Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad Back?

Chop Hardenbergh reported in his newsletter that the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad (BML) may soon be running again. The article in the Bangor Daily News says the Brooks Preservation Society has signed a four-year lease with the state of Maine for the rail corridor between Waldo and Burnham Junction. The article says the Brooks Preservation Society "recently purchased B&ML diesel locomotives Nos. 50 and 53, along with two coaches and an open air car". They also have plans to operate velocipede runs, and possibly freight traffic.

Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad Equipment For Sale

The home page of RailMerchants.net has a bunch of B&ML equipment for sale. For example, their steam engine is listed for $175,000, the RDC is listed for $165,000 and the passenger cars are listed for $10,000 to $55,000. (PDF)

There's a story about it at the Waldo County Citizen.

A real shame.

Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad Closing Down

Press release

Regretfully, the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad aka the Unity Train Museum in Maine is shutting its doors. The current management took over the operation in 2005 and had two losing years before deciding to give up.

I am glad I visited it last August. Too bad for them.

The Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad

I had a brief visit to the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad in Unity, Maine this past Sunday, August 26. I wasn't able to see anything moving, but I walked around the grounds and had a good chat with one of the volunteers there.


The station above has a ticket office to the left, and a little museum in the rest of the building. The volunteer told me that the items in the museum are on loan. It's a work in progress.


The steam engine is out of service, so they are using a 70-ton diesel to pull the train. Here's the steam engine by the turntable.


There are more photos in my tourist railroad photo gallery.

There is a great article on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad here that goes into the BML's history in great detail.