Taken next to the Bridgton freight house c. 1940, this interesting photograph shows six stake-bodied gondolas (probably loaded with coal for a local dealer) and a boxcar of miscellaneous less-than-carload freight. (Phil Bonnet photograph.)
Here is a bit of irony. On June 15, 1930, the Bridgton & Saco River became the Bridgton & Harrison Railway Company. After this derailment of No. 8 on the Harrison branch on August 7, 1930, the branch was discontinued between Bridgton and Harrison. While the narrow gauge continued to operate for the remaining 11 years between Bridgton and the Saco River at Hiram, it was known as the Bridgton & Harrison Railway—how about Bridgton & Hiram Railway?
The Bridgton terminal was the Bridgton & Saco River’s headquarters, where shops, storage tracks, freight shed, and large depot with offices were located. Like the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad, it caught the attention of the Maine Central Railroad in the early 20th century. The Maine Central gained control of these narrow-gauge roads (until they no longer made a profit).
As with the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, the Maine Central did some modernizing on the Bridgton & Saco River, including installation of automatic couplers, electric lights on engines, and replacement of light rails. Engine No. 7, built by Baldwin in 1913, survives on the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad in Portland.
The last Bridgton & Saco River engine was a Baldwin—No. 8, built in 1924. It was the heaviest and the last two-foot-gauge engine built, not only for the Bridgton & Saco River but any remaining two-footer in the United States. It now operates on the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad in Portland.
No. 8 saw service infrequently in the last years before abandonment, but management was always ready to run a steam train for groups, such as railfans. Here, No. 8 is about ready to leave Bridgton for the junction with a trainload of enthusiasts from Boston.
Between 1937 and 1941, the Bridgton & Harrison Railway ran many excursion trains, often sponsored by groups from out of state. No. 7 or No. 8 (sometimes both) would be steamed up for the day with open cars fitted with wood folding chairs pushed ahead and with coaches trailing behind. Pictured at the Hancock Pond water stop is a group of railfans from Boston on August 14, 1938. The author was privileged to ride on that trip, which began his lifelong interest in Maine narrow-gauge railroads. The souvenir coupon has been retained all these years. (Phil Bonnet photograph.)
Like the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, the Bridgton & Harrison turned to home-built rail motors. Pictured on the turntable at Bridgton Junction in 1933 is a converted Chevrolet steam-train substitute, built by master mechanic Everett Brown. His brother Walter is in the driver’s seat. (Hugh G. Boutell photograph.)
During the dismantling of the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad in 1936, Edgar Mead Jr. was responsible for the purchase of rail motor No. 4 for use on the Bridgton & Harrison. It immediately went into regular scheduled service as the railroad’s No. 3. It survived abandonment of the line in 1941.
One of the last of its kind to survive, the Bridgton & Harrison was cherished by many people across the land. Winter or summer, it had a special charm that led some to attempt saving it from extinction. It was owned by the town of Bridgton. Those who favored its dissolution won out, so it was legally petitioned for abandonment and sold for junk in September 1941. Some of the roadbed survives as a rail trail. Most of its equipment was rescued and can still be seen at Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad in Portland.
Five
THE WISCASSET DREAM
Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad No. 1 was built in 1883 by the H.K. Porter Company of Pittsburgh for the Sandy River Railroad. The Sandy River sold it to the Wiscasset & Quebec in 1895. This picture was taken soon after that time. The coach, lettered as “smoking car,” was built by Jackson and Sharp in 1895 and, shortly later, was converted to a combination coach-baggage car. It was destroyed by fire in 1901, and the parts were used to construct a caboose.
Nos. 2 and 3 were identical in appearance, even after alterations were made in later years. Built by the Portland Company in 1894 for the Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad, they remained on the roster to the end in 1933. Shown in the final years is Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway No. 3 by the station after crossing the diamond on the Maine Central Rockland branch.
A 1932 view shows No. 2, which has crossed Route 1 by the Wiscasset Grain Company on the long trestles between wharves and interchange tracks. On the left is a regular customer, the Turner Center Creamery. (Linwood Moody photograph.)
Engine No. 4 and the Winslow branch were only three years old when this picture was taken in 1905 by the Winslow station. The Wiscasset & Quebec became the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railroad. The plan was to cross the Kennebec River at Winslow, build to Farmington, and connect with the Sandy River Railroad (and eventually to Canada). No. 4, delivered in 1902, was the railroad’s second H.K. Porter engine. (Jerry DeVos collection.)
The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington No. 5 was the railroad’s only Hinkley engine, purchased secondhand from the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad in 1906. It is shown in Wiscasset by Customs House. In 1912, its boiler was used to supply power for the large shop building in Wiscasset.
In 1907, when the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railroad became the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway under F.W. Woolworth executive Carson Peck, the railroad’s first and only Baldwins came. No. 6 was a 2-6-2 Prairie type, heavier than any engines yet experienced. Bridges and track had to be upgraded to accommodate this 28-ton Prairie. Too heavy, No. 6 never ventured onto the trestles beyond the service yard in Wiscasset. The little 0-4-4 rear-tank Portland Forneys did that chore.
The other Baldwin, No. 7, was a 2-4-4 rear tank, similar to Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 9 with outside frames and counterweights on the drivers. With a two-wheel lead truck, No. 7 was designed for passenger trains but was often used in mixed passenger-freight service.
Fire destroyed the enginehouse at Wiscasset in December 1931, leaving the two Baldwin locomotives charred and unserviceable. Note that engine No. 6 has an outside Southern valve gear. Applied in later years, it was a unique appliance for the two-foot gauge, exclusive to the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington.
When still in service the same year before the fateful fire, engine No. 7 is lined up for servicing along with a Portland Forney at Wiscasset.
The Porter Forney No. 4 is shown in front of the shop building beside combination car No. 2. This was the last two-foot-gauge railway post office, which ended its service on June 15, 1933, when engine No. 8 left the rails at South Whitefield on a train from Albion to Wiscasset.
The old car shop is pictured as it appeared shortly after abandonment in the mid-1930s. Nos. 3 and 9, both Portland Forneys, are stored here. In the coal shed on the left, the Porter No. 4 and another Portland, No. 2, were stored.
The long and narrow Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington service yard tracks at Wiscasset, along the banks of the Sheepscot River, were filled with equipment at the time of abandonment in June 1933—even gondolas loaded with coal. The rural landscape of the line began at Wiscasset and covered the whole 44 miles to Albion. This view dates from 1934. (Linwood Moody photograph.)
The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington narrow-gauge Wiscasset station by the Maine Central diamond crossing was separated from the Maine Central’s depot by a long boardwalk. The crossing was protected by an old-time ball signal. (Hugh G. Boutell photograph.)
At the farther end of the line is the two-story Albion Station. A full service yard was located here. By circumstance, if not by design, Albion would remain as a Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington terminal for all of its relatively short life.
The Coopers Mills depot, not far from the state capital of Augusta, was an apt billboard for a circus coming to town. The style of this station is typical for the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway with its attached canopy over the platform.
Engine No. 6 with mixed train is heading north through Whitefield c. 1920. Such pastoral scenery suggests why the Turner C
enter Creamery had its own siding on the narrow gauge at Wiscasset. The big metal milk cans were a common sight on station platforms along the line as they awaited pickup in a way car for the Wiscasset customer.
In this 1925 scene, Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington yard switcher No. 3 crosses the Maine Central diamond in Wiscasset. As the conductor rides the pilot footboard, the little fellow in the cab doorway is having a thrill as he rides across the long trestles. (Hugh G. Boutell photograph.)
The view above shows a trestle just before abandonment in 1933. The photograph was taken from the edge of the service yard, looking toward the Wiscasset station next to the Maine Central Railroad diamond crossing. The Maine Central depot is to the right. The picture below was taken from the same location 60 years later. Both Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington and Maine Central stations are gone. A sewage-treatment plant has been erected opposite the station site.
Pictured is the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railroad triple-combination car Taconet, used as a smoker and for baggage and mail. It was built by Jackson and Sharp of Wilmington, Delaware, in 1901, when the plans were to reach Quebec via the Franklin County narrow-gauge lines through Waterville to Farmington.
The Taconet has No. 6 in this picture taken in November 1936, three years after abandonment. In another year, all metal will be removed, and the body will be dumped on its side. On July 4, 1951, this and all remaining car bodies went up in flames in a great bonfire. (Stan Prescott photograph.)
The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway was the last of the two-footers to have a railway post office car in regular service. The last car so involved as a railway post office was Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington No. 7, shown here at the Wiscasset depot in the 1920s. It was used on the last train on June 15, 1933, when the mail had to be rehandled to Wiscasset from the wreck site at South Whitefield. The body of this car, hauled down to Head Tide in 1934, remained intact for decades. In the late 1960s, it was bulldozed to clear the roadbed for tree cutting.
This Albion and Wiscasset railway post office stamp bears a February 10, 1930 cancellation. The railway mail clerk had a separate compartment inside the car for sorting the mail.
Six
MONSON SLATE
The six-mile Monson Railroad was intended for a single purpose—to haul slate (as with its ancestor, the Festiniog Railroad in Wales). It was chartered in 1882 and was built the following year. Monson’s first two engines were Hinkleys, very similar to those of the Bridgton and Sandy River lines.
The Monson Railroad connected with the Bangor & Piscataquis Railroad (later Bangor & Aroostook). Although little “two by six” had only a single abbreviated passenger car, about 30 feet in length, even that was divided between passengers and a mail-baggage-express section.
For as long as it operated (from 1883 to 1943), the Monson Railroad never modernized. It had link-and-pin couplers and featured steam vacuum brakes on engines only. All the switches were of the old-time stub variety, with harp switch stands. Only hand brakes were equipped on rolling stock.
Two engines were adequate for the Monson. When one Hinkley gave out, it was replaced in 1912 by another (No. 3) from the Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Six years later came a second Vulcan, No. 4. Only one engine would be used at a time, but there was always one available when the other needed downtime.
The transfer yard at Monson Junction in the town of Abbott was very basic. The turntable, too small for engines, was for snowplow use. These little 0-4-4 rear-tank locomotives never had to be turned—they just faced one direction and backed the other.
The most direct way to fuel a narrow-gauge engine is straight from the standard-gauge gondola car loaded with coal. Perhaps Monson owned or leased the big car to avoid high demurrage charges. (Linwood Moody photograph.)
This Maine Central Railroad gondola loaded with sand is going to cost somebody money if not promptly unloaded and released. It may take two more of these two-foot gondolas to empty the big car. Also, with wages of three shovelers at stake, the little Monson Forney is ready and waiting to pull out the loaded car and shunt in another empty. (Linwood Moody photograph.)
Pictured is the covered water tank at Monson Junction. Little Monson No. 4 can water up on this lead track to the turntable (shown just ahead), but the engine will not be turned. The table is large enough only for the railroad’s snowplow. (Linwood Moody photograph.)
Although this Monson Junction photograph was taken in 1938, the standard-gauge Bangor & Aroostook Railroad wooden-sheathed boxcar appears to be of similar 19th-century vintage as the Monson gondola car. Both cars show sets of end nuts bolted to truss rods for support of a wood underframe. The Bangor & Aroostook car is mostly likely one restricted to on-line service to a less-than-carload transfer point—perhaps Bangor Maine Central.
The Monson Railroad’s snowplow is posed partially on the turntable at Monson for which it was built. The two tables at Monson and the junction were sized for the plows only, as the little “two by six” had no need to turn its engines—it always faced one direction.
The Monson Railroad was always a common carrier railroad, open to handle freight of all kinds. Slate, however, was its mainstay and served as such until the end in 1943. Rails ran beyond Monson for a couple of additional miles to serve the various quarries beyond the terminal and service yard.
In this 1938 scene, a Monson Railroad train has just left the station crossing the highway, with one car ahead and another behind, loaded with slate products for transfer at Monson Junction—six miles away. The enginehouse is in the distance, with car storage tracks just beyond it.
After the six-mile journey to the junction, the freight transfer is made. Especially if only less-than-carload volume is involved, the lading is handled through the freight house for later transfer to a standard-gauge car. (Ed Bond collection.)
Pictured are three of Monson Railroad’s eight boxcars at Monson Junction. They were all built by the Laconia Car Company in 1883. Note the side ladder by the sliding door, unique to the Monson.
A home-built snow spreader, constructed on a flatcar, is pictured on the snowplow turntable at Monson. The spreader was used to widen the right-of-way, where snow depths are a problem in northern Maine.
Seven
THE SOLDIERS’ RAILROAD
George E. Mansfield probably had no direct involvement with the smallest of them all—the five-mile Kennebec Central Railroad. In fact, the railroad did not even connect with a railroad of any gauge. It was built in 1889 from the town of Randolph on the Kennebec River to Togus, where the National Soldiers’ Home was located. Its first engine was a Baldwin 0-4-4 rear tank, built to the same specifications as Franklin & Megantic Railroad No. 2.
The tiny Kennebec Central Railroad began and ended its life on the opposite side of the Kennebec River from the Maine Central Railroad in Gardiner—in the town of Randolph. Its sole purpose was to serve the National Soldiers’ Home (mostly Civil War veterans). Engine No. 2 was purchased new from the Portland Company in 1890. The covered bridge in the background offered direct road access to Gardiner, the nearest rail connection.
In 1905, the Kennebec Central Railroad won a government contract to transport the coal needs of the National Soldiers’ Home in Togus. Coal barges would be towed to Randolph, where coal storage and handling facilities were located. Eight side-dump gondolas were provided for this purpose.
Kennebec Central No. 2 is pictured with a two-car passenger train in 1906 at Togus. To the left is the ramp where coal gondolas with hinged sides were pushed up to covered storage bins. The fuel is for heating buildings of the National Soldiers’ Home.
This side view of the same train shows a National Soldiers’ Home building, which contained a restaurant. No depot, as such, existed at Togus. (Ed Bond collection.)
In 1922, the Kennebec Central Railroad bought its No. 3 secondhand from the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad (Bridgton & Saco River No. 3), another Portland Company 0-4-4 rear tank of the same vintage.
This 1932 photograph shows No. 3 loaded on a flatbed at Randolph, ready to be hauled to Wiscasset.
The last engine that the Kennebec Central bought was Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad No. 6, purchased in 1925. It sported an electric headlight. This became Kennebec Central Railroad No. 4 and, like No. 3 from the Bridgton & Saco River, had automatic couplers. Since Kennebec Central used link-and-pin couplers, links and pins had to be applied to the slotted and bored knuckles.
Maine Narrow Gauge Railroads Page 3
