The Brownville and Ashland Railway (reporting marks BRAR) is a what-if railroad rooted in the real-world landscape of northern Maine and eastern Canada. It’s a freelance creation, built on historical “maybes,” economic pivots, and political near-misses. Some events mirror reality; others could have happened with only a few nudges in a different direction. But most of all, the BRAR is a story about opportunity, resilience, and regional pride—told through locomotives, lineside industries, and the rhythm of freight cars on steel rails.

Beginnings in the Woods: A Shortline with Purpose

The original Brownville and Ashland Railway started life in the 1950s as a small, state-chartered shortline built to serve remote logging camps and paper mills north of Brownville Junction. The route ran north through Seboeis and Millinocket, swinging east toward Ashland and eventually Eastport, with several rural branches feeding small towns, sawmills, and wood processing facilities. Backed in part by local investment and state grants aimed at keeping freight rail alive in rural Maine, the BRAR carved out a niche—hauling pulpwood, fuel oil, boxcars of finished paper, and the occasional load of granite or agriculture. It was a lean, dependable operation in a region where trucks couldn’t reach year-round.

Winds of Change: The CP Exit and BRAR’s Big Gamble

Everything changed in the early 1990s. Canadian Pacific, under pressure to shed money-losing lines in the East, announced plans to divest its Canadian Atlantic Railway (CAR) subsidiary. This move would effectively sever a swath of rail infrastructure from Farnham, QC, through Maine to Saint John, NB. While most eyes were on the Bangor & Aroostook or the state of Maine itself, BRAR made a bold bid. In a surprise deal finalized in 1993, BRAR acquired the Moosehead Subdivision from Farnham to Brownville Junction. Then, in 1995, it doubled down—purchasing the bulk of the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad, including key corridors to Millinocket, Houlton, and Madawaska. This audacious expansion transformed the company overnight from a sleepy shortline into a regional Class II railroad. The new system formed a T-shaped network with Brownville Junction at the crossroads, extending west to Quebec and east toward the Maritimes.

Rationalization and Rebirth

With its expanded footprint, BRAR set about modernizing operations. The company secured state infrastructure grants to reballast track, rebuild bridges, and install modern signaling on select corridors. Some lightly-used rural lines—especially in Washington County—were abandoned or sold to local preservation groups. In place of patchwork track and run-down depots, BRAR built consolidated yards at Millinocket, St. Leonard (NB), and St. Jean-sur-Richelieu (QC). Intermodal ramps were opened in Farnham and Saint John to attract container traffic from the Port of Saint John and nearby pulp & paper exporters. Meanwhile, the eastern portion of the CAR line from Brownville to Saint John—bypassed in BRAR’s acquisition—was sold to J.D. Irving Ltd, who launched two new shortlines: the New Brunswick Southern Railway (NBSR) and Eastern Maine Railway (EMR). BRAR negotiated trackage rights over these lines, enabling it to move traffic from northern Maine and Quebec directly to the Port of Saint John.

Operations Today

The modern BRAR splits its operations into two main divisions:

1. Heavy Haulage Division

This division handles long-distance and high-volume traffic, typically unit trains and manifest freights. Commodities include:

 • Pulp and finished paper

 • Cement and aggregates

 • Ethanol and crude oil (via tank trains)

 • Grain (bound for coastal ports)

 • Intermodal containers (mostly international traffic from the Port of Saint John)

Key routes include:

 • Farnham to Searsport (paper, fuel)

 • Brownville to Saint John (intermodal, oil)

 • St. Leonard to Montreal (grain and intermodal)

2. Local & Industrial Service

This division handles switching and wayfreight duties across northern Maine and parts of New Brunswick. Local jobs serve lumber mills, chemical plants, and feed mills. Trains typically run with 2–3 locomotives and 15–25 cars, working industries in towns like:

 • Hayward: Dunder Mifflin Paper

 • Woolf: Woolf River Containers

 • Stanley: Transload siding for pulp bales

 • Ashwood: Granite quarry spur

Many of these towns are fictional but carefully designed to feel like real places, embedded in the regional geography.

Motive Power Philosophy

BRAR’s locomotive fleet is diverse and workmanlike, a product of necessity and smart shopping. In the 1990s, the road scooped up secondhand EMD GP-series locomotives from various fallen flags, adding safety cabs to some.

Today, the fleet includes:

 • GP7s and GP9s for light local work

 • Rebuilt GP35m units with updated internals and custom paint

 • GP38-2s and GP40-2LWs for mid-range assignments

 • SD40-2Fs (ex-CP “Red Barns”) for heavy freight and mainline runs

All units are DCC equipped in the model world, and many feature ditch lights, sound decoders, and working beacons for enhanced realism.

Paint Schemes and Branding

The BRAR uses a mix of color schemes depending on the locomotive’s era and division:

 • White/Red for early units

 • Red with black cabs and white striping for heavy road service

 • Blue & white “Pine Line” branding for GP38-2s in the intermodal division

 • Patch schemes for leased or recently acquired locomotives

The company logo is a stylized pine tree overlaid on a mountain ridge—subtle but symbolic of the region’s rugged beauty and timber roots.

The Freelance Story Continues: St. Francis Branch

In the freelance timeline, BRAR acquired the disused Fort Kent to St. Francis branch in 1998, shortly after its abandonment by BAR. A new paper mill opened near St. Francis, prompting BRAR to upgrade and reopen the line.

The branch now features:

 • Daily switching jobs

 • Unit paper trains to Saint John

 • Interchange with the Allagash Eastern Railroad (AER), a fellow freelance road operating west of the river

The interchange at St. Francis allows BRAR and AER to share traffic and equipment, creating richer operating scenarios.

Why This Story Resonates

The Brownville and Ashland Railway is more than just a collection of locomotives and scenery. It’s a living narrative—of survival, regional identity, and small-scale innovation in a changing freight rail landscape.

 • It’s rooted in real geography and economic history

 • It blends believable alternate history with modeler’s creativity

 • It offers diverse operations in a compact space

 • It celebrates collaboration between freelance modelers

As BRAR continues to grow in HO scale, so does its story—one railfan, one train, and one idea at a time.