The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad is a defunct United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 railroad company, that brought rail service to Aroostook County, Maine

Aroostook County, Maine

Aroostook County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. In 2010, its population was 71,870. In land area, it is the largest county in the state and the largest U.S. county east of the Mississippi River. Its seat is Houlton...

. Brightly painted BAR box cars

Boxcar

A boxcar is a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry general freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, since it can carry most loads...

 attracted national attention in the 1950s. First-generation diesel locomotives operated on BAR until they were museum pieces. The economic downturn of the 1980s coupled with the departure of heavy industry from northern Maine forced the railroad to seek a buyer and end operations in 2003.
The company was incorporated in 1891 to combine the lines of the former Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad and the Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railway.
It was based in Bangor

Bangor, Maine

Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...

 and lines extended from there to Oakfield

Oakfield, Maine

Oakfield is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 732 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water....

 and Houlton

Houlton, Maine

Houlton is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, on the United States – Canada border, located at . As of the 2010 census, the town population was 6,123. It is perhaps best known as being at the northern terminus of Interstate 95 and for being the birthplace of Samantha Smith...

 in 1894.