Maine Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

Last revised: October 8, 2026

Maine’s railroad museums are the two-foot gauge and the trolley barn. Kennebunkport holds the Seashore Trolley Museum, begun in 1939 with Biddeford & Saco car 31. Portland, Alna, and Phillips keep the engines and cars of the Bridgton, Monson, Wiscasset, and Sandy River lines. Boothbay is a village built around a Maine Central depot, with a two-foot loop of its own. Farther north, Bangor displays a Bangor & Aroostook BL2, and Oakfield keeps that railroad’s wooden depot beside a main line that still carries freight.

Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum 0-4-4T #10 is at Alna Center Station heading back to Sheepscot Station on July 4, 2012. Marty Bernard photo.

Which days Portland, Alna, Phillips, Boothbay, Unity, and the Downeast train run is on the Maine scenic-train guide. Confirm the museum doors on each site before you drive.

On this page: At a glance · Maine railroads · Kennebunkport · Portland · Alna · Phillips · Boothbay · Unity and Brooks · Bangor and Oakfield · Related reading

At a glance

Place	Town	What it is known for	Site
Seashore Trolley Museum	Kennebunkport	Begun in 1939 with Biddeford & Saco car 31. A ride on the museum’s own track	trolleymuseum.org
Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad & Museum	Portland	Bridgton & Saco River No. 7, Baldwin 1913, at 65 Thames Street	mainenarrowgauge.org
WW&F Railway Museum	Alna	Sheepscot station, 97 Cross Road. Portland Company No. 9, built in 1891	wwfry.org · Scenic guide
Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes	Phillips	A piece of the largest Maine two-footer, back in operation since 1970	srrl-rr.org
Boothbay Railway Village	Boothbay	1912 Freeport depot, moved here. S.D. Warren No. 2, Baldwin 1895	railwayvillage.org
Belfast & Moosehead Lake	Unity	Brooks Preservation Society, formed in 2008. Trains leave 210 Depot Street	bmlrail.com · History
Cole Land Transportation Museum	Bangor	Bangor & Aroostook BL2 No. 557, Electro-Motive 1949, and the Enfield depot	colemuseum.org
Oakfield Railroad Museum	Oakfield	Bangor & Aroostook depot, opened 1912. Listed June 25, 1987	Station Street

Maine railroads

The Calais Railroad was incorporated in 1832 and, by Poor’s account, opened about a mile and a half in 1835 as a horse-powered lumber road. The next year the Bangor & Piscataquis Canal and Railroad opened between Bangor and Old Town, about 12 miles. The Maine Central was created on October 28, 1862, and became the Pine Tree Route from Portland to Bangor, the paper mills, and the Mountain Division. The Bangor & Aroostook was chartered on February 13, 1891, to put a railroad into potato country. Its first trains reached Houlton on January 1, 1894. The company’s last day under that name was January 9, 2003. Peak mileage in the state was 2,295 in 1920. A fuller map is on the Maine railroads page.

What the East still associates with Maine is the two-foot gauge. Bridgton & Saco River, Monson, the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington, the Kennebec Central, and the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes were common carriers. Timber was the freight. The Sandy River system was the largest. Its last train ran in 1935. Monson, the slate road, was the last of them, in 1943. The surviving engines are the museums below. The gauge itself is on the narrow-gauge page.

Seashore Trolley Museum

The Seashore Trolley Museum stands at 195 Log Cabin Road in Kennebunkport, on farmland rented beside the old Atlantic Shore Line. In 1939 a group of railfans learned that the Biddeford & Saco Railroad was replacing its trolleys with buses, and they bought car 31. A second group had bought a Manchester and Nashua car. The two groups joined, and in 1941 they incorporated as the New England Electric Railway Historical Society. The museum describes the result as the first museum of mass-transit vehicles, and the largest. Streetcars, interurbans, rapid-transit cars, and buses fill the barns. Admission includes a ride on the museum’s own track. The days are on the museum’s site.

Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad & Museum

The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum at 65 Thames Street in Portland is the public home of the two-foot engines that came back from Edaville in 1993. Ellis D. Atwood had bought Bridgton and Monson locomotives for his cranberry railroad in Massachusetts. When that park closed, the engines returned to Maine and this museum was formed around them.

The engine to know is Bridgton & Saco River No. 7, a Baldwin 2-4-4T of 1913, back in steam in 2018. Monson No. 3, a Vulcan 0-4-4T of 1913, construction number 2093, belongs to the museum and has run on lease at Alna. Monson No. 4, Vulcan 1918, and Bridgton & Saco River No. 8, a Baldwin of 1924 and the last two-foot steam locomotive built for a Maine common carrier, are in the restoration shop. Diesel switchers cover the days steam is assigned elsewhere. The calendar is on the scenic guide.

WW&F Railway Museum

The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum is rebuilding a piece of the original two-foot railroad on its own right-of-way. That carrier quit on June 15, 1933. Harry Percival and the volunteers who joined him began putting track back in 1989. Public trains leave Sheepscot station at 97 Cross Road in Alna, about five miles from Wiscasset. Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington are the names on the old charter. The boarding point is Alna.

No. 9 is a Portland Company 0-4-4T of 1891. It began as Sandy River Railroad No. 5 and is an engine from the two-foot era, still in steam. In the shop, the museum is building No. 11, a new Baldwin following the original No. 7 of 1907. Which days the train runs, and which engine is on it, stay on the scenic guide.

Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes

Phillips was the hub of the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, the largest of Maine’s two-foot common carriers. The Sandy River Railroad began building in 1879 to meet the Maine Central at Farmington. The Phillips & Rangeley and the Kingfield lines followed. They were consolidated in 1908. The last train ran in 1935, and the rails came up the next year.

A volunteer railroad has been on a piece of the old grade since 1970, first as a project of the Phillips Historical Society and now as its own museum. The collection includes original cars, among them Laconia coaches of 1884, and a 1972 gas-mechanical replica of Sandy River Forney No. 4. Steam, when a visiting two-foot engine is on the property, is posted by the railroad. The site is srrl-rr.org.

Boothbay Railway Village

Boothbay Railway Village, at 586 Wiscasset Road, opened in 1965 around a depot George McEvoy had bought from the Maine Central the year before. That building is the Freeport station of 1912, put up after the 1911 fire, taken apart and moved to a hayfield in Boothbay. Houses, a town hall, and a chapel came with it. The railroad on the grounds is a two-foot loop.

S.D. Warren No. 2 is a Baldwin 0-4-0T built in 1895 for the paper mill at Westbrook. It sat for years under the entrance sign, went into the shop in 2016, and returned to steam on September 8, 2018. German Henschel tank locomotives share the loop. The village posts the days the train and the auto barn are open.

Belfast & Moosehead Lake

The Belfast & Moosehead Lake was organized on July 3, 1867, to build from Belfast toward Moosehead Lake. What was finished was the 33 miles from Belfast to Burnham, completed on September 24, 1870, where it met the Maine Central. The Maine Central leased the line from 1870 to 1925. The Queen Anne depot at Brooks was erected by the Maine Central in 1892. Passenger service on the branch ended in 1960. The common-carrier railroad itself wound up in 2007.

The Brooks Preservation Society, formed in 2008, is the railroad’s present operator. Public trains leave Unity, at 210 Depot Street, on the same line. The Brooks depot remains the preserved station. The calendar, and the question of which weekend is a foliage trip, stay on the scenic guide.

Downeast Scenic Railroad is the standard-gauge ride, on former Maine Central track in Hancock County. The Downeast Rail Heritage Trust began public trips in 2010. Where the train boards, and which days it runs, are on the Downeast profile and the scenic guide.

Bangor and Oakfield

The Cole Land Transportation Museum, on Perry Road in Bangor, was opened in 1990 by Galen Cole and his wife, Sue. The building holds more than railroad equipment. Trucks, wagons, and a veterans’ program share the floor. The railroad pieces are a Maine Central wooden depot from Enfield, rebuilt inside with its ticket counter, a Maine Central caboose, and Bangor & Aroostook BL2 No. 557.

No. 557 is an Electro-Motive BL2 of 1949, order E1195, serial 8617. It was one of eight, numbered 550–557 and later 50–57, and it is the one the railroad gave to this museum. The display building was built around the locomotive. The type page is the BL2, and the company is the Bangor & Aroostook. Hours are on the museum’s site.

The Oakfield Railroad Museum occupies the Bangor & Aroostook’s wooden depot on Station Street. The building went up in 1911 and opened in 1912, at the south end of the railroad’s classification yard, where the Houlton main met the Ashland line. It was moved about 100 yards in 1941. Passenger service on the corridor ended in 1961. The Oakfield Historical Society received the depot in 1986. The National Register listing is June 25, 1987. A caboose sits on the grounds. The track alongside is the old Bangor & Aroostook main, and the freight railroad on it today is Canadian Pacific Kansas City. The society posts the open days.

Sources

Seashore Trolley Museum, trolleymuseum.org: 195 Log Cabin Road, Kennebunkport. Biddeford & Saco car 31 in 1939, and incorporation in 1941 as the New England Electric Railway Historical Society, follow the museum’s published history. The “first” and “largest” wording is the museum’s own description.
Maine Narrow Gauge: 65 Thames Street follows Trains, April 6, 2026, and the Maine dinner-train page. Bridgton & Saco River No. 7, Baldwin 1913, back in steam in 2018. Monson No. 3, Vulcan 1913, construction number 2093. Monson No. 4, Vulcan 1918. Bridgton & Saco River No. 8, Baldwin 1924. The 1993 return from Edaville follows the museums’ own equipment histories. WW&F: original carrier quit June 15, 1933; museum work from 1989; Sheepscot station, 97 Cross Road, Alna. Those three facts follow the Maine dinner-train page. No. 9, Portland Company 1891, began as Sandy River No. 5. No. 11 follows the original Baldwin of 1907 and remains a shop project.
Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes: building from 1879, consolidation in 1908, last train in 1935, and the volunteer railroad from 1970 follow the railroad’s history page and the narrow-gauge account. The 1972 replica of Forney No. 4 and the 1884 Laconia coaches follow the railroad’s roster page. Boothbay Railway Village, railwayvillage.org and the Boothbay Register, September 11, 2018: Freeport station of 1912, purchased in 1964, village opened in 1965, S.D. Warren No. 2 a Baldwin of 1895, back in steam on September 8, 2018. Address 586 Wiscasset Road.
Belfast & Moosehead Lake: organized July 3, 1867; 33 miles Belfast to Burnham completed September 24, 1870. Those dates follow the company page. Brooks depot erected in 1892, and the Maine Central lease of 1870–1925, follow the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Brooks Preservation Society, 2008. Current boarding at 210 Depot Street, Unity, follows bmlrail.com. Cole Land Transportation Museum opened in 1990, colemuseum.org. BL2 No. 557, order E1195, serial 8617, later 57, follows the Bangor & Aroostook BL2 builder list. Oakfield Station, National Register reference 87000928, listed June 25, 1987: built 1911, opened 1912, moved in 1941, given to the historical society in 1986, passenger service ended in 1961. Canadian Pacific’s acquisition of the Central Maine & Quebec on June 4, 2020 follows the Maine railroads page. The Bangor & Aroostook’s last day, January 9, 2003, follows the company page.

Confirm hours and which locomotive is on the property before you travel. American-Rails does not sell tickets.

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