The Andover and Wilmington Railroad was incorporated March 15, 1833, to build a branch from the
Boston and Lowell Railroad at
Wilmington, Massachusetts, north to
Andover, Massachusetts. The line opened to Andover on August 8, 1836. The name was changed to the Andover and Haverhill Railroad on April 18, 1837, reflecting plans to build further to
Haverhill, Massachusetts (opened later that year), and yet further to
Portland,
Maine, with renaming to the Boston and Portland Railroad on April 3, 1839, opening to the New Hampshire state line in 1840. The Boston and Maine Railroad was chartered in
New Hampshire on June 27, 1835, and the Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Railroad was incorporated March 12, 1839, in
Maine, both companies continuing the proposed line to
South Berwick, Maine. The railroad opened in 1840 to
Exeter,
New Hampshire, and on January 1, 1842, the two companies merged with the Boston and Portland to form a new Boston and Maine Railroad. of
0-4-0 Achilles,
Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1871 On February 23, 1843, the B&M opened to
Agamenticus, on the line of the
Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad in South Berwick. On January 28 of that year, the B&M and
Eastern Railroad came to an agreement to both lease the PS&P as a joint line to
Portland. The Boston and Maine Railroad Extension was incorporated on March 16, 1844, due to a dispute with the
Boston and Lowell Railroad over
trackage rights rates between Wilmington and Boston. That company was merged into the main B&M on March 19, 1845, and opened on July 1, leading to the abandonment of the old connection to the B&L (later reused by the B&L for its
Wildcat Branch). In 1848, another original section was abandoned, as a new alignment was built from Wilmington north to
North Andover, Massachusetts in order to better serve
Lawrence, Massachusetts. A new alignment to Portland opened in 1873, splitting from the old route at
South Berwick, Maine. The old route remained a part of the
Eastern Railroad's Main Line (described below). This completed the B&M "main line", which would become known as the Western Route Main Line.
Acquisitions As the B&M grew, it also gained control of former rivals, including:
Eastern On March 28, 1883, the boards of directors of B&M and the
Eastern Railroad Company voted to ratify the proposition that Eastern Railroad would be leased by B&M. However, a disagreement about the wording of the contract delayed its execution until December 2, 1884. On May 9, 1890, B&M purchased Eastern Railroad outright. This provided a second route to Maine, ending competition along the immediate route between Boston and Portland. Along with the Eastern, the B&M also acquired many branch lines, including the
Conway Branch, the
Saugus Branch, the
South Reading Branch, and branches to
Marblehead and
Rockport, Massachusetts.
Worcester, Nashua and Portland , . , . The Worcester and Nashua Railroad was organized in 1845 (opened 1848) and the Nashua and Rochester Railroad in 1847, forming a line between
Worcester,
Massachusetts, and
Rochester,
New Hampshire, via
Nashua. The W&N leased the N&R in 1874, and the two companies merged into the
Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroad in 1883. The B&M leased the line on January 1, 1886. This acquisition also included the continuation from Rochester to
Portland,
Maine, incorporated in 1846 as the
York and Cumberland Railroad. It opened partially in 1851 and 1853, was reorganized as the
Portland and Rochester Railroad in 1867, and opened the rest of the way in 1871. It was again reorganized in 1881 and then operated in conjunction with the line to Worcester.
Boston and Lowell On April 1, 1887, the B&M leased the
Boston and Lowell Railroad, adding not only trackage in the
Boston area, but also the
Central Massachusetts Railroad west to
Northampton, the
Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad into northern
New Hampshire, the
St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad to northwestern
Vermont, and the
Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad from
White River Junction into
Quebec. However, the BC&M was separated in 1889 and merged with the
Concord Railroad to form the
Concord and Montreal Railroad, which the B&M leased on April 1, 1895, gaining the Concord Railroad's direct line between
Nashua and
Concord. Additionally, the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad, owned by the B&M through stock, was leased to the
Maine Central Railroad by 1912. The
Central Massachusetts Railroad stayed a part of the B&M, as did the
Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad (as the Passumpsic Division).
Northern , about 1916The
Northern Railroad was leased to the Boston and Lowell in 1884, but that lease was canceled and the Northern was on its own until 1890, when it was re-leased to the B&L, then part of the B&M. The Northern owned a number of lines running west from
Concord.
Connecticut River On January 1, 1893, the B&M leased the
Connecticut River Railroad, with the main line from
Springfield, Massachusetts north along the
Connecticut River to
White River Junction, Vermont, where the
Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad (acquired in 1887) continued north. Along with this railroad came the Ashuelot Railroad, which had been acquired in 1877.
Concord and Montreal The B&M acquired the
Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad in 1887, but gave it up in 1889, allowing it to merge with the
Concord Railroad to form the
Concord and Montreal Railroad. That company did poorly on its own and was leased by the B&M on April 1, 1895, giving the B&M the majority of lines in
New Hampshire.
Fitchburg , about 1910. This station still exists. The B&M leased the
Fitchburg Railroad on July 1, 1900. This was primarily the main line from Boston west via the
Hoosac Tunnel to the
Albany, New York, area, with various branches. On December 1, 1919, the B&M purchased the Fitchburg Railroad. At one point, the B&M also owned a majority of stock of the
Maine Central Railroad, stretching from
Quebec via northern
New Hampshire to southern and eastern
Maine.
20th century The B&M flourished with the growth of New England's mill towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but still faced financial struggles. It came under the control of
J. P. Morgan and his
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad around 1910, but anti-trust forces wrested control back. Later, it faced heavy debt problems from track construction and from the cost of acquiring the
Fitchburg Railroad, causing a corporate reorganization in 1919. Beginning in the 1930s, freight business was hurt by the leveling-off of New England manufacturing growth and by new competition from trucking. In 1925, B&M reported 2956 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 740 million passenger-miles; at the end of the year it operated 2291 route-miles, including "42.85 miles of electric street railway". (Those totals do not include B&C, M&WR, StJ&LC or YH&B.) The B&M's most traveled and well known passenger trains included the
Alouette,
Ambassador,
Cheshire,
Day White Mountains,
East Wind,
Green Mountain Flyer,
Gull,
Kennebec,
Minute Man,
Montrealer/
Washingtonian,
Mountaineer,
Pine Tree,
Red Wing, and
State of Maine. The B&M even promoted its passenger trains with the
Timetable Marble radio advertisement. However, the popularization of the
automobile doomed B&M as a passenger carrier.
Passenger service cuts ) near its maximum extent After steady growth from 1901 to 1913, passenger rail ridership around Boston peaked in 1920 and began to decline due to competition from private automobiles and service cuts during World War I. In the mid-1920s, after several difficult years, the B&M discontinued service on some marginal lines and began using small self-propelled railcars on others. (Portland continued to see service to Boston on the Western Route through
Dover, New Hampshire.) The New York–Montreal
Green Mountain Flyer/
Mount Royal, which had Boston sections running on the B&M via Bellows Falls, ended when the
Rutland Railroad discontinued all passenger service, in 1953. Long rural lines to
North Conway and
Berlin, New Hampshire were cut on December 3, 1961. After out-of-district communities agreed to subsidies, service was re-extended to , , , and on June 28. On June 30, 1967, the Concord trip was cut to Lowell, and the Dover trip to . The four routes with single daily round-trips slowly ended: South Sudbury on November 26, 1971; Newburyport in April 1976; Haverhill in June 1976; and Bedford on January 10, 1977. (However, Haverhill service was restored by
MVRTA subsidy in 1979.)
Incidents A number of accidents and
train wrecks occurred during the railroad's history; various examples of incidents that were reported in local or regional newspapers follow. All equipment involved was Boston & Maine, unless noted as a third party. On November 26, 1905, an express train
rear-ended a local passenger train in
Lincoln, Massachusetts, resulting in the deaths of 15 passengers and two railroad employees. On October 4, 1906, a military special train rear-ended a stopped passenger train at
Lansingburgh, New York, resulting in the deaths of five people on the passenger train; a sixth died later in hospital. On September 15, 1907,
a significant wreck occurred near
Canaan, New Hampshire. west of Canaan Station, the southbound Quebec to Boston express, crowded with passengers returning from the
Sherbrooke Fair, collided head-on with a northbound
freight train. The accident claimed 26 lives, and 17 others were seriously injured. The accident was found to be due to a mistake made by a dispatcher, who mis-identified a train in one of his communications. On October 2, 1907, a passenger train and a freight train suffered a head-on collision in
Worcester, Massachusetts, at Barber's Crossing. On March 20, 1908, two freight trains had a head-on collision approximately south of
Haverhill, New Hampshire, resulting in the deaths of four crew members. On September 21, 1909, near the Pattee station in the West Canaan village of Canaan, New Hampshire, the Montreal Express had a
rear-end collision with the Quebec Express. The Quebec Express had trouble maintaining speed and failed to adequately warn the Montreal Express. On September 10, 1918, a passenger train was rear-ended by a freight train in
Dummerston, Vermont, killing three passengers and injuring 25 others. On August 19, 1949, a switching error in Canaan, New Hampshire, resulted in the head-on collision between the northbound and southbound editions of the
Ambassador, which provided passenger service between Boston and Montreal. There were no fatalities, but 44 people were injured. On November 12, 1954, the Boston-bound
Red Wing passenger train overturned in
Nashua, New Hampshire, resulting in the death of one woman and injuring 19 other people. Crew members stated that a braking failure led to the crash; it was the first fatal accident for the railroad since 1918. On February 28, 1956,
a stopped local train was rear-ended by a
Buddliner in
Swampscott, Massachusetts, resulting in the deaths of 11 passengers and two crew members. On August 17, 1964, two Buddliners suffered a head-on collision in
Winchester, Massachusetts, injuring 30 people. On December 28, 1966, a Buddliner
collided with a stalled oil truck owned by Oxbow Transport Corporation at a crossing in
Everett, Massachusetts; the ensuing fire claimed the lives of 11 passengers and two crew members. On February 21, 1967, a commuter train hit a car on a crossing in
Chelsea, Massachusetts, killing two women and injuring three others. ==Named passenger trains==