Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad

Spruce forests of the Maine North Woods were a source of pulpwood throughout the 20th century. Trees were bucked into lengths and loaded onto sleds towed by draft animals or log haulers to the nearest river or lake. Log drives would float the pulpwood logs to a downstream paper mill when the snow and ice melted. Pulpwood harvested in the upper Allagash River drainage was destined for Great Northern Paper Company paper mill on the West Branch Penobscot River in Millinocket. The problem was getting the pulpwood out of the north-flowing Allagash River into the east-flowing Penobscot River. Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad During the winter of 1926–27, Édouard Lacroix's Madawaska Company used log haulers to move heavy railway equipment overland from Lac-Frontière, Quebec to Churchill Depot and then over frozen old Eastern Manufacturing’s 9-14 haul road to Eagle Lake. The log haulers delivered one steam locomotive, two Plymouth gasoline-powered switchers, miles of steel rail, and forty five railroad cars for carrying pulpwood. Each railroad car was long with high, slatted sides to hold 12 cords of pulpwood. Three diesel-powered conveyors were built to lift pulpwood logs from Eagle Lake to a height of over a distance of . Each conveyor could fill a railroad car in 18 minutes. Lacroix completed the railroad to a pulpwood-unloading trestle at the north end of Umbazooksus Lake. Lacroix's railroad included a long trestle across the north end of Chamberlain Lake. From June 1st 1927, the rails were laid out to bring gravel for ballasting until the railroad was brought in operation on August 1st 1927. Operations At first, routine operations were carried out twenty-four hours a day, with three trains of ten cars towed by the steam locomotive. While the steam locomotive moved a train loaded with wood, a second string of empty cars was being loaded by conveyor at Eagle Lake, and a third string of cars was being unloaded at the Umbazooksus Lake landing stage. The steam locomotive number 1 purchased in 1927 had been built 1897, and was in poor condition which limited the length of trains. Operations were stopped for a week while all the workers ballasted the tracks to reduce the number of derailments which stalled early operations. Operations resumed with a workday reduced to 15 hours or at least 5 trips. A more powerful steam locomotive number 2 was transported to the site in March 1928. Steam locomotive number 1 was placed in standby service used only when number 2 or one of the switchers required repairs. Steam locomotive number 2 could easily tow fifteen loaded cars with a round trip taking about 3 hours. One Plymouth switcher shunted loading cars at Eagle Lake and the other shunted unloading cars at Umbazooksus Lake. The inland rail of the long pulpwood-unloading pier was higher than the lakeside rail to expedite unloading. The floor of each pulpwood car sloped to the unloading side; and the slatted side of the car was hinged at the top to swing open when latches were released so the pulpwood would slide out of the car into Umbazooksus Lake. Bark breaking off the pulpwood logs accumulated so the Plymouth switcher periodically dragged a rake adjacent to the pier to keep the water deep enough to float the pulpwood logs being dumped. Normal operations transferred 6,500 cords of pulpwood per week Demise Paper demand declined through the Great Depression until pulpwood transfer ceased in 1933 after the railroad had carried nearly a million cords of pulpwood. The engine house became a popular snowmobile destination in the 1960s; and fittings like gauges, bells, headlights, and number plates began to disappear from the locomotives before the wooden cab of engine #1 was destroyed when the engine house burned in 1969. The State of Maine (which took possession of the Allagash Waterway region in 1966) decided to destroy the old buildings for safety reasons and to maintain the natural appearance. In 1969, the Maine Forest Service was ordered to relocate its headquarters and destroy its Forest House and associated buildings in the Tramway area; the employee in charge of the work understood that all the buildings had to be burned, which he did, including the locomotive shed and probably the trestle (which burned at this time). The locomotive boiler jackets and asbestos lagging were removed in 1995 but the stripped locomotive shells remain a unique reminder of the industrial revolution in the Maine North Woods. . ==Locomotives==