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Blue Ridge & White Mountain (BRWM) History |
In May of 1955, an entrepreneur decided he would create a railroad empire
by owning all of the railroads from New England to the Appalachian Mountains.
This business venture was incorporated as the Blue Ridge and White Mountain
Railroad (BRWM).
The BRWM bought the Portland Terminal railroad from the Boston & Maine (BM) and the Maine Central Railroads (MEC). They commenced operation at Rigby Yard in South Portland, and they also commenced serving the industrial areas of Portland, in the fall of 1955.
Business was good on the BRWM in 1956, and the owners decided that it was time to expand into Mid Coast Maine and establish a coastal route from Portland to Bangor. The BRWM bought the Rockland branch from the MEC in 1956, which included track rights from Portland to Brunswick. The BRWM followed this with the purchase of the Searsport Branch from the BAR, in early 1957. Construction was commenced on new track between Rockland and Searsport in 1957. This new track was finished in the summer of 1958. All of Mid Coast Maine now had rail service. The BRWM followed this construction with the purchase of the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad (BML) in late 1958, which connected Belfast to the MEC lower road at Burnham Jct. The BRWM’s next purchase was the MEC Bingham branch in the spring of 1959 and they now had a connection with the CPR’s International of Maine Division in Somerset.
The summer of 1959 brought changes in philosophy of the BRWM’s owners. The financing for the grand project to connect to the Appalachian Mountains would not obtained, so it was decided to concentrate all efforts in the State of Maine. The name of the railroad was being considered, to reflect this new philosophy.
The purchase of the Bingham branch turned out to be good fortune for the BRWM, as the CPR mainline was severely damaged near Sebec Lake in the fall of 1959 and the CPR and CNR traffic had to be rerouted. This traffic was split along different routes, with the BRWM, the BAR and the MEC picking up come of this traffic.
The BRWM is looking forward to becoming the major rail service in New England. They hope to merge and/or purchase as much of the MEC, BAR and the B&M as they can.
This layout has three staging yards. One is at each end of the lower level and one is located at the end of the upper level. The staging for the lower level makes the lower level a continuous loop. One of the tracks is left open for continuous running. The layout is operated as a point to point layout.
Trains are controlled with Railcommand from CVP Products
Car forwarding is being performed using Ship It Car Cards from Albion Software.
A Fast Clock is being used from GML Enterprises.
Our car forwarding is done with card cards. Car Cards allow for the greatest flexiblility and their use makes the cars on the layout self correcting. The cars will end up at their final destination more easily, without having to use the 0-5-0 method of relocation. No longer does a yardmaster have to hold a train while waiting for that missing car.
You can go to the downloads page for a Power Point Show on how we use the car cards.