Bangor & Aroostook Steam Roster (Post 1900)

Last revised: September 18, 2026

The Bangor & Aroostook never needed a trunk-line engine. Potatoes peaked in winter. Paper and pulpwood ran south to the Maine Central at Northern Maine Junction and to tidewater at Searsport. The worst grades were the watershed between Millinocket and Brownville. Manchester Ten-Wheelers did the everyday work. Alco Consolidations dragged the extras. Ten home-road Mountains and five small 1927 Pacifics were as modern as the roster got.

George H. Drury, in Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, is a good start when discussing the railroad's steam fleet. An Electro-Motive F3 demonstrator worked freight and passenger trains in July 1946; a three-unit diesel pulled almost twice what the 4-8-2s could, and two units on a passenger train burned about a gallon a mile. By 1949 the railroad was dieselized except for winter peaks. Last steam was Pacific 251 on trains 9 and 12, Derby to Greenville, July 22, 1951. The table below is Drury’s post-1900 class grid.

Bangor and Aroostook 4-4-0 213 Class K at Derby Maine on August 5 1930

Bangor & Aroostook 4-4-0 #213 (Class K) at Derby, Maine, on August 5, 1930. Manchester Locomotive Works, August 1893, construction number 1595. Sold September 1936 to the Belfast & Moosehead Lake as that road’s second #16. The post-1900 class table starts with engines built, or rebuilt at Derby, from 1900 on; this American is the shop town in steam.

On this page: At a glance · Consolidations and Mountains · Ten-Wheelers and Pacifics · Switchers · July 22, 1951 · All-time roster (built since 1900)

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Bangor & Aroostook. Mark BAR. Company Bangor & Aroostook
This roster	Classes built since 1900, after Drury, pages 80–81. Pre-1900 Americans and Moguls in the narrative. Photo: Class K #213, 1893
Map	Brownville north into Aroostook County; Van Buren on the border; Searsport 1905. Interchange with Maine Central at Northern Maine Junction. Bangor–Van Buren 236 miles
Everyday power	Manchester (Alco) 4-6-0s. C-1 and F-1 on passenger until 1927; D-1, D-2a, D-3, Ea on mixed and freight
Heavy freight	Rhode Island GA 170–172 (1907, ordered for the Pittsburgh, Binghamton & Eastern); sixteen Schenectady G 180–195 (1914–24); G-2 400–405 (1937 and 1945)
Pacifics	Five class F, 250–254, Schenectady 1927. 237,000 lb. 69-inch drivers. Aroostook Flyer and Potatoland Special
Mountains	Ten class M, 100–109, Alco 1929–45. 315,300 lb. 63-inch drivers, 49,200 lb tractive effort. Five ex-NYO&W M-1s, 120–124
Last steam	Pacific 251, trains 9 and 12, Derby–Greenville, July 22, 1951. Last scrap July 1956, G-2 400 and 403
Shops	Derby, Maine
Survivors	None

Class table follows Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives (revised edition), pages 80–81. Works numbers and a few unit dates follow Jerry Angier and Herb Cleaves. Information compiled September 18, 2026.

Rhode Island leftovers, sixteen Schenectady copies, then Mountains that were still small

Drury’s freight chapter opens on Manchester. When the BAR leased the Bangor & Piscataquis in 1892 it picked up eight 4-4-0s built between 1864 and 1888, some of them secondhand. Between 1893 and 1907 the road bought 4-4-0s, 2-6-0s, 4-6-0s, and 0-6-0s from Manchester Locomotive Works, later Alco’s Manchester plant. Those Americans and Moguls are mostly pre-1900. Hero 213 is one of them.

In 1907 Rhode Island delivered three Consolidations, class GA 170–172. They had been proposed for the Pittsburgh, Binghamton & Eastern, a Pennsylvania road that laid about as many miles of paper as of track before it died in 1914. BAR must have liked them. Schenectady sent sixteen more of the same dimensions—57-inch drivers, 23 × 30 cylinders—as class G 180–195 between 1914 and 1924. Helpers were necessary on the longest potato trains over the Millinocket–Brownville divide. Number 180 was wrecked in March 1945. The rest came off in 1947–51.

Seven Alco 4-8-2s in 1929 and 1930, class M 100–106, replaced the Consolidations in through freight. Larger firebox, 63-inch drivers, four-wheel lead truck. They still weighed only 315,300 pounds and pulled 49,200 pounds—six tons lighter than a USRA light Mountain, almost 5,000 pounds less tractive effort. Main rods connected to the third drivers, the usual mark of a low-drivered 4-8-2. A booster on the trailing truck helped 100 get a train started. Two more Mountains, 107–108, arrived in 1935. Elesco feedwater heaters and thermic siphons were on the class. None survive.

In 1937 Alco delivered five Consolidations, G-2 400–404, for freight on the north end. The 2-8-0 was not new technology. Nothing that was would fit the job and the railroad. Number 404 had a front-end throttle. Cylinder and driver sizes matched the Mountains. BAR’s last two new steam locomotives came in 1945: Mountain 109 and Consolidation 405, one more of each previous order.

In 1946 the railroad went shopping in the used-locomotive market. Two Boston & Maine 2-8-0s became G-1A 196–197. Four B&M 0-8-0s became S-2A 335–338. Five 16-year-old New York, Ontario & Western 4-8-2s became M-1 120–124. The O&W engines were near-duplicates of New York Central L-2 Mohawks: 69-inch drivers, 360,000 pounds. B&M and the O&W had begun dieselization. BAR was about to. The M-1s were gone by 1949.

C-1s and F-1s, then five small Pacifics

Passenger service was two or three trains a day on the 236-mile Bangor–Van Buren main, plus locals and mixed trains on the branches. Class C-1 and F-1 Ten-Wheelers were the mainstay until 1927. The two F-1s, 234–235, were gone by 1926. The C-1s lasted; 243 was still on the roster in 1951.

Five class F Pacifics, 250–254, arrived from Schenectady in 1927. Small engines: 237,000 pounds, 40,000 less than a USRA light Pacific. Sixty-nine-inch drivers gave them pulling power instead of great speed. Horizontal-bar pilots and outside lead-truck journals gave them a Canadian National look. They took the afternoon Aroostook Flyer and the overnight Potatoland Special until F3s with steam generators took the varnish on May 14, 1948, and the E7As followed in April 1949. Number 252 was scrapped in March 1945. 251 made the last steam run, then went with 250, 253, and 254 in 1953.

In 1915 Derby rebuilt three Manchester Moguls of 1895–96 into class K-1 Americans 214–216. They were gone by 1923–24. The photograph at the top of this page is an older sister, Class K 213, still in steam at Derby in 1930.

Six-wheel, then eight-wheel

Six class P 0-6-0s, 320–325, were scrapped in the mid-1930s, not long after three 0-8-0s arrived from Alco: SA 330 in 1928 and S-1A 340–341 in 1931. Two earlier Manchester 0-6-0s, class M 310–311, had already been sold in 1916–17. The letter M was reused on the 4-8-2s without embarrassment. A 600-mile road can do that.

The four Boston & Maine 0-8-0s of February 1946, S-2A 335–338, arrived just before management decided to dieselize. 336 was gone by 1949; the others by 1950. 340 and 341 lasted until 1953, among the last steam cut up.

Pacific 251, trains 9 and 12

By 1949 BAR was dieselized except for winter-season peaks. The road leased new diesels to the Pennsylvania Railroad from May to November for the ore docks at Erie, Pennsylvania; the units came home for the potato rush. Drury puts the last BAR steam on July 22, 1951: Pacific 251, trains 9 and 12, a round trip from Derby to Greenville. Stored engines still covered extras into the mid-1950s. G-2s 400 and 403 were cut up in July 1956. The diesels that replaced this fleet—F3s, eight BL2s, the GP7s on the Pennsylvania lease—are the diesel roster.

All-time roster (built since 1900)

Drury’s grid is classes built from 1900 on. Quantities are his. Retirement years are the span he prints. Builder “Manchester” is Manchester Locomotive Works, then Alco’s Manchester plant; “Schenectady” and “Rhode Island” are Alco works. Pre-1900 4-4-0s, including hero 213, and the 1890s Moguls are in the paragraphs above. K-1 214–216 are 1915 Derby rebuilds of 1895–96 2-6-0s; Drury puts them in the table. Works numbers follow Angier and Cleaves.

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	M	310, 311	2	Manchester	1900–1901	Sold 1917, 1916	Letter later reused on the 4-8-2s
0-6-0	P	320–325	6	Manchester	1905–1908	1935–1937
0-8-0	SA	330	1	Alco	1928	1951	Works 67669
0-8-0	S-1A	340, 341	2	Alco	1931	1953	Works 68599–68600
0-8-0	S-2A	335–338	4	Alco	1922	1949–1950	Ex-B&M. Purchased 2/1946
2-8-0	GA	170–172	3	Rhode Island	1907	1949–1951	Proposed for Pittsburgh, Binghamton & Eastern. 57-inch drivers, 23 × 30
2-8-0	G	180–195	16	Schenectady	1914–1924	1947–1951	Same dimensions as GA. 180 wrecked 3/1945
2-8-0	G-1A	196, 197	2	Baldwin, Alco	1913	1950, 1947	Ex-B&M. Purchased 1946
2-8-0	G-2	400–405	6	Alco	1937, 1945	1951–1956	400–404 1937; 405 1945. Same cylinders and drivers as the 4-8-2s. 404 front-end throttle. 400 and 403 last BAR steam cut up, 7/1956
4-4-0	K-1	214–216	3	BAR	1915	1923–1924	Rebuilt from 2-6-0s
4-6-0	C-1	240–243	4	Manchester	1902	1928–1951	Passenger mainstay with F-1 until 1927. 243 built 1907
4-6-0	D-1	54–78	25	Manchester	1901–1907	1927–1952	71 is ex-78. Several sold to Belfast & Moosehead Lake
4-6-0	D-2a	82–87	6	Manchester	1907	1935–1951
4-6-0	D-3	90–95	6	Manchester	1911	1951–1952	Superheated. On the Greenville Branch at the end
4-6-0	Ea	140–142	3	Rhode Island	1906	1947–1951
4-6-0	F-1	234, 235	2	Manchester	1907	1926	Passenger with C-1 until the Pacifics. Not class F
4-6-2	F	250–254	5	Schenectady	1927	1945–1953	237,000 lb. 69-inch drivers. 251 last steam, July 22, 1951, trains 9 and 12
4-8-2	M	100–109	10	Alco	1929–1945	1950–1953	315,300 lb. 63-inch drivers, 49,200 lb TE. 100–106 1929–30; 107–108 1935; 109 1945. Main rods to third drivers
4-8-2	M-1	120–124	5	Alco	1929	1948–1949	Ex-NYO&W. Near-duplicates of NYC L-2 Mohawks; 69-inch drivers, 360,000 lb

Sources

Drury, George H. Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 80–81. Post-1900 class table; F3 demonstrator July 1946; last steam Pacific 251, trains 9 and 12, Derby–Greenville, July 22, 1951; Mountain weight and tractive effort; G-2 404 front-end throttle; NYO&W as NYC L-2 copies; recommended Angier and Cleaves
Angier, Jerry, and Herb Cleaves. Bangor and Aroostook: The Maine Railroad. Flying Yankee Enterprises, 1986. ISBN 0-9615574-2-5. Pages 253–261, unit dates and works numbers. Drury’s recommended reading
Railroad magazine. Published BAR rosters: February 1935, p. 88; January 1950, p. 104. Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin No. 53, p. 42
Trains. “Bangor & Aroostook Railroad remembered.” Last steam July 22, 1951, Greenville Branch; GP7s shared with the Pennsylvania
Llanso, Steve. Locobase. Class M Mountains (Locobase 192, 16524); G-2 and G-class Consolidations. BAR diagram books via Allen Stanley
American-Rails.com, Bangor & Aroostook. F3 passenger debut May 14, 1948; winter potato extras into the mid-1950s
American-Rails.com, Aroostook Flyer and Potatoland Special. Pacifics, then F3s and E7As on the named trains
American-Rails.com, BAR diesel roster. GP7 lease and the dates that closed steam

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