Мэн Централь темір жолы: Тарихы мен жолдары

Defunct American Class I railway

The Maine Central Railroad was a U. S. class 1 railroad in central and southern Maine. It was chartered in 1856 and began operations in 1862. By 1884, Maine Central was the longest railroad in New England. Maine Central had expanded to when the United States Railroad Administration assumed control in 1917. The main line extended from South Portland, Maine, east to the Canada–United States border with New Brunswick, and a Mountain Division extended west from Portland to St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and north into Quebec. The main line was double track from South Portland to Royal Junction, where it split into a "lower road" through Brunswick and Augusta and a "back road" through Lewiston, which converged at Waterville into single track to Bangor and points east. Branch lines served the industrial center of Rumford, a resort hotel on Moosehead Lake and coastal communities from Bath to Eastport.

The Maine Central was created in 1862 through the merger of the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad and the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad, resulting in a line from Danville (now Auburn) to Bangor. The line connected with the Grand Trunk Railway on its Portland Chicago mainline at Danville and with the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad in Bangor. As a result of its connection with the Grand Trunk, the Maine Central initially operated on a track gauge of known as "Canadian" or "Portland gauge".

Maine Central purchased the Portland and Kennebec Railroad, which ran from Portland to Augusta and was built to standard track gauge, since it connected with the Boston and Maine Railroad at Portland. By 1871, the Maine Central completed its conversion to standard gauge to facilitate interchange of cars. The MEC established rail service to the Penobscot Bay in 1871 by leasing (for fifty years) the then just completed 33 mile (53 km) of track built by the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad (B&ML). The B&ML's grade ran the length of Waldo County from the port town of Belfast inland to Burnham Junction, where its single track connected with the MEC's Portland to Bangor mainline. Maine Central operated the road as its "Belfast Branch" for the next 55 years, but on June 30, 1925, MEC President Morris McDonald — after repeated public denials — gave the B&ML (and the city of Belfast as its majority owner) the required six months notice that it would not renew its by then year to year lease when it expired on December 31, 1925. The reason eventually given was a net loss to the MEC on the Belfast Branch operations of $113,230 for the year 1924.

1862 Merger of the Androscoggin & Kennebec and Penobscot & Kennebec created a Portland gauge Maine Central Railroad mainline from Danville Junction to Bangor. 1869 Maine Central leased the Foxcroft branch. 1870 Maine Central leased the competing standard gauge Portland & Kennebec Railroad from Portland to Skowhegan as the "lower road" mainline and Skowhegan branch; and completed the "back road" mainline from Royal Junction to Danville Junction. 1871 Maine Central leased the Belfast branch, Farmington branch, and Lewiston branch. 1882 Maine Central leased the European and North American Railway as the Eastern Division mainline from Bangor to Vanceboro; and gained majority stock control of Maine coastal steamboat service. 1883 Maine Central leased the Bucksport Branch. 1884 Maine Central leased the Bar Harbor branch. 1888 Maine Central leased the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad as the Mountain Division from Portland to Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. 1888 Portland Union Station opened. 1890 Maine Central leased the Quebec Division. 1891 Maine Central leased the Rockland Branch. 1904 Maine Central gained majority stock control of the Calais Branch. 1907 Maine Central leased the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway as the Livermore Falls branch and Rangeley branch. 1907 Bangor Union Station opened. 1910 Maine Central leased the Harmony branch. 1911 Maine Central purchased the Kineo House and Kineo branch; formed the Portland Terminal Company; and gained majority stock control of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. 1912 Maine Central gained majority stock control of the Bridgton and Saco River Railroad; and purchased the Samoset Hotel in Rockland.

Following World War I, Maine Central began retracting. It sold or abandoned lines such as the narrow gauge and logging branches, as well as its hotels, ferries and steamships.

The MEC passenger trains, often advertised as "M. C. R. R." in the early 20th century, were essential to the sporting camp movement as early as the 1880s when people from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Detroit would make their way north to hunt and fish in the western mountains and the Maine North Woods. From Portland's Union Station, the MEC had unnamed trains to Bangor via Lewiston, to Bangor via Augusta, to Rockland, to Calais via Ellsworth, to Farmington and to Montreal via North Conway. Among the named trains operated by the MEC prior to ending passenger service in 1960 were the Bar Harbor Express, Down Easter, Flying Yankee, Gull, Katahdin, Kennebec, Mountaineer, Penobscot, Pine Tree, and Skipper. The Down Easter name is in use by Amtrak (now spelled Downeaster), which began passenger service between Boston and Brunswick, Maine, in 2001.

The Conway Scenic Railroad (reporting mark CSRX) is a heritage railroad in North Conway, New Hampshire, United States, owned by Profile Mountain Holdings Corp. The railroad operates over two historic railway routes: a line from North Conway to Conway that was formerly part of the Conway Branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad, and a line from North Conway through Crawford Notch to Fabyan that was once part of the Mountain Division of the Maine Central Railroad. The Conway line is owned by Conway Scenic, and the Mountain Division is owned by the State of New Hampshire.