page_title: Rumford Branch
section_title: Lewiston Branch
hierarchical_section_title: Rumford Branch / History / Lewiston Branch
caption_attribution_description: English: Rangeley Lake
context_page_description: The Maine Central Railroad Rumford Branch is a railroad line in Maine now operated as part of the Pan Am Railways system. The Rumford Branch leaves the mainline at Leeds Junction and continues northwest up the Androscoggin River valley, passing through Livermore Falls and terminating at Rumford. The branch comprises the remaining trackage of three earlier branches:
  The first 20.1 miles are the former Farmington Branch from Crowley's Junction on the Lewiston Branch through Leeds Junction and Livermore Falls to Wilton and Farmington.
  The next 11 miles are the former Livermore Falls Branch from Canton to Livermore Falls.
  The last 16.1 miles are the former Rangeley Branch from Rumford Junction on the Maine Central Back Road through Canton and Rumford to Kennebago north of Rangeley Lake.
  Traffic over the Rangeley branch decreased after adjacent timberlands had been harvested. Summer passenger trains between Oquossoc and Kennebago were replaced in 1933 by a railbus built in the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad shops. The Rangeley branch north of Rumford was abandoned and dismantled following damage in the 1936 flood.
context_section_description: Milepost 0: Brunswick on the Maine Central Lower Road
  Milepost 4.6: Pejepscot Mills
  Milepost 8: Lisbon Falls
  Milepost 11.7: Lisbon
  Milepost 14.8: Crowley's Junction with the Maine Central Farmington Branch
  Milepost 19.6: Lewiston Lower Station
  The Buckfield Branch Railroad was chartered in 1847 to build a Portland gauge railroad to Buckfield from Mechanic Falls on the Grand Trunk Railway.  The railway was completed to Buckfield in 1849 and reorganized as the Portland and Oxford Central Railroad in 1857.  The railway was extended to Canton in 1870 and reorganized as the Rumford Falls and Buckfield Railroad in 1874.  The railway went into receivership in 1878 and was converted to standard gauge.  The railway was reorganized by Hugh J. Chisholm in 1890 as the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway.  The Portland and Rumford Falls Railway was extended north to Rumford Falls in 1892 and south to connect with the Maine Central Railroad at Rumford Junction near Auburn in 1893.  A branch line was completed from Canton to Chisholm in 1897 and extended to a connection with the former Androscoggin Railroad at Livermore Falls in 1899.  The Portland and Rumford Falls Railway chartered a subsidiary Rumford Falls and Rangeley Lakes Railroad in 1894 to access aboriginal forests north of Rumford.  The Rumford Falls and Rangeley lakes reached Oquossoc in 1902.  Maine Central leased the entire line from Rumford Junction to Oquossoc in 1907, and extended it to Kennebago. This line became known as the Rangeley branch when formally merged into the Maine Central in 1914.  The branch from Canton to Livermore Falls was designated the Livermore Falls branch.
caption: Maine Central train at Oquossoc station on the Rangeley branch about 1910.
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