Ghost Trains in Northern Maine

This is certainly one of the best adventures in Maine so far. It happened in the North Maine Woods, about two hours north of Millinocket.

Brooks Locomotive 2-8-0 #4062, Built 1901, Dunkirk, New York

The trains are in the far-north remote Allagash region - almost to the Canadian border - called the North Maine Woods. The entire area has a huge history in logging, and lumberjack companies fed logs to the Great Northern Paper Company in Millinocket, at one time the largest supplier of newsprint east of the Mississippi River.

Enter one Edouard “King” Lacroix, a Canadian lumber titan, who had operations in the Allagash region but needed to move a great deal of timber from Eagle Lake to the north end of Umbazooksas Lake, a distance of about 13 miles.

He purchased two locomotives, sixty rail cars, and all the associated rail, hardware and timber-moving equipment necessary, and in the winter of 1926-27 he transported the heavy equipment overland from Quebec and across frozen Churchill Lake and Eagle Lake. The operation looked so successful that it was purchased by Great Northern Paper in 1927.

Credit: Maine Memory Network

Credit: Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation

The railroad operated until 1933, a victim of the Great Depression and downturn in the demand for paper. When business picked up again, Great Northern Paper found that hauling timber by trucks was much less expensive. It also would cost too much to dismantle and haul the equipment out of the forest, so they walked away from the entire railroad operation, and the ghost of a once-profitable logging venture is all that remains as it slowly returns to the earth. A more in-depth history of the railroad can be found here.

Schenectady Locomotive Works Engine 4-6-0 #4552, built 1897, Schenectady, New York

Remains of a logging car as it “returns to the earth”

Train wheel manufactured by Albany Car Wheel Company, Albany NY

Train wheel manufactured by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, Montreal, 1911

Another pleasant surprise, on my hike into the woods to find the ghost trains. The trail was in remarkably good condition with brand new planks laid to stay out of a muddy section. I visited with the work crew - four young people who are working the summer for the Maine Conservation Corp. They are doing a fabulous job and it was a joy to visit with Maija (Maryland), Nasanet (Washington, D.C.), Caleb (Florida) and Caleb (Massachusetts).

Four great young people working for the Maine Conservation Corp: (L-R) Caleb, Maija, Caleb, Nasanet