract was awarded to the Massachusetts Central Railroad (MCER) to operate the Rockland Branch between Brunswick and Rockland, Maine . The MCER chose to create a new railroad to operate the line, named the Maine Coast. During its first year, the railroad handled little traffic, but in 1991 a large cement producer on the line began shipping its product via rail. As
20-466: A stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about transportation in Maine is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Massachusetts Central Railroad The Massachusetts Central Railroad ( reporting mark MCER ) is a short line railroad in western Massachusetts , United States. It was established in 1975 to provide railroad transportation services on portions of
30-906: A result of this increase in traffic, the Maine Coast acquired additional locomotives. In 1994, using funding from the Maine Department of Transportation , trackage in Rockland was rebuilt to allow freight to be transferred from the railroad to barges. The railroad closed on December 4, 2000, after losing their lease to the tracks. The lines formerly operated by Maine Coast Railroad was later operated by Maine Eastern Railroad between 2004 & 2015. It offered both freight service and passenger service. The passenger trains operated between Wiscasset and Warren, Maine . Freight traffic largely consisted of cement products outbound from and coal inbound to Dragon Cement and Concrete in Thomaston . There
40-728: The Boston & Maine Wheelwright Branch in and around their trackage in Bondsville (a village of Palmer) and Ware, and later between Palmer and South Barre on the old right-of-way of the Ware River Railroad. The Ware River Railroad was an independent line that ran from Palmer to the Cheshire Railroad in Winchendon . It was built in 1868. The first section, from Palmer to Gilbertville , opened in 1870, and
50-685: The Monadnock, the Ware River Line was not very profitable. By 1968, the line came under the control of the Penn Central , and tracks were abandoned between South Barre and Waterville, splitting the line in two. The Boston and Maine Railroad took over the line from Waterville to Winchendon and operated it until it was abandoned in 1984. Penn Central continued to operate the line south of Barre, but in 1975 all services between Gilbertville and South Barre were discontinued. Conrail operated
60-689: The line between Palmer and Ware and applied for abandonment of the remainder of the line. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts acquired most of the line in 1978, except a few miles in Palmer to the Palmer Depot and the B&;A main line. The State contracted out the continued service to the newly formed Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail). By 1975, the MCER, or as it later became known—the MassCentral. It
70-622: The rest three years later. Until 1873 it was leased to and operated by the New London Northern Railroad . It was eventually taken over by the Boston and Albany Railroad and run as its Winchendon Branch. The B&A wanted to run the Ware River Line in conjunction with the Monadnock Railroad in order to gain access to the resort areas of Peterborough, New Hampshire . When the B&A failed to gain control of
80-482: The various yard trackage owned by MCER at Palmer, Gibbs Crossing, Ware and South Barre. Service to half a dozen customers from Palmer Village up to the Reload at South Barre continues to the present, five days a week from its interchange with CSX and NECR (New England Central). From the former Intermodal Yard around milepost one next to the ex Central Vermont Railroad main line (1 customer), with other customers located at
90-401: Was also limited perlite and plastic products that moved along the line. The Maine Coast operated with a small roster of Alco and Montreal Locomotive Works locomotives, including a former Maine Central S-1 (No. 958); a former Norfolk & Western and Central Vermont RS-11 (No. 367); and two Providence and Worcester M420s (Nos. 2002 and 2004). This United States rail–related article is
100-599: Was formed by three individuals from Western Massachusetts and started limited operations on a few miles of the Boston & Maine trackage in and around the Ware Yard. After a year of Conrail operations on the State-owned line, the contract was awarded to MassCentral. The train rarely ran north of Ware until 1999 when a new rail customer, a "reload", justified restored freight service to South Barre. The Commonwealth currently owns approximately 24 miles of mainline connecting
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