By Justin Franz

Jerry Angier, a noted railroad author and historian in New England who co-wrote the seminal volume on the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad, died on June 19 in Maine. He was 82 years old. 

Angier was born in Washington D.C., and grew up in Rhode Island. He became interested in railroads at a young age thanks to a Lionel train set and that interest became a passion when a family friend got him a cab ride on the New Haven Railroad on his 12th birthday. He studied broadcasting in college and later worked in financial planning. He moved to Maine in 1971. It was in Maine that he found his favorite railroad, the potato and paper hauling Bangor & Aroostook. Angier held leadership roles in a number of railroad historical groups, including the 470 Club of Portland, Maine; the Railroad Enthusiasts; and the Railroad & Locomotive Historical Society. 

While Angier would write numerous articles for various publications, it was his three books about the BAR (although like many Mainers, Angier preferred the local term “B&A” despite those being the reporting marks for the Boston & Albany) that he would be most remembered for in this community. Among them was the seminal “Bangor & Aroostook — The Maine Railroad” in 1986 with co-author Herb Cleaves. In 2004, he authored “Bangor & Aroostook Railroad — In Color” for Morning Sun Books.  And a few years later, Angier and Cleaves teamed up again to revise their 1986 book and complete the “B&A” story from the late 1980s until the end of operations in 2003. That book, “Bangor & Aroostook — The Life of a Maine Railroad Tradition” came out in 2009.

In later years, Angier served as a car host on Amtrak’s Downeaster. He was also involved as a member of both the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum and the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum. Angier is survived by his wife Nancy. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the WW&F or the Portland Symphony Orchestra. The full obituary can be read here.