Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad Company Records

The collection contains records from the treasurer's office of the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad Company of Waterville, Maine.

The company was chartered in 1845 and organized in 1847. It had 13 directors, with Timothy Boutelle serving as the first president and Edwin Noyes as treasurer. The stock in the company was owned almost entirely by people from Maine; earnings were always disappointing and the stock never paid a dividend. The line was planned to run from near Lewiston, Maine to Waterville, and was to be built in three section, all to be completed by July 1849. It was to intersect with the Atlantic and St. Lawrence, running from Portland to Montreal, at Danville Junction. The estimated cost of the line was set at $1,000,000 but final costs were close to $2,000,000. The section from Danville Junction to Lewiston opened in December, 1848; that to Winthrop in July, 1849; and the final section to Waterville in December 1849, for a total of 55 miles of track.

The company chose to install a broad gauge track, which led to difficulties in connecting to other narrow gauge railroads being built at the same time, especially the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad running to Bangor. This railroad, planned to run from the Kennebec River to Bangor, had been chartered in the same year as the Androscoggin and Kennebec. The railroad opened to Bangor in 1855 and in 1856 was leased to the Androscoggin and Kennebec, which operated it until 1862.

In 1862, the directors of the Androscoggin and Kennebec and the Penobscot and Kennebec agreed to consolidate under the name of Maine Central Railroad Company.