Maine Central Railroad

My layout features the western portion of the Maine Central's Mountain Division. Starting at the CP yard in St. Johnsbury, my Maine Central line travels east, servicing the large Georgia-Pacific paper mill in Gilman, Vt, then heads into Whitefield, NH. At Whitefield, there is an active interchange with the Boston & Maine RR. The diamond and ball signal is modeled. The Mountain Division continues east to Crawford Notch. Here it passes the old passenger station and the small yard before heading into the Notch itself before disappearing into staging representing Portland, Maine.

Prototype Maine Central in VT and NH

The Maine Central Railroad operated primarily in Maine, with 770 of its 850 route miles in the Pine Tree State. But the Mountain Division represented an important gateway to the west. Traveling west from Portland, Maine, the 131 mile line passed through New Hampshire's White Mountains and the legendary Crawford Notch before crossing the Connecticut River into Vermont and terminating in St. Johnsbury. The St. Johnsbury interchange allowed the MEC to ship primarily forest products to the west via the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National (via LVRC and CV). Empties along with a few commodities would be sent back to Portland.



In 1980, train RY-2 ran once a day from Portland to St. Johnsbury, while train YR-1 ran once a day from St. Johnsbury to Portland ("R" represented "R"igby Yard in Portland, "Y" represented St. Johnsbur"y").

In New Hampshire, the Mountain Division passes through remote territory until reaching the outskirts of North Conway, some 60 miles from Portland. An interchange here in Intervale occurs with the B&M's Conway branch (Conway Scenic RR since 1974), a little bit north of the famous station in the center of North Conway. The MEC line continues along the Saco River a few miles to the small town of Bartlett (milepost 70). Bartlett at one time had a large railroad presence with a turntable and enginehouse complementing a small yard, freight and passenger depots.


In 1982 as we came down Bear Notch Road into Bartlett, we encountered MEC train YR-1 with GP38 #254 (Mike McNamara photo)

The 15 mile grade from Bartlett to Crawford Notch exceeds 2%, and helpers were used to get the train over the hill. This was the reason why Bartlett featured an engine terminal in the steam days. In the 1970s however, helpers would normally leave Portland ahead of RY-2 and wait for the train at Bartlett. After helping get the train up the grade, the helpers would then cut off at Crawford station and run light back to Portland.

At Crawford Notch (milepost 85), the line passed by Saco Lake and the Crawfords depot. Here an ornate station was built in the 1800s. A passing siding and other tracks facilitated any meets and the drop off/pickup of any cars for the locals. Crawfords represented the top of the extreme grade and this is where the helpers would cut off. All trains would stop to sign the train register book before continuing on. (More info and pictures are on my of Crawford Notch page)


Glenn Salvatore caught GP7 562 laying over in Crawford Notch. Most likely this is power for the ZO-2 local from Bartlett to Gilman which started in late 1981. It may have been cut off the RY-2 train after being used as a helper. (Glenn Salvatore slide, my collection)


A 1991 view of Crawford station looking east. The AMC hiking club had rehabbed the station and was actively using it, but at this time the rails were unused. (Mike McNamara photo)

The line travelled along the Ammonoosuc River, past Fabyans and Twin Mountain before turning north to Quebec Junction (milepost 100). Quebec Junction saw the branch line to Beecher Falls divert. This line at one time went as far as Lime Ridge, Quebec, hence the name. Later the line was cut back to Beecher Falls, Vermont. Trackage rights over a portion of the B&M Berlin Branch to Groveton and then the Grand Trunk to North Stratford eliminated some redundant trackage in 1949. At North Stratford, the MEC returned to home rails for the run up past Colebrook, Stewartson and across the Connecticut River to Beecher Falls, VT, at the Canadian border. The MEC finally quit this branch in 1977 and the North Stratford RR took over operations. (See the North Stratford page for more info on this line).


Back on the Mountain Division, the line came into Whitefield (milepost 103), a neat little New England town with a very interesting track arrangement. The Boston & Maine's Berlin Branch came up from Woodsville via Littleton to meet the MEC before continuing north to Groveton, Gorham and Berlin. A diamond crossing was protected by the famous ball signal, the last operational signal of its type in the 1980s. One ball raised gave control to cross the diamond to the B&M, while 2 balls raised allowed the MEC to cross. Lanterns lit the signals at night. Trains would stop to change the signal before proceeding. Locals would set out and pick up cars on the interchange track. A couple of yard tracks, a team track and a section house completes the railroad presence in Whitefield. (See my Whitefield page for more info and pictures).


Train YR-1 arrives at the diamond in Whitefielld about to cross the B&M (Gil Ford photo from rrpicturesarchives.net)

From Whitefield, the line continues west, crossing the Connecticut River and heading to Gilman, Vermont (milepost 111). Here a large paper mill represented the only substantial on-line customer on the entire Mountain Division. Locals out of St. J would service the mill on a regular basis. A passing siding and the spur into mill were located at a location known as Pages Siding. The Mountain Division trains continued on the few remaining miles along the Moose River into St. J. (More info on St. J itself can be found on my St. Johnsbury page)


MEC GP38 258 leads a train across Rt. 5 in Vermont in 1982


Operationally, RY-2s motive power would layover in St. Johnsbury and then power the YR-1 back to Portland early the next day. In the 1970s, MEC motive power primarily consisted of GP38s, augmented by the U18Bs starting in 1975. GP7s and  occasionally one or both of the two RS11s would also tag along when needed. Yard switching in St. J was handled by the Canadian Pacific. An RS2 would break up the Mountain Division freight, placing CV/CN cars on one track for the Lamoille Valley RR, and Canadian Pacific cars on another track for the CP train to Newport. MEC traffic generally did not get shipped south of St. J.


MEC train YR-1 ready to depart St. Johnsbury in 1979, with U18Bs augmented by an RS11 and GP7 (Gil Ford photo from rrpicturesarchive.net)

The MEC did operate locals out of St. J. Six days a week, a GP7 powered local would switch cars at the paper mill in Gilman. Occasionally, this train would also continue on to Whitefield to handle the interchange with the B&M. At other times, the local to Beecher Falls operated out of St. J. There was also a time when these locals operated out of Bartlett.

Maine Central on my layout

Although the Maine Central is my favorite railroad and the Mountain Division is what I have always wanted to model, my layout will only partly focus on the MEC and this line. In a clinic I have given about building my layout, I mention that the Mountain Division by itself did not make for a good model railroad for my goals. There are too few industries and not enough trains. My previous layout was partially built when this realization hit me. I knew this layout needed to expand the focus or else change what I wanted to model with the Maine Central.

I decided that most of the action on the Mountain Division was from Whitefield west to St. Johnsbury. The ball signal, paper mill and activity at St. J yard worked once I expanded my design to include the CP, B&M and LVRC.

St. Johnsbury was part of phase 1 of my layout and the MEC track out of the north end of the yard past East St. J and Gilman was built in phase 2, although local track was not laid until later. Phase 3 saw me complete the remaining layout benchwork and build the scenes to depict Whitefield and Crawford Notch, as well as staging for Portland beyond the Notch.