Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Co. - 1936 dated Railway Stock Certificate

Stock printed by American Bank Note Company. The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, identified by the reporting mark BAR, was a railroad company in the United States that provided rail service to Aroostook County in northern Maine. In the 1950s, the vividly painted BAR box cars garnered significant national attention. First-generation diesel locomotives were in operation on the BAR until they became museum artifacts. The economic decline of the 1980s, along with the exit of heavy industry from northern Maine, compelled the railroad to seek a buyer, ultimately leading to the cessation of operations in 2003. Incorporated in 1891, the company was formed to merge the lines of the former Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad and the Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railway.

Its headquarters were located in Bangor, with lines extending to Oakfield and Houlton by 1894. The railway was further extended from Houlton to Fort Fairfield and Caribou in 1895. A parallel branch line was added from Oakfield to Ashland 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, connecting through Northern Maine Junction to Searsport on Penobscot Bay. The Medford Cutoff from Packard to South Lagrange was finalized in 1907, and a branch was constructed from Millinocket to a new paper mill in East Millinocket. In 1910, rails were extended along the Saint John River from Van Buren through Madawaska and Fort Kent to St. Francis, while Mapleton was linked to Stockholm and Presque Isle on the main line, as well as to Squa Pan on the Ashland branch. An international bridge was built over the Saint John River between Van Buren and St. Leonard, NB in 1915, facilitating connections with the Canadian Pacific Railway and the National Transcontinental Railway, which later merged into the Canadian National Railway.