The Somerset Railroad was built to serve Kennebec River communities and later extended through timberlands to a large wooden

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

destination hotel A resort hotel is a hotel which often contains full-sized luxury facilities with full-service accommodations and amenities. These hotels may attract both business conferences and vacationing tourists and offer more than a convenient place to st ...

Moosehead Lake Moosehead Lake is a deep, coldwater lake located in Piscataquis County in Northwestern Maine. It is the second-largest lake in New England, and the largest mountain lake in the eastern United States. Situated in the mostly undeveloped Longfellow Mo ...

. The railway became part of 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 ...

in 1911; and a portion remained in intermittent operation by

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 Cla ...

until 2013.

History

Somerset Railroad was chartered in 1860 to build north along the Kennebec River from the Maine Central Railroad "back road" at

Oakland, Maine Oakland is a town in Kennebec County, Maine, Kennebec County in the U.S. state of Maine. The population was 6,230 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Oakland is 4 miles (6 km) west of Waterville, Maine, Waterville and approximatel ...

. The line originally shared the Maine Central

Portland gauge , a broad gauge, is the track gauge used in India, Pakistan, western Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Chile, and on BART in San Francisco, United States. In North America, it is called Indian Gauge, Provincial, Portland, or Texas gauge. In Arge ...

of 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm). Construction reached

Norridgewock Norridgewock was the name of both an Indigenous village and a band of the Abenaki ("People of the Dawn") Native Americans/First Nations, an Eastern Algonquian tribe of the United States and Canada. The French of New France called the village Ke ...

in 1873, Madison in 1875, and North Anson in 1877. The company defaulted in 1879 and was reorganized as the standard gauge Somerset Railway in 1884 before construction continued to

Solon Solon ( grc-gre, Σόλων; BC) was an Athenian statesman, constitutional lawmaker and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in Archaic Athens.Aristotle ''Politics'' ...

in 1889 and Bingham in 1890. The reorganized company extended the line to Moosehead Lake in 1906 and built a large resort hotel called the Mount Kineo House. The railroad had fifteen plush upholstered coaches, nine baggage cars, and twelve combination smoking-baggage cars with leather seats in the smoking section. Hotel patrons arrived on through Pullman cars from large eastern cities, and reached the hotel by steamboat from the railroad terminal at Kineo Station. Maine Central railroad purchased the Mount Kineo House with the Somerset Railway; and the railway became the Kineo branch of the Maine Central Railroad in 1911. Aboriginal forests had been converted to lumber and pulpwood before the last passenger train over the branch ran in September, 1933; and the line north of Bingham was dismantled that year. The Mount Kineo House was razed in 1938. Mount Kineo was not the only destination sought by passengers on the Old Somerset Railroad. Many prominent figures of the time, such as

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

and Henry David Thoreau, ventured to Maine's Somerset County in search of wilderness. Lake Moxie Station became the jumping off point for sporting camps and remote destinations north along the current U.S. Route 201 all the way up to The Forks, Lake Parlin, and Upper Enchanted Township. Bingham became an important loading point for pulpwood floated down the Kennebec River to

Wyman Dam Wyman Dam is a hydroelectric dam in Somerset County, Maine. The dam was built in 1930 and connects the southwest corner of the town of Moscow with the southeast corner of Pleasant Ridge Plantation. Owned and operated by NextEra Energy, one of ...

until environmental regulations curtailed

log driving Log driving is a means of moving logs (sawn tree trunks) from a forest to sawmills and pulp mills downstream using the current of a river. It was the main transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe and North America. Histor ...

in the 1970s. The former Madison Paper Industries paper mill at Madison was the last major customer on the branch originating or terminating 3,000 annual carloads in 1973. A portion of the line from Oakland to Madison remained in operation by Pan Am Railways until service was ended in 2013. Access to the remaining section of line from Madison to Embden is gated off at the former Madison Paper Industries mill. Track from Embden to Bingham has been removed but the roadbed remains in use as a rail trail. On June 24, 2021, Pan Am Railways had filed with the Surface Transportation Board to formally abandon the remaining section of line from Oakland to Madison and Embden. On November 30, 2021, The State of Maine announced the acquisition of a 32 mile section of the former rail line from Oakland north to Embden for conversion into a multi-use rail trail. As of July 2022, all remaining track and ties have been removed with the exception of grade crossings covered by asphalt and the bridges.

Railway mileposts

* Milepost 0: Oakland on the Maine Central Back Road; location of railroad shops * Milepost 13:

* Milepost 20.9: Madison paper mill * Milepost 21.3:

Anson Anson may refer to: People * Anson (name), a give name and surname ** Anson family, a British aristocratic family with the surname Place names ;United States * Anson, Indiana * Anson, Kansas * Anson, Maine ** Anson (CDP), Maine * Anson, Missour ...

* Milepost 25.3: North Anson * Milepost 30.4: Embden * Milepost 33.9:

pulp mill, potato house, and corn cannery * Milepost 41: Bingham * Milepost 48.2: Deadwater sawmill * Milepost 52.2: Bald Mountain logging branch * Milepost 60.1: Mosquito * Milepost 64.7: Lake Moxie sawmill * Milepost 85.3: Somerset Junction (with the Canadian Pacific Railway International of Maine Division) * Milepost 91.5: Kineo Station

Early locomotives

References

{{Authority control Defunct Maine railroads Pan Am Railways Predecessors of the Maine Central Railroad Kennebec River Transportation in Kennebec County, Maine Transportation in Piscataquis County, Maine Railway companies established in 1873 Railway companies disestablished in 1911 1870s establishments in Maine 1911 disestablishments in Maine