One of the railroads the Boston & Maine connected with in Portland was the Portland & Ogdensburg, which headed west to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The aim of the railroad’s builders was to reach Ogdensburg, New York, thus giving Portland the same access to the West as Boston. However, the company was unable to complete the line and the part that was built came under the control of Maine Central.

Click image to download a 3.2-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

As of 1879, when this timetable was issued, the line had been built as far as Fabyan House, a grand hotel at the foot of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. One panel of yesterday’s Boston & Maine timetable was devoted to advertising P&O trains to Fabyan House.

The map shows a solid line from Portland to Ogdensburg continuing all the way to Buffalo. However, the P&O itself only made it to Swanton, Vermont, on the east shore of Lake Champlain, before going bankrupt.

It isn’t clear that the tracks were finished even to Swanton in 1879, as the timetable shows continuous trains only from Portland to Wing Road, New Hampshire. From there, a change of trains was required to get to Swanton, and then another change of trains to get to Ogdensburg. Fabyan House was still the prime destination, as the schedule shows three trains a day to there from Portland, two of which went on to Wing Road.

From Wing Road, the timetable shows two routes to Swanton, one via St. Johnsbury over the P&O and the other via Montpelier over the Vermont Central. The map shows a bridge over Lake Champlain from Swanton to Rouse’s Point, but the timetable indicates a diversion around to St. Johns and back to Rouse’s Point. None of the trains indicated in the timetables have names.