Bangor and Aroostook
F3A number 44 arrives with a wave from the fireman at Mosquito
Mountain on the Searsport branch to rescue an excursion train
pulled by stricken BL2 #54. The photo on the home page shows the
train at Searsport after the rescue. Number 44 has been preserved
and repainted as Central of New Jersey number 57 by the Tri-State
Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Morristown,
New Jersey.
Train ON44 crests the grade at Dyre Brook on it's way south with
woodchips for the paper mill at Millinocket. The center unit in
the locomotive consist is BAR's Bicentennial unit #1776 the
"Jeremia O'Brien".
GP7's number 75 built in 1952 and number 65 bulit in 1950 switch
the yard at Millinocket. These units were painted in these colors
in the late 1970's. The passenger car in the background is an ex
Amtrak coach converted to work train service.
The BAR purchased several EMD SW9 switchers from the Pittsburgh
and Lake Erie in 1973. All but three were resold and operated
only briefly on the BAR. Number 33 shown here was one of the
three that remained and was assigned to Northern Maine Junction.
Number 47 shown here at Northern Maine Jct. in 1962 was one of
eight EMD F3As purchased by the BAR in 1947 and was originally
numbered the 507. Number 47 was wrecked and completely rebuilt in
1973 becoming BAR number 49.
BAR 49 leads an impressive lashup at Oakfield which will power
train ON44 south to Northern Maine Jct. in the summer of 1980.
Number 49 was the only BAR unit to have an oscillating nose light
and one of only two F-units painted in the tri-color scheme.
The Searsport local waits for orders at Searsport yard in the
summer of 1980. Once the paper mills of northern Maine have
ordered the number of carloads of bunker C fuel oil needed that
day, the local will make up it's train and return to Northern
Maine Junction. The unusual yellow second unit is Morrison
Knudsen 5001, a GP7 repowered with an experimental Sulzer engine,
which the BAR was evaluating with an eye toward rebuilding it's
own units in a similar manner. The road chose instead to purchase
second hand GP38's.
BAR 62 is an EMD GP7 and is one of the first batch of 12 geeps
purchased by the BAR in 1950. Here it leads train ON44 south at
Millinocket yard in the summer of 1980. The second unit is BL2
number 557 which was repainted from solid blue and renumbered in
it's as delivered scheme in 1980 and named the "American
Railfan".
BAR EMD GP7s 68 and 75 lead train 211 for Madawaska north through
Smyrna Mills past potato houses and one of the last of the ice
refrigerator cars used to haul potatoes.
BAR 77 is one of only 5 EMD GP9s the BAR owned and was purchased
in 1954. This 1980 photo shows it painted in a very short-lived
variation of the tri-color scheme used from 1974 through 1995.
Prior to 1980 the cabs of all geeps were painted solid orange
with white numbers. Beginning in 1980 cabs were painted orange
above and gray below. The very first few units painted this way
received black numbers; but these were soon repainted white as
were the numbers of all subsequently painted units.
BAR 87 and 83, two EMD GP38s purchased new by the BAR in 1967,
rest in the snow at Northern Maine Jct. Numbers 87 and 88 were
the only BAR geeps purchased new with snow plows. When it snowed
in Maine, BAR's Russel snow plows were usually added to the front
of every train instead of relying on locomotive mounted plows.
The nose of number 87 sports a common winter appliance on the BAR
- a broom to sweep snow from the walkways!
Two of the BAR's unique buggies (as cabooses were known on the
BAR) rest between runs in Oakfield yard. These cars are modified
second hand World War II troop sleeper cars purchased about 1946.
The BAR's buggies were large because train crews often spent
their rest hours between runs in them, because facilities were
limited at the railroad's northern Maine terminals. In the
background are several ex 40' box cars which have been converted
to wood chip gondolas.