If you are a history buff, you'll love this photo from 1954 showing a Grand Trunk steam locomotive hauling freight from India Street in Portland on its way west through Maine.

Mike Andrews shared this scan of an old slide he owns in the Facebook group Canadian National/Grand Trunk Berlin (Portland)Division. It's a closed group, but anyone interested in the history of this rail line is welcome to request to join.

Mike Andrews
Mike Andrews
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The Grand Trunk rail line ran for years from the rail yard of India Street, which is now the area of Thames Street near the Ocean Gateway Terminal. Trains traveled around the Eastern Prom, across the now permanently open swing bridge near B&M Baked Beans and up all the way through Maine, New Hampshire and ending in Island Pond, Vermont. Until automobiles became the preferred means of transportation, it served as both a freight and passenger rail line which could take travelers between Portland and Canada.

Today the part of the line between Portland and Lewiston is no longer in use. The India Street yard tracks are gone and the Maine Narrow Gauge railroad operates on the old tracks around the Eastern Prom up to the swing bridge.

This is what the photo above looks like today.

Google Streetview
Google Streetview
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If you want to see more photos of the line in operation over the past 50+ years, request to join the Facebook group by hitting the button below.

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