[1] The AVR's official opening was on 1 July 1910; at the time it operated 10.8 miles (17.4 km) of track between Presque Isle and Washburn, Maine.

[1] Gould considered extending the railroad to Lac-Frontière, Quebec through additional sources of timber and electricity, but after the World Wars this plan was dropped.

With the onset of World War II, Presque Isle's airport was converted to a military base for ferrying aircraft to Europe; and the railroad built a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) branch line to handle fuel and equipment shipments to the airfield.

Other farming products made up the bulk of the rest of early freight traffic, including hay, fertilizer, grain, flour and starch, as well as logs and lumber for Gould's sawmill.

[4] Canadian Pacific MLW S-3 number 6500 worked on the line briefly in 1978 in an attempt to retire the aging 44-ton switchers, but was too heavy for the 70-pound rail.

[5] During the 1970s, the railroad's potato traffic, its major revenue source, dropped, due to Interstate 95's extension to Houlton, Maine, as well as bad crops during this time and the Penn Central Railroad's unreliability in handling potatoes shipped by rail in southern New England.

[5] An April 1987 flood destroyed two Canadian Pacific bridges, causing the AVR to lose its connection with the CP at Washburn Junction.