The steam locomotive era returned to Maine’s railroads Friday almost half a century after the last lonesome whistle was silenced by advances in transportation technology. The return challenged Maine railroaders steeped in the traditions of the past but geared to run trains of today and tomorrow.

Jim Garrity, a customer service representative for Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Co., said the arrival at Searsport of a Swedish-built locomotive and passenger cars of a European design posed certain operational problems that were being explored Friday.

B&A will transport the train on the first 29 miles of its trip from Searsport to Belfast.

Although the two Waldo County towns are only a few miles apart by highway, the train’s route to its new home on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad is a roundabout 98 1/2 miles over three railroad lines: B&A, Springfield Terminal and Belfast and Moosehead Lake.

Garrity said B&A’s motive-power specialists were at Searsport Friday to monitor the unloading of the Swedish train from a German freighter. Their focus of attention was the coupling system being devised by Pen Bay Engineering Co. of Searsport to connect the European locomotive and cars to the train B&A will use to transport the equipment on the first part of its run in Maine, he said.

Garrity said one end of a B&A freight car was being equipped with the coupler to complete the connection. Couplers on American and European trains do not match.

For railroad enthusiasts who hope to watch the first passage of a steam train in central Maine since the 1950s, the trip from Searsport to Northern Maine Junction might occur as early as Saturday, Garrity said.

The train will be handled by Springfield Terminal for the 35-mile run from Northern Maine Junction to Burnham Junction. Train fans from as far away as Wisconsin were expected to be on hand during the journey.

The last time steam locomotives were moved over B&A tracks was in the early 1950s when the railroad replaced its engines with diesels and shipped the steamers to scrappers in Massachusetts.

On July 27, 1951, a Maine Central train, Extra 564 West, picked up an entire train of B&A steam locomotives at Northern Maine Junction. The engines were hauled to Harcon Corp. in Boston where they were cut up for scrap metals.

Garrity said Belfast railroad officials also were interested in buying two B&A turntables, one of which is located in Fort Fairfield, for use in conjunction with the operation of the Swedish train on the Belfast line.

The turntables, which resemble railroad bridges, are set into the ground and used to turn heavy railroad engines. The turntables would be installed in Unity and Burnham Junction, making passenger excursions on the Waldo County line much easier from an operational standpoint.