Built in 1867 and chartered by Maine governor and Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain, the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad is the sixth oldest, continually operating railroad in the country.

"This is the 140th anniversary of the B&MLRR," said Bob Lamontagne, president of the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad Preservation Society.

In 2005, the line's first railroad touring company went out of business. A year later, the railroad preservation society formed as a nonprofit organization.

"We operate exclusively on our own track," Lamontagne said of the 30-miles of track the company leases from the B&MLRR for excursions.

On the two-hour trip from Unity Depot to Burnham Junction and back, train buffs can roll back in time to the '60s and earlier on a line that is "the best-preserved rural branch line railroad in the northeastern United States," according to the company brochure.

"They used to run two or three trains a day from Burnham to Belfast -- freight and passenger cars," said engineer Bill Lynch of Knox, employed by B&MLRR for more than 12 years. "It was a major change -- the roads were terrible . . .

"Think about what a quantum leap it was in those days, when people had only horses. You could go from here to Belfast in one hour," he said.

-- Lynn Ascrizzi