For almost six decades, this now rusted end of old steel rail was, for all intents and purposes, the real "dead end" (or "MP 0.00") of the 33-mile Belfast & Moosehead lake Railroad which had opened in 1870 to provide railroad service from the waterfront town of Belfast, ME, on the Penobscot Bay to the far end of Waldo County were it connected with the Portland-Bangor main line of the Maine Central Railroad at Burnham Junction. For 65 years this piece of rail was embedded in the concrete floor of the two bay engine house built in 1946 in the BML's main yard on the Belfast waterfront where the road's GE 70-ton diesel electric locomotives were parked and serviced at the end of each day's runs. Closed in 2005 when the rails in the yard were pulled up, the engine house sat empty until it was demolished on June 21, 2011, to make way for a 26,500 sq ft, five story boat building and repair facility being built as part of the new Front Street Shipyard which now occupies the plot of land that served as the B&ML's home for 135 years. (Nine images of the actual demolition of the engine house, posted on June 21, 2011, are included in the images of the B&ML in this archive.)

Photographed by Bruce Cooper, July 20, 2011.
Added to the photo archive by Bruce Cooper, July 20, 2011.
Railroad: Belfast & Moosehead Lake.

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