| Portland Railroad Company | |
|---|---|
 Portland Railroad Company cars in Monument Square around 1909. From left to right, the three cars closest to the camera are running the Union Station-to-Grand Trunk Station route, the Deering route, and the Union Station-to-Munjoy Hill route | |
| Operation | |
| Locale | Portland, Maine |
| Open | 1860 |
| Close | 1941 |
| Status | Closed |
| Owner(s) | Portland Railroad Company |
Portland Railroad Company (PRR) was a trolleycar service that operated in Portland, Maine, between 1860 and 1941. [1]
Portland & Forest Avenue Railroad Company (PFRC) was chartered in 1860 with the intent to build a streetcar line from Portland's Grand Trunk station on India Street. Construction was delayed by the American Civil War, but used rail was obtained from New Brunswick in 1863 to complete a line from India Street along Middle Street, to the main hub at Monument Square. From there, they traveled west along Congress Street, and then down High Street, and west along Spring Street to Clark Street, Pine Street and Congress Street, then back east along Congress Street to High Street. Service with horse-drawn streetcars began on October 12, 1863. In 1864, an adjoining line was built along Preble Street from Monument Square, then along Portland Street (today's Park Avenue) and Forest Avenue to Woodfords Corner. [2] This line was later extended to Morrills Corner along Pleasant Avenue and Stevens Avenue. Lines along Congress Street were extended westward to Longfellow Square and eastward to Atlantic Street on Munjoy Hill. Horse-drawn sleighs were substituted for rail cars when snow and ice covered the streets during winter months to avoid ice removal inconveniencing other horse-drawn sleighs. [3]
The company's name was shortened to the Portland Railroad Company (PRR) in 1865. The Congress Street line was extended past Union Station to Stroudwater Village. A new line was built from Woodfords Corner through Lunts Corner to East Deering. Additional lines were constructed along Commercial Street and Pearl Street from the Grand Trunk station to Congress Street. The Portland Railroad Company extended service through Westbrook (via Forest Avenue, Woodfords Corner and Evergreen Cemetery on Stevens Avenue, initially, then to Morrills Corner) to South Windham and Gorham by acquisition of the Westbrook, Windham & Naples Railway. Connection with the Lewiston, Augusta & Waterville Street Railway at Yarmouth was made by acquisition of the Portland & Yarmouth Electric Railway through Falmouth Foreside and Cumberland Foreside. A planned connection with the Biddeford & Saco Railway was begun by the acquisition of the Portland & Cape Elizabeth Railway, but the route through South Portland to Old Orchard and Saco seemingly never came to fruition. Back in downtown Portland, a section of line was constructed along Congress Street to Atlantic Street on Munjoy Hill. In 1890, the line was extended through Wilson Street and Beckett Street to Fort Allen Park on the Eastern Promenade, [4] bringing the total line mileage to 14.9 miles (24.0 km). A large carhouse was built on Beckett Street. [5]
By 1874, PRR owned 26 trolleycars and 82 horses. Carhouses and stables were in existence at the corner of Spring Street and Clark Street by 1877. Thirteen years later, PRR owned fifty cars and 225 horses. [5]
In 1882, another expansion occurred, taking in the wharves along Commercial Street after departing India Street. The trolleycars then turned onto Pearl Street and back to Middle Street. A line was also built. by the Ocean Street Railroad, from Morrills Corner along Ocean Avenue to Lunts Corner on Washington Avenue. The line was not profitable and was taken over by PRR in 1885 (electrified in 1896). [6]
Tracks were extended in 1887 from Clark Street, along Spring Street to Neal Street, Carroll Street, Vaughn Street and Bramhall Street in the city's Western Promenade, before connecting back to Congress Street at Bramhall Square. [6]
Portland's Union Station was opened on St. John Street in June 1888, shortly after which PRR extended tracks from Longfellow Square along St. John Street to Railroad Square. Another extension occurred to Bradley's Corner (between the Libbytown and Rosemont neighborhoods), bringing the mileage of the line to 15.7 miles (25.3 km). [5] [6]
From 1914 to 1933, the Portland–Lewiston Interurban entered Portland via the Portland Railroad line from Morrills Corner. [3]
Electrification through overhead wires began in the late 19th century, starting with the Deering line. Route changes included bypassing steam railroad grade crossings on Parris Street and Kennebec Street in Portland's Bayside neighborhood by extending PRR's tracks on Portland Street to Forest Avenue, then to the corner of Kennebec Street. The first electric trolleycar began service between Morrills Corner and Woodfords Corner in June 1891. PRR staved off competition from the Portland & Westbrook Street Railway to provide service to Westbrook. [5]
In 1894, a short extension was made from Lunts Corner to East Deering post office via Washington Avenue, followed by an extension from Fort Allen Park through Morning Street to Congress Street, then along Congress to complete a loop to Atlantic Avenue. On the Stroudwater line, rails were laid west from Railroad Square on St. John Street to today's Park Avenue, passing beneath Maine Central Railroad's trestle bridge, then along Park Avenue to connect to the existing line at Congress Street. [5]
The last horse-drawn car ran in December 1895, [6] by which point there was 21.67 miles (34.87 km) of single-track lines.
Increasing automobile ownership made electric railway travel less convenient through the 1920s. The lines to Yarmouth, Gorham, South Windham, Old Orchard, and Saco were abandoned between 1931 and 1933. The remaining system operated as a city traction system until a major service contraction in 1939 and complete replacement by buses in the spring of 1941. [3]
For many years, the trolleycars were painted different colors, relating to the line (later, the division) on which they operated: [3]
A single paint scheme of a red body with white and blue trim was adopted around 1920. [3]
Westbrook is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States and a suburb of Portland. The population was 20,400 at the 2020 census, making it the fastest-growing city in Maine between 2010 and 2020. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.
Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the coast of Maine in the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's chart for Casco Bay marks the dividing line between the bay and the Gulf of Maine as running from Bald Head on Cape Small in Phippsburg west-southwest to Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth. The city of Portland and the Port of Portland are on Casco Bay's western edge.
Munjoy Hill is a neighborhood and prominent geographical feature of Portland, Maine. It is located east of downtown and south of East Deering, the neighborhood via Tukey's Bridge. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the neighborhood had a large Irish and Italian American population.
State Route 25 (SR 25) is part of the system of numbered highways in Maine. It runs for 42.4 miles (68.2 km) across the south central part of the state. SR 25 begins at the New Hampshire border near Porter, where it continues west as New Hampshire Route 25 (NH 25). Its eastern terminus is in downtown Portland at the intersection of Park Avenue and State Street. Administratively, it shares a terminus with SR 22 and SR 77.
The Presumpscot River is a 25.8-mile-long (41.5 km) river located in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is the main outlet of Sebago Lake. The river provided an early transportation corridor with reliable water power for industrial development of the city of Westbrook and the village of South Windham.
The railroad history of Portland, Maine, began in 1842 with the arrival of the Portland, Saco & Portsmouth Railroad (PS&P). Most of the rail activity in Portland concerned agricultural goods bound for export and European import freight. But Maine's largest city also enjoyed 125 years of continuous passenger rail service from 1842 until 1967, and has been served by Amtrak since 2001. For most of Portland's history, passenger train schedules were designed with intercity travel—to Boston, Montreal, Nova Scotia, and points west—rather than daily commuting.
The Mountain Division is a railroad line that was once owned and operated by the Maine Central Railroad (MEC). It stretches from Portland, Maine on the Atlantic Ocean, through the Western Maine Mountains and White Mountains of New Hampshire, ending at St. Johnsbury, Vermont in the Northeast Kingdom. The line was abandoned in 1983 by MEC's successor, Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI). Guilford retained a stub between Portland and Westbrook. A section in New Hampshire remains in use by heritage railway Conway Scenic Railroad.
Yarmouth station of Yarmouth, Maine, is located on the east side of the railroad tracks, just south of Maine State Route 115, the town's Main Street. The railroad station was built in 1906 by the Grand Trunk Railroad, and is a well-preserved example of an early 20th-century passenger rail depot, an increasingly rare sight in the state. The building, which is now in commercial use, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 10, 1979.
The Greater Portland METRO is a regional public transportation system, established in 1966, in Southern Maine. Operated by the Greater Portland Transit District, a transit district comprising Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Freeport, and Brunswick, the system also covers Gorham and The Maine Mall portion of South Portland.
Portland, Maine, is home to many neighborhoods.
Congress Street is the main street in Portland, Maine. Around 5.77 miles (9.29 km) long, it stretches from County Road, Portland's southwestern border with Westbrook, through a number of neighborhoods, before ending overlooking the Eastern Promenade on Munjoy Hill. In March 2009, the Portland City Council designated much of the inner portion of Congress Street a historic district. The western section of the street includes the city's Arts District.
Stroudwater Historic District is a historic district in the Stroudwater neighborhood of Portland, Maine. The district encompasses an important early village in the Portland area, significant as a shipbuilding and mill site established by Thomas Westbrook in 1727. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, twelve miles north of the state's largest city, Portland. When originally settled in 1636, as North Yarmouth, it was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and remained part of its subsequent incarnations for 213 years. In 1849, twenty-nine years after Maine's admittance to the Union as the twenty-third state, it was incorporated as the Town of Yarmouth.
Forest Avenue is a major street in Portland, Maine, United States. It runs for around 4.78 miles (7.69 km), from Bridgton Road in the northwest to Congress Street, in downtown Portland, in the southeast. It is the main artery for traffic entering and leaving Portland to and from the west via city streets. Forest Avenue passes to the south of Back Cove, while Washington Avenue passes to its north. The street ends in Portland's Arts District.
Yarmouth Junction station was a passenger rail station in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It stood to the west of East Elm Street at Depot Road, at the junction of the former Grand Trunk Railway and the Maine Central Railroad, around 0.9 miles (1.4 km) north of the town's Railroad Square, where today's 1906-built Grand Trunk station stands. The Amtrak Downeaster utilizes the former Maine Central Railroad line, which passes to the northwest of town. The Yarmouth Junction station building is now gone, but the junction itself is still active.
Portland and Yarmouth Electric Railway was an electric trolleycar service that ran along the coast between Portland and Yarmouth, Maine, from 1898 and 1933. Described in 1901 as the "new electric road", Yarmouth was "now a closer neighbor [to Portland] than ever before" because of the railway's advent.
The Metro Breez is an express bus service in Southern Maine, United States, provided by Greater Portland Metro. It runs thirteen times on weekdays and six times on Saturdays between Portland, the state's largest city, and Brunswick, around 30 miles (48 km) to the northeast, with stops in Yarmouth and Freeport.
Portland station was a passenger rail station on the Grand Trunk Railway in Portland, Maine, United States. It stood to at the foot of India Street, Portland's first street, between 1903 and 1966. It was one of Portland's four railroad stations for the Portland and Forest Avenue Railroad Company over its history, and one of the two stations in the city at the time of the station's construction. The other was Union Station, which has also been demolished.
Stevens Avenue is a major street in the Deering neighborhood of Portland, Maine, United States. Part of Maine State Route 9 from Woodford Street southward, it runs for around 2 miles (3.2 km) from Forest Avenue, at Morrill's Corner, in the north to Outer Congress Street in the south. Stevens Avenue passes to the west of Woodfords Corner. Between Morrills Corner and Woodfords Corner, Stevens Avenue is linked to Forest Avenue by several side streets.
Morrills Corner is a neighborhood and major intersection in Portland, Maine, United States. Centered around the intersections of Forest Avenue, Allen Avenue and Stevens Avenue. It was once home to some of the oldest families in what was the city of Deering.