Berlin Mills

Company History: This 11 mile line linked two paper mills (the paper company owned the BMS) in the Berlin, New Hampshire area. It was built in 1911 and connected to Canadian National’s Grand Trunk subsidiary (in recent years St. Lawrence & Atlantic) and Boston & Maine (in recent years New Hampshire & Vermont Railroad.) Sometime in the 1990s, St. Lawrence & Atlantic took over the BMS with the paper mill’s blessing.

Successor/Parent History: The StL&A (reporting marks SLR) was established in 1989 as a spin off from Canadian National. Originally they ran 150 miles from Portland, Maine northwest to a connection with CN at Island Pond, Vermont. In 1998, StL&A was extended to Norton, on the Canadian border. StL&A established a Canadian subsidiary called St. Laurent & Atlantique Quebec (reporting marks SLQ) to take over the CN line from Norton to Sainte-Rosalie, Quebec. Both railroads joined the Genesee & Wyoming shortline group in 2002. At that point, the SLQ became a paper railroad in most respects with StL&A motive power running straight through to Sainte-Rosalie. The combined length is 260 miles. Traffic includes aggregates, food, animal feed, forest products, steel and scrap. They also offer stack train service in cooperation with Canadian National. StL&A has their own 35 acre intermodal terminal in Auburn, Maine.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.