The Portland and Rochester Shortline

The imagineering behind the layout.

The time frame is 1961, when the Boston and Maine filed to abandone the line, officials in Sanford and the Maine capitol searched for an operator to take the line. In order to make this sweeter generous tax breaks and incentives were being offered to the operator and any new business or industry that would locate along the line.

Three major industries took the offer and established operations in or near Sanford/Springvale Maine.

Thomas Cement - Established a cement plant between Rochester and Sanford.

Maine Wood and Paper Products - When the Goodall Mills (textile manufacturing) shut down, MWPP renovated the structures in Springvale and expanded to manufacture various paper based products and eventually added additional capacity to include a recycled wood/paper product called Tough Panel (TM) used in the construction of interior walls for stores and businesses in malls and shopping centers.

Eastern Talc The mine was opened due to a rich vein of the material found North of Sanford. It's output was specifically for the paper industry in Maine and Eastern Canada.

Various other existing business took the advatages of breaks to expand including:

LaValley Lumber - Having a Mill north of town they took a step into the building materials supply business and opened a new recieving and distribution facility for brick, block and specialty lumbers. Located in the new Sanford Industrial Park in 1974.

Simpson Fuels - A bulk fuel (Gas, Oil, Propane and Coal) dealer.

Purina - Feed mill for chicken feed.

Alexander Foods - Opened a consolidated bakery food manufacturing plant that produced Potato chips, cookies and other bakery products for new england chain store operator Hannaford Bros. Located in the newly established Sanford Industrial Park in 1974.

Sanford Recycling - Scrap metal recycler.

New England Appliance Mfg - Maker of energy efficient wood stoves, fireplaces and out door grills.

Next time I will discuss the Portland and Rochester Railroad as it developed from 1961 onward to the mid 1970's.

Researching and decision

To start with I am a huge fan of the Maine Central Rail Road (MEC). I have developed and built 3 previous HO scale layouts based on MEC trackage and have been building MEC models since my school years. The most recent layout was based on operations of Brunswick Yard and was in the room that I am building the current layout. Due to compromises I made in the design and several reconstructs I became unhappy with the layout and it came down. I then started analyzing what I really wanted in a layout.

Desires: Interesting scenery, switching with some mainline running, operations based on prototype practices, DCC and sound powered locomotives.

I also looked at doing other rail roads I had always been interested in and a possible change in scale to get longer mainline runs in the space I had for the layout.

Rio Grande - would require N-scale to get the look I wanted -discarded.
Lehigh Valley - Loved the paint schemes - Discarded.

While digging on the Net about Maine Rail Lines I found the Portland and Rochester RR. It ran from Portland ME to Rochester NH. B&M absorbed it in the early 1900's and it was a branch until abandoned in 1961.

What if it was taken over as a shortline instead?

More on that next time.

Added Track Plan

I added the trackplan to the page.

A new start

Hi all! I am going to try a new way of keeping anyone up to date on what is going on in my model railroad empire.

If you have known me over the years I have always been focused on the MEC. I have decided to go with a different approach this time.

The Portland and Rochester RR was a real line running from Rochester NH to Portland ME. It was taken in as a B&M branch and lasted until the early 1960's before being abandoned.

In my world it became a shortline and will survive through today.

More to come on the back ground story.

TTFN