Boston and Maine Railroad Reporting mark: BM

The Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) was an early US-owned railway dating back to the 1840s. Instead of being built from the ground up, it was put together by merging a number of smaller railways together in a network. After about 40 years, the railway had grown to cover most of the New England states and eastern Quebec.

One of the B&M's many acquisitions was the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad (CPRR), based in Vermont. The CPRR had been acquired by the Connecticut River Railroad (CRRR) in 1887. The CRRR was formed way back in 1845 and based in Massachusetts and Vermont.

By 1867 the CPRR extended to the Canadian border. Unfortunately there were no rail connections anywhere from that point on. Passengers and freight had to be transferred to stagecoach, which was both ineffective and inefficient. To bridge the gap, a 31-mile (50-km) short line, known as the Massawippi Valley Railway, was built from the border town of Beebe Junction to Lennoxville Quebec.

Promptly after it opened in 1870, the Massawippi Valley Railway was leased by the CPRR. It connected with the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) in Lennoxville and the CPRR at Beebe. A later extension to Sherbrooke provided access to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). In 1893 both the CRRR and CPRR were leased by the B&M.

The Twentieth Century was not kind to the B&M. It struggled through takeover, financial problems and reorganization. In 1926 the CPR along with the Quebec Central Railway, (which was partially owned by the CPR) took over the B&M lines in Canada. Passenger service lasted until 1967. The line was eventually abandoned in 1990 and the tracks lifted in 1992.