Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 10 : Fall 2011 | Page 26

Where Our Railroad Lives
by Herbert Pence

Once the Aroostook River valley had its own
railroad. Creatively named “The Aroostook Valley Railroad,”
it meandered 32 miles from Sweden and Caribou south to
Washburn and Presque Isle. It was built mainly to haul
freight, especially the potato harvest. At the same time, the
railroad had an eye on the passenger business. Less known
was its plans to extend west to Quebec Province.

Fifteen years after the last air brake sigh, in 1996, the
railroad is remembered by bits of right-of-way, over which
snowmobiles roar, memories of pennies on the rail and trips
to “Star City” for doctors’ appointments and school. A few
railroad related buildings still stand.

But this article is not about what’s dead on the
AVRR. Rather what is alive. Three hundred and twentyfive miles south of Presque Isle is Kennebunkport. In what
we think of as a town of pink trousers and straw hats, toil
a large group of volunteers, maintaining Maine’s and the
country’s electric railroad history. The Seashore Trolley
Museum is the operating arm of the New England Electric
Railroad Historical Society. Seashore has a collection of
250 old rail cars, buses and service equipment and a self
imposed obligation to protect these items of transportation
history.

Besides protecting these historic gems, Seashore
26 Our Railroad Lives FALL 2011

operates a fleet of vintage streetcars and interurban cars. If
you want a treat, climb aboard yellow, open car No. 303
from Connecticut. It’s 110 years old and runs sprightly
along the tracks, thrilling parents, grandparents and kids.

Let’s return to The Valley and its very own railroad.
Arthur R. Gould had his hand in ‘most everything being
developed locally at the turn of the previous century. It
should come as no surprise that his fingerprints are on the
AVRR, too. Two enterprises linked to create the AVRR.
Mr. Gould owned the Aroostook Lumber Co., which had
vast tracts of forest land. In 1887, Gould organized the
Presque Isle Light Co. The lumber industry needed a way to
get its material to market and electricity was a way to power
it.

At the time, the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad had
a virtual twenty-five year monopoly on freight service in the
county. The State of Maine gave the B&A this privilege so
it would use its resources to open the vast Northern Maine
area to development and commerce. The Canadian Pacific
Railroad had already punched a rail line into the U.S. from
New Brunswick. It was eager to add to its traffic and the
new little railroad was an easy way to do so. Thus, the
Aroostook Valley Railroad became a player in the bigger
companies’ war for business.