Northern Maine Junction

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I posted this 16 years ago today, January 17, 2009.

I did my first Maine railfanning today (if you don’t count my very brief time in Vanceboro in May last year) at Northern Maine Junction in Hermon, Maine just outside Bangor. NMJ is the home of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway and it is apparently an interchange with Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford). I drove around a bit and I saw four Pan Am locomotives and one very distant MM&A locomotive.

Springfield Terminal 52 near what appears to be an old coal dock. There’s a sign on the dock that says “Designed and built by Roberts and Schaefer Co. Chicago, U.S.A.”

ST 45 was coupled to ST 52.

Boston & Maine 335 and Maine Central 370 were coupled together a little further along.

I saw a string of cars on the mainline with a FRED on the rear. The cars included some empty New Brunswick Southern Railway log cars (2003, 6057 for example). I saw a couple of snowplows too but I couldn’t get close enough to get numbers.

I saw MM&A 3609 in the distance but couldn’t get a good shot.

Nothing much was going on, but I’m glad I dropped by!

Here are a few more photos from that day that I didn’t include in my original post.

The two coal docks were still standing – showing a bit of wear. I believe one was for the Maine Central and the other for the Bangor & Aroostook.

In 2009 this was still the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic railroad. It was four and a half years later when a runaway MM&A train destroyed downtown Lac-Mégantic and killed 47 people.

That led to the end of the MM&A, and it became the Central Maine & Quebec in 2014, which was acquired by Canadian Pacific in 2020. I suppose it is CPKC now.

I believe this three story yard office was owned by the Bangor & Aroostook at one time.

Just One More Thing

Northern Maine Junction is located in/near Hermon, Maine, not far from the Bangor, Maine airport. I imagine we were on a family trip to Bangor. I must have convinced my family to take a quick run through the area.

Many people have made a “pilgrimage” to Northern Maine Junction to see the remnants of the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad (BAR). Here are a few accounts:

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