Bangor and Aroostook Railroad

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Company—BAR to the timetable crowd—was organized in Maine on February 13, 1891, with its general office in Bangor. It built a rail link into Aroostook County, where distance, winter, and potato country had long made getting products to market a heroic little logistical drama.

Regular trains reached Houlton on January 1, 1894. The route spread northward through communities including Caribou, Van Buren, Fort Kent, and St. Francis, while a southern outlet connected the system to Searsport. Potatoes and paper were the serious business; getting them moving through Maine weather was not a hobby.

BAR’s most enduring look arrived in the postwar era: bright red, white, and blue boxcars promoting “State of Maine Products.” Its heated freight cars helped protect potato shipments, and the railroad also carried paper from Maine mills toward the presses of the wider world. Passenger service ended on September 4, 1961, though BAR-branded bus service continued into 1984.

Ownership changed hands over the decades, including control by Bangor Punta beginning in 1964 and acquisition by Iron Road Railways in 1995. Following bankruptcy in 2002, Rail World acquired the railroad’s assets in January 2003 for its Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway.

Our Bangor and Aroostook Railroad collection celebrates the stubbornly practical railroad that made northern Maine feel a little less remote—one handsome boxcar, frosty potato load, and gloriously old-school BAR stencil at a time.