In the early 1800s America's railroad system was at its infancy. 1829 was the first time a (passenger) railroad had ever turned a profit, or had freight/passenger stations available to the public -- and that was the Baltimore & Ohio. Six years later, the Bangor and Piscataquis Rail Company had run its very first train from Bangor to Old Town, and the succeeding company -- Veazie Railroad, would move to become one of the first successful railroad companies in the nation.
Let's put this in a little bit of perspective: Hudson, Pittsburgh, NYC and parts of Ohio were some of the cities to be connected by rail before Old Town and Bangor; which is no surprise, those cities and those areas represented the backbone of American industry at the time. The City of Old Town claims that this Bangor to Old Town line was the second railroad in the country.
It's worth noting that a great number of rail travel innovations that we may take for granted today developed some time after rail service in the Old Town area. "Knuckle" style couplers and vacuum brakes were nowhere to be seen. When Old Town was on the map (in terms of rail), rail travel didn't look anything like it does today.
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