Twenty seven years can certainly change things when talking about the timeline of railroads! Many have come and gone in this amount of years, and the state of Maine has been no exception to this. In 1993, the original Bangor and Aroostook lost it's independence and was purchased by the Iron Roads family of rail lines. Two years later, Canadian Pacific basically sold off everything in Eastern Canada, including it's International of Maine route between Quebec and New Brunswick. Within a couple years, two of Maine's most storied railroads were history. Over the ensuing 25 years, players such as Montreal, Maine & Atlantic and The Irving family burst on the scene or went out in tragedy. Jump ahead to 2014, and the Central Maine & Quebec Railway was born out of the Lac-Megantic disaster involving MMA. Many people thought CMQ wouldn't amount to much considering it was the Fortress Investment Group who was making all the promises of better physical plant and no more crude-type materials running over their system. Five years later in 2019, promises had become reality. Speeds were up system wide with car counts also up in several categories. By the end of the year, things culminated with an offer to buy CMQ from an old "friend". Into the room stepped Canadian Pacific! Included in the sale would be the South end of the original BAR, including the Searsport Branch. While a reunion of sorts, CP never operated any parts of BAR. Seeing CP power in BAR haunts will take some time to get used to! All signs are pointing to approval happening by mid June......On May 7th, 2020, CMQ's train #211 was returning home after hours of work along the shoreline. The sun came out on GP38-3 3812 seconds before it rolled over the curved bridge above Loggin Road in Frankfort, Maine. The low sun was rather symbolic, like a proper sunset on CMQ as a whole just a month ahead of CP's estimated takeover.
