This aerial image (from a USGS Digital Ortho Quarter Quad) is of the joint B&ML/MEC Yard at Burnham Junction, ME, and shows how the junction between the two railroads appears today. The MEC operated the B&ML's 33 miles of track as its "Belfast Branch" under lease for 55 years (1871-December 31, 1925). On January 1, 1926, the road then started to operate under its own name -- the Belfast & Moosehead Lake RR -- for the first time. For almost 90 years (1871-1960) passengers and mail from throughout Waldo County changed trains here between the B&ML and the MEC, and for 135 years freight was passed back and forth between the two lines on the Junction's exchange tracks. The station house, long covered passenger platform, freight house, locomotive water tank, section house, post office, and all the other facilities once here are now long gone, however, with only the tracks and switches still left. The large building to the right (in the area where the B&ML's steam locomotive water tower and section house once stood) is the former Ethan Allen furniture factory which closed in 1990. The plant was later purchased by PrIde Manufacturing Co.

Photographed by USGS (Graphic Created By Bruce C. Cooper, DigitalImageServices.com), 2005.
Added to the photo archive by Bruce Cooper, August 2, 2005.
Railroad: Belfast & Moosehead Lake.

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