“St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad {{reporting mark|SLR}}, known as St-Laurent et Atlantique Quebec {{reporting mark|SLQ}} in Canada, is a short-line railway operating between Portland, Maine, on the Atlantic Ocean, and Montreal, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence River. It crosses the Canada–US border at Norton, Vermont and Stanhope, Quebec, and is owned by short-line operator Genesee & Wyoming.

The line was built by the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad in the U.S. and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway in Canada, meeting at Island Pond, Vermont, south of the international border. Major communities served include Portland and Lewiston in Maine; Berlin, New Hampshire; Island Pond, Vermont; and Sherbrooke and Montreal in Quebec.

Route

History

The line was proposed as a connection between Portland and Sherbrooke, Quebec, in 1844 by Portland entrepreneur John A. Poor. Portland was desperate to connect its ice-free port with Montreal, and Maine was at risk of being eclipsed by a similar proposal running from nearby Boston, Massachusetts. Montreal saw an advantage in linking with the smaller port at Portland, and Poor's idea became a reality.

Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad

The Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad was chartered in Maine on February 10, 1845; New Hampshire on July 30, 1847; and Vermont on October 27, 1848, to build a continuous line from Portland northwest into northeastern Vermont. William Pitt Preble was the railroad's first president. The line was originally built to the Portland gauge of {{track gauge|5ft6in}}. Construction started in Portland on July 4, 1846. The first section, from Portland to Yarmouth, opened July 20, 1848. Further extensions up the Royal River to Danville (now Auburn) opened in October 1848 and to Mechanic Falls in February 1849. Construction then proceeded up the Little Androscoggin River to Oxford in September 1849 and Paris in March 1850. Construction was then completed down the Alder River to the Androscoggin River at Bethel in March 1851.^[1] Simultaneous construction of Portland gauge connecting railways occurred from Danville and Mechanic Falls. Sections into and within New Hampshire opened to Gorham on July 23, 1851, and Northumberland July 12, 1852, and the full distance to Island Pond, Vermont, on January 29, 1853.

The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway was chartered to build the part of the line in Quebec, and on August 4, 1851, agreed to meet the Atlantic and St. Lawrence at Island Pond. Regular operations began April 4, 1853 between Montreal (Saint-Lambert) and Portland.

Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad locomotives

Grand Trunk Railway

Four months later, on August 5, 1853, the Grand Trunk Railway leased the two companies, giving the Toronto-Montreal line an extension east to Portland. A branch was also built from Richmond, Quebec, northeast to Point Levi, across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City. Grand Trunk enlarged their waterfront facilities at Portland by purchasing land from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.^[1] The increased traffic from Portland and Point Levi to Montreal placed significant demands on the small train ferry (car float?) service across the St. Lawrence at Montreal, and this was replaced by the Victoria Bridge by 1860.

The locomotives burned wood exclusively until the cost of seasoned firewood increased during the winter of 1871-72 to make other fuels competitive. Peat from Quebec was used briefly before coal became the standard. Coal was used exclusively between Portland and Gorham by 1879, but use of wood continued for a few more years north of Gorham.^[1]

Interchange with standard gauge railroads became a problem during the 1860s. Grand Trunk equipped approximately 1,000 freight cars with experimental "sliding-wheels" in 1863 at company shops in Sarnia, Ontario, and Pointe-Saint-Charles in Montreal. Gauge could be adjusted by removing and inserting axle pins on special tapered-gauge track segments at interchange points. Safety problems were reported despite high maintenance costs. All lines west of Montreal were converted to standard gauge on October 3 and 4, 1873. Grand Trunk purchased 200 standard gauge locomotives (including 62 from Portland Company) and converted 135 old locomotives. Ten thousand standard gauge bogies were purchased for conversion of freight cars. The railway from Portland to Montreal was standard-gauged in September 1874.^[1]

During the week preceding the change, each section foreman made sure all ties on his section were properly adzed and clear of gravel. Spikes were laid out beside each tie, and some sidings were re-gauged before the main line. Two eight-man squads were assigned to each five-mile section. They slept by the track with their tools on the night of September 25, 1874. Work began at Portland when the last Portland gauge train from Island Pond arrived at 2:00 am September 26, and the main line was ready for standard gauge trains by 9:00 am the same day. The change resulted in nearly complete replacement of locomotives on the New England line, since most of the Portland gauge locomotives were sold or scrapped. Five new "Burnside" 2-6-0 locomotives from Rhode Island Locomotive Works had arrived in Portland from Boston to resume service.^[1]

The GTR line to Portland was built during the boom period for New England textile mills, and various mill towns in northern New England soon saw an influx of French Canadian workers who quickly found work in the region.

By 1881, all wooden bridges had been replaced by iron and stone structures, and steel rail had replaced early iron rail. Fourteen steamship lines were serving the Grand Trunk wharves at Portland by 1896 with connections to Bristol, London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Antwerp. Fifty steamships visited Portland that winter, and as many as seven could load simultaneously from the Grand Trunk wharves. More powerful 2-6-0 mogul locomotives increased freight train length from 16 to 30 cars.^[1]

Passenger train service included the Seaside and White Mountains Special (later called the International Limited) from Chicago to Portland, equipped with plush silk and mahogany-finished Pullman dining, sleeping, parlor, and observation cars including a library and a barber shop.^[1]

Canadian National Railways Berlin subdivision

The GTR's bankruptcy in the early 1920s saw it nationalized by the Canadian federal government, which merged it into the nascent Canadian National Railways (CNR). Unfortunately for Portland, the CNR also included various other rail lines to ice-free Canadian ports in the Maritimes, notably Halifax, Nova Scotia, and their now ex-GTR mainline to Montreal soon became a secondary mainline under CNR as traffic dropped significantly. Within a decade, annual export tonnage leaving Portland declined to 21,000 tons, from an average of 600,000 tons during the early 1920s.^[1]

Paper mills remained a major source of traffic. Annual car loadings in 1973 were 12,758 for Berlin, 5,794 for Groveton, and 1,161 for Mechanic Falls; but the Boston and Maine Railroad carried some of the traffic for the New Hampshire mills.^[7] Dressed meat from Chicago to Maine continued to use the shorter Canadian routing as long as railway reefers remained competitive with highway trucking.

From 1934^[8] to 1939 the twice-weekly Maine Coast Special from Montreal left the Grand Trunk at Yarmouth Junction to follow the Maine Central Railroad to Portland's Union Station and then the Boston and Maine Railroad to the beach communities of Old Orchard Beach and Kennebunkport during July and August. The CNR class U-1 4-8-2 locomotives pulling as many as 17 car trains around Dominion Day would be serviced at Rigby Yard in South Portland before making the return trip. Daily except Sunday passenger trains 16 and 17 continued to carry a railway post office between Portland and Island Pond through the 1950s. These trains remained popular with summer vacationers from Montreal, and summer weekend service continued until 1967 after daily train service ended in 1960. Passengers were transported by bus from Portland station to Old Orchard Beach. Portland station was razed in 1966.^[1]

Despite the decline in traffic being handled over the line, its strategic connection to the Atlantic Ocean for Montreal saw other use arise during World War II. Bauxite from British Guiana was shipped via rail from Portland to avoid shipping losses to U-boats during the Battle of the St. Lawrence.^[4] The Portland–Montreal Pipe Line was built to carry oil from terminals in South Portland to refineries in Montreal; the pipeline followed the GTR route along certain parts and is still in use today. Wharves at Portland were used by the United States Navy as Casco Bay became destroyer base Sail during the Battle of the Atlantic.^[9] Grand Trunk Piers housed a Navy supply pier and training schools for combat information center (CIC), night visual lookouts, surface and aircraft recognition, search and fire control radar operators, gunnery spotting, anti-aircraft machine guns, and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) attack.^[10]

CNR (CN after the 1960s) continued to operate the Portland-Sherbrooke line as its Berlin Subdivision, but traffic continued to decline. By the late 1980s, following deregulation of the U.S. railroad industry, it became a candidate for divestiture to a shortline operator.

Locomotives with long-term assignments on the Berlin Subdivision

St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad

In 1989, the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad was formed to take over operation of the Island Pond-Portland section, and several years later this was extended to the border at Norton. In 1998, following Canadian deregulation, the short-line operator formed a subsidiary St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad (Quebec) to operate the remaining line from the border at Norton through to Sainte-Rosalie, where it connects with the CNR main line to Montreal.

Reactivated passenger service

In April 2012, the Maine Department of Transportation put a project out to bid which would "purchase, design, and construct a portion of rail line for future passenger service to Lewiston and Auburn."^[12] The potential passenger route would operate on tracks operated by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad. {{asof|2013}} prospective operators of a night train from Montréal to Boston are attempting to get access to the St. Lawrence and Atlantic right-of-way for a 2014-passenger launch.^[13]

Bridge collapse

A bridge over the Saint-François River near Brompton, Quebec, collapsed on January 13, 2018. There were no injuries. The preliminary opinion is that the collapse was due to an ice jam and rapid water level rise following an unseasonal day of rain. ^[14]

References

1. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹¹⁰¹¹¹²¹³¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹²⁰²¹²²²³{{cite book| title=The Grand Trunk in New England |author=Holt, Jeff |publisher=Railfare |year=1985 |isbn=0-919130-43-7 |page=}}
2. ^{{cite book| title=The Railroad Laws of Maine |author=Webb, Edmund Fuller |publisher=Dresser, McLellan and Company |year=1875 |isbn= |pages=504–505}}
3. ^{{cite book| title=The Best of Maine Railroads |author=Johnson, Ron |publisher=Portland Litho |year=1985 |isbn= |pages=12–13 & 115}}
4. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹¹⁰¹¹¹²¹³¹⁴{{cite book| title=Trackside Grand Trunk New England Lines with John Ames |author=Melvin, George F. |publisher=Morning Sun Books |year=2007 |isbn=1-58248-193-8 |pages=}}
5. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶{{cite book| title=Maine Central Railroad Company |author=Peters, Bradley L. |publisher=Maine Central Railroad |year=1976 |isbn= |page=11}}
6. ^{{cite book| title=The Wild River Wilderness |author=Wight, D.B. |publisher=Courier Printing Company |year=1971}}
7. ^{{cite book| title=Rail Service in the Midwest and Northeast Region |author=United States Department of Transportation |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |year=1974 |isbn= |pages=}}
8. ^Montreal Gazette 16 June 1934
9. ^{{cite book| title=History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume I: The Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943 |author=Morison, Samuel Eliot |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1975 |page=68}}
10. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/USN-Act/ME.html|title=U.S. Navy Activities World War II by State|publisher=U.S. Naval Historical Center|accessdate=2012-03-07}}
11. ^Clegg, Anthony and Corley, Ray "Canadian National Steam Power" Trains & Trolleys: Montreal (1969).
12. ^{{cite web| url=http://www.maine.gov/mdot/contractor-consultant-information/pas/annual.shtml| title=Construction Advertisement Plan| publisher=Maine Department of Transportation| accessdate=2 April 2012}}
13. ^{{cite web|url=http://bangordailynews.com/2013/09/05/business/portland-auburn-montreal-passenger-rail-possible-within-the-year/|title=Portland-Auburn-Montreal passenger rail possible within the year|author=|date=|website=bangordailynews.com|accessdate=6 April 2018}}
14. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.latribune.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/un-pont-ferroviaire-seffondre-a-sherbrooke-2b218889e444b3827c2d623f31c6605a|title=Un pont ferroviaire s'effondre à Sherbrooke|author=|date=13 January 2018|website=latribune.ca|accessdate=6 April 2018}}

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