The Eastern Maine Railway Company Limited is a

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

short line railroad owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglomerate

J.D. Irving Limited J.D. Irving Limited (JDI) is a privately owned Conglomerate (company), conglomerate company headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It is a subsidiary of the parent company, Irving Group of Companies, al ...

. Together with its sister company

New Brunswick Southern Railway The New Brunswick Southern Railway Company Limited is a Canadian short line railway owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company Limited, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglo ...

, EMRY and NBSR form a continuous main line connecting Saint John,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

with Brownville Junction,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

in addition to another of branch lines owned and operated by NBSR in Canada. A sister company

Maine Northern Railway The Maine Northern Railway Company Limited is a U.S. and Canadian short line railroad owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglomerate ...

operates a separate 258-mile railway system connecting

Millinocket Millinocket is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,114 at the 2020 census. Millinocket's economy has historically been centered on forest products and recreation, but the paper company closed in 2008. History ...

with Van Buren,

History

EMRY was established as a corporate entity on November 10, 1994 by J.D. Irving Ltd. to purchase the 99.5 mile right of way and physical railway assets of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

's Mattawamkeag Subdivision rail line within the state of

, running from its eastern terminus at the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

, this being the midpoint of the Saint Croix-Vanceboro Railway Bridge at Vanceboro, west to Brownville Junction. Both EMRY and NBSR began operations on January 6, 1995 approximately 1 week after Canadian Pacific Railway abandoned operations of its

Canadian Atlantic Railway The Canadian Atlantic Railway (CAR) was a Canadian and U.S. railway that existed from 1988 to 1994. The CAR was created in September 1988 as a business unit of CP Rail (CPR) to serve the Maritime Provinces and state of Maine. Its creation was ...

(CAR) subsidiary on December 31, 1994. In addition to owning the former CPR tracks in Maine, EMRY was an operating entity for the first several months of existence and had

running rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may co ...

over its sister company NBSR's tracks from the International Boundary east to the yard at McAdam,

. In spring 1995 Irving Transportation Services consolidated its railway operations as Eastern Maine Railway Company Limited came under NBSR operational control.

Route

EMRY's corporate trackage is a continuation of the NBSR mainline at the

International Boundary Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

in Vanceboro, immediately across the St. Croix River from the hamlet of

St. Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...

. From Vanceboro, EMRY's trackage runs 105 miles west to Brownville Junction with a connection along the way to

Pan Am Railways Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR) is a subsidiary of CSX Corporation that operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Rotterdam Junction, New York. Pan Am Railways is primarily made up of former Clas ...

serving southern New England at Mattawamkeag. EMRY connects with the former

Central Maine and Quebec Railway The Central Maine & Québec Railway was a Class II freight railroad operating in the U.S. states of Maine and Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec with headquarters in Bangor, Maine. It was owned by Railroad Acquisition Holdings, LLC, ...

at Brownville Junction, which operates part of the north-south former

Bangor and Aroostook Railroad The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was a United States railroad company that brought rail service to Aroostook County in northern Maine. Brightly-painted BAR boxcars attracted national attention in the 1950s. First-generation diesel locomotives op ...

trackage in Maine, as well as the continuation of the CPR mainline from Brownville Junction west to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. The tracks between Vanceboro and Mattawamkeag were built as part of the

European and North American Railway The European and North American Railway (E&NA) is the name for three historic Canadian and American railways which were built in New Brunswick and Maine. The idea of the E&NA as a single system was conceived at a railway conference in Portland, M ...

which connected

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

with

Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Modern Bangor ...

, opening in 1869. The section west of Mattawamkeag to Brownville Junction was built by the

as part of its

International Railway of Maine The International Railway of Maine was a historic railroad constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) between Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and Mattawamkeag, Maine, closing a key gap in the railway's transcontinental main line to the port of Sa ...

subsidiary, opening in 1889 to connect

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

with Saint John; this line made CPR a transcontinental railway system. The E&NA tracks from Bangor to Vanceboro via Mattawamkeag were leased in the 1870s and purchased in the 1950s by the

Maine Central Railroad The Maine Central Railroad Company was a U. S. Class I 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 w ...

and later purchased in 1974 by CPR. As a portion of the Bangor and Aroostook line from

south through Brownville Junction was not part of MM&A's sale of track to the state, EMRY's track is not contiguous to Irving-operated

(MNRY). In the

Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway was a Class II freight railroad that operated in the U.S. states of Maine and Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec between 2002 and 2014. It was headquartered in Hermon, Maine. Its Canadian subsid ...

bankruptcy auction, EMRY had made a joint bid with Pan-Am's Springfield Terminal Railway for the former MM&A trackage in Maine - a move which could have re-unified the Bangor and Aroostook under Irving's banner. An initial

Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

report that this bid was successful was quickly contradicted by other sources (including the English-language

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

and the

Canadian Press The Canadian Press (CP; french: La Presse canadienne, ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for the time's Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Pre ...

news wire) which indicate all of the former MM&A rails went to

Fortress Investment Group Fortress Investment Group is an American investment management firm based in New York City. Fortress was founded as a private equity firm in 1998 by Wes Edens, Rob Kauffman, and Randal Nardone. When Fortress launched on the NYSE in February 200 ...

subsidiary Railroad Acquisition Holdings. According to a statement from Wayne Power, vice president of J.D. Irving’s transportation and logistics division, "In the end, the trustee went forward with a single buyer of the entire MMA railway line. We look forward to working with Fortress Investment Group of New York as they assume operation of the MMA railway."

Operations

Today most locomotives hauling trains that operate over EMRY are owned and carry the reporting marks of NBSR. Some maintenance of way equipment is owned by EMRY but the majority of the company's assets are the physical tracks and right of way from Vanceboro to Brownville Junction, as well as the running rights in New Brunswick to McAdam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eastern Maine Railway 1995 Maine railroads New Brunswick railways Spin-offs of the Canadian Pacific Railway Companies operating former Canadian Pacific Railway lines Companies operating former Maine Central Railroad lines

History

Route

Operations

See also

References