Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Co. - 1896 dated Maine Railway Stock Certificate

Stock certificate. Quite Rare Type! Bangor Pub. Co. The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, recognized by the reporting mark BAR, was a railroad company in the United States that served Aroostook County in northern Maine. During the 1950s, the brightly painted BAR boxcars attracted considerable national interest. First-generation diesel locomotives operated on the BAR until they were retired as museum pieces. The economic downturn of the 1980s, coupled with the departure of heavy industry from northern Maine, forced the railroad to look for a buyer, ultimately resulting in the suspension of operations in 2003. Established in 1891, the company was created through the merger of the former Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad and the Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railway. The headquarters were situated in Bangor, with rail lines reaching Oakfield and Houlton by 1894.

The railway was further extended from Houlton to Fort Fairfield and Caribou in 1895. A parallel branch line from Oakfield to Ashland was added in 1896, followed by a branch from Caribou to Limestone in 1897, and the main line was extended from Caribou to Van Buren in 1899. The Ashland Branch reached Fort Kent in 1902. A southern extension was completed in 1905, linking through Northern Maine Junction to Searsport on Penobscot Bay. The Medford Cutoff from Packard to South Lagrange was completed in 1907, and a branch was built from Millinocket to a new paper mill in East Millinocket. In 1910, the rails were extended along the Saint John River from Van Buren through Madawaska and Fort Kent to St. Francis, while Mapleton was connected to Stockholm and Presque Isle on the main line, as well as to Squa Pan on the Ashland branch. An international bridge was constructed over the Saint John River between Van Buren and St. Leonard, NB in 1915, enabling connections with the Canadian Pacific Railway and the National Transcontinental Railway, which later merged into the Canadian National Railway.