The Railroad From Nowhere to Nowhere

Tomorrow we are off to the Northern Wilderness of Maine, some 15 million acres of nothingness. Literally nothingness. Maine is unique in that in the southern part of the state there are towns, but in the Northwest there is nothing. In fact it is all paper company land, even the roads are privately owned by the logging companies where trucks are not limited by weight limits or size...it is their road they are on after all.

Back in the 1930's, a logger needed to get wood to the mills in the south of the state, but the river ran North, and back then wood moved by river! So he built a railroad from nowhere to nowhere. It literally picked up wood from one lake, then ran it a few miles overland, and dumped it into another lake which water ran south.

It was so remote, that the trains came in over iced roads from Quebec, the closest town. But after only a few years, the logging slowed due to the depression, the locomotives were obsolete, so they were just left where they were parked. Tomorrow Katie and I, and our (4) daughters are headed to see them. It is a 5 hour trip, with 3 being on remote logging roads. The it is an hour hike to the trains sitting in the middle of the woods.

Along the way we will go by many streams, lakes, the famous Rippogenous Dam, and miles upon miles of logging roads. It should be a fun family hiking trip in Maine.

I found an article about those trains in the woods, and some pictures of them so people can see what awaits of our family adventure.

It will be neat to tell the kids about who, what, when, where, why and how this tiny railroad happened. And if nothing else, to let the fine members of Permies Forums also in on this little know railroading secret.

Pictures of Trains in Woods

This is a nice video on the adventure. It was made by a Permiculturist-Type of Person so it is a nice video, and shows some of the rugged terrain we are headed into. I know many people do not take video links, but I watched this one, and think many of you who might like go to Maine sometime, or just like Maine, might like to see it.

Well we went and saw the Trains in the Woods as a family.

I will say that it is something that has to be experienced to understand. I can, and will, give you the numbers, but driving on 100 miles of isolated logging roads has to be done to get a sense of how isolated, and how massive these trains are.

We drove for 88 miles on state roads before we entered the Great North Woods where all the roads are private, logging roads. We also stopped for some sights like Rippogenious Dam which was just vibrating from the plume of water coming off the log flume. It has a great view of Chesuncook Lake, and the Lower Penobscot Gorege.

From there we drove another 72 miles on logging roads to get to the parking area for the trains, which was 160 miles from our home. After that, we hiked about a mile to the trains parked in the middle of the woods. The other ways to get there are by float plane, or by paddling up the Allagash Wilderness Waterway; a 7 day paddle.

After visiting the Trains and Log Tramway, we headed back to Millinocket, the closest town, 72 miles away. Along the way, despite having bought (4) new tires the day before, we put a rock through the tire. Luckily we made it to the Telos Checkpoint where they had a Generator, Compressor and Tire Plugs to fix our tire. There were so nice that I did not ask them to help fix the loud muffler we had from where a rock dislodged the exhaust just before the muffler.

Having now been out for 12 hours, we got a hotel room in Millinockett and let the kids swim in the pool most of the evening. Unfortunately Katie had to get home because her Grandmother had two emergency brain surgrys for bleeding on the brain, so we headed home, and got home today at 11 AM...339 miles later!

It was a lot of fun though, and well worth the effort to get there!

I LOVE TRAINS! And to find them in the woods. Awesome!

Mandy Launchbury-Rainey wrote:I LOVE TRAINS! And to find them in the woods. Awesome!

I like trains too, I am a former railroader myself, along with my maternal side of my family.

This place is absolutely crazy. You really have to see the amount of massive steel they had to haul in to make a fully operational railroad, and tramway work. When it was running, it took so many people that the town of Tramway, Maine was so big, they had a semi-pro baseball team. Of course, 90 years later there is nothing but tracks, old foundations, and causeways out into the lakes.

You see, I have never had any desire to visit the states but now I am thinking...Maine....