Canadian Pacific was the last operator of mainline steam in the state of Maine, and also the last operator of rail passenger services until VIA Rail took over. The yard at Brownville Junction served as a mid-point between Quebec and New Brunswick, also acting as the exchange point with the Bangor and Aroostook. The town of Brownville Junction swelled around the two railroads, being a hive of activity for the movement of pulpwood, finished paper, potatoes, grain and fuel.

To accommodate the needed motive power, there were coaling and watering facilities, not to mention a large roundhouse with a metal shop and an electricians shop. Anything that required service or repair between Megantic and McAdam, whether it involved a broken tamper or butchering an unfortunate moose at trackside, fell to the men at Brownville Junction. Blackflies in the summer, sub-zero temperatures in the winter, and always in the most remote region for the season.

My father-in-law was shop electrician and I heard about it all. Don was fascinated as much with the railroad as he was with what it could do. He was proud of what he contributed to making the Maine link of the CPR efficient and reliable. When my future wife took me home to meet her parents, I tried to share my enthusiasm for the railroad hobby with her “old man.” “Steam locomotives?” He looked at me askance. “Crude machines!” and then he shut down cold. Fortunately, I was not courting him, but his eldest daughter!

On February 11,1955, he coaxed his “little brother” into getting him into the roundhouse

Don’s brother, Fernald Stickney, was more on my side of the big machines. A mechanical engineer by profession and photography enthusiast by avocation, Uncle Fernald saw the final years of steam as entirely worthy of his attention. On February 11,1955, he coaxed his “little brother” into getting him into the roundhouse armed with camera and flash. Mikado #5415 was being treated to a dose of alemite, prior to her next assignment. Sister #5461 had just come off the road, packed hard with the kind of snow gathered on the most recent freight. In the relative warmth of the roundhouse stood a heavy Pacific, while outdoors #2584, probably just off the Greenville to Brownville “Scoot,” came indoor for a little TLC. From the pictures taken on the occasion, it seems evident Uncle Fernald marveled at the machinery his brother viewed as “common place.” The turntable sorting locomotives seemed to greatly impress him.

Back home in New Jersey, a sixteen by twenty print of the man with the alemite gun would win him a prize in a photo contest. Uncle Fernald, my father-in- law Don Stickney, steam locomotives, and passenger service, have all moved into memory. The turntable was pulled in the 1980’s and the roundhouse bulldozed into the remaining pit, along with much of its unneeded contents. The Canadian Pacific Railroad sold the Maine extension to the successors of the Bangor and Aroostook, as well as the New Brunswick Southern. Drained of service work, trains only pass through “the Junction”, and the once vibrant town is as still as the snowpack. Even that is only a trace of what it once was.

Recently, CPR purchased the Central Maine & Quebec, a successor company to the old Bangor & Aroostook.  Having acquired a huge set of rails in Maine, they have also revitalized a small portion of the Brownville Junction yard by constructing a diesel servicing center near where the old CPR roundhouse once stood, and by reducing the shops in Derby, Maine (Milo).   CPR now has several routes to the Atlantic Ocean, including the BAR branch to Searsport, Maine, which runs a few hundred feet from my home.

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Richard Glueck – Photographs and text Copyright 2021