Maine Narrow Gauge Railroads Read online

  The last engine built new for the Phillips & Rangeley was the Isaac Walton, built by Baldwin in 1893 as a passenger engine. It was an 0-4-4 rear-tank engine, most common with the two-footers. This scene on the grounds of the Rangeley Lakes House includes a view of the hotel’s depot, named Marbles after J.B. Marble, the resort owner.

  Phillips & Rangeley No. 2, although designated for passenger service, earned its keep much of the time by switching log bunks and hauling loaded logs to sawmills. In this c. 1907 view, the No. 2 is working a log yard of the Madrid Railroad, a Phillips & Rangeley subsidiary.

  Another offspring of the Phillips & Rangeley Railroad was the Eustis Railroad, which at various times extended and subtracted its mileage as the forests’ bounty played out. Eustis had its own engines and cars. The three Eustis Railroad engines, built by Baldwin in 1903–1904, were Nos. 7, 8, and 9. Heavy engines with small drivers were ideal for logging work.

  Eustis Railroad No. 8 is shown working a log yard on the Dago branch c. 1905. Note the log bunks with extensions between link-and-pin couplers. Most of the tree harvests were hauled down to mills at Redington and Madrid, where huge mill operations were located.

  High in the mountains was the large mill complex of Redington, where stood a complete town with stables, barns, shops, and houses, served only by the Phillips & Rangeley Railroad. Sluiceways were used to bring logs down from the mountains, and a large log dam created Redington Pond to store timber prior to milling. When the forests were later cleared out, the mill cleared out as well.

  Three

  THE SIX BECOME ONE

  With the merger of the six two-foot-gauge railroads north of Farmington between 1908 and 1911, the 18 engines and the 200 or 300 cars were gradually relettered and renumbered to conform to the new system called the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad. The various lines and branches were configured like a tree with a trunk—the original Sandy River Railroad, with branches fanning out in all directions. The four early engines did not see service on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad; they were all scrapped in 1911. All serviceable engines were combined and renumbered. Sandy River Railroad No. 5 became Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 6 (later Kennebec Central No. 4 and finally Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington No. 9).

  Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 8, built by Baldwin in 1907 as Sandy River Railroad No. 16, was delivered after the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad was formed. It immediately became the new railroad’s No. 8. It was of a new design, departing from the 0-4-4 rear-tank Forney, with a lead truck making it a 2-4-4 rear tank with improved stability as a passenger engine at speed.

  A new 2-6-2 wheel arrangement was outshopped by Baldwin in 1904 as Sandy River No. 8. It was the first of an eventual half-dozen Prairie types after the merger of the Franklin County narrow-gauge lines into the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad.

  Here is how Sandy River Railroad No. 8 appeared after becoming Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 19 with a paint-over. In later years, after the takeover by the Maine Central in 1911, the No. 19 changed its appearance again. Air brakes, automatic couplers, and electric headlights were later added to most Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes engines.

  At the merger, Phillips & Rangeley No. 2 became Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 17. Designed as a passenger engine with 35-inch drivers, it would frequently be so employed. Rebuilt and modernized at the Maine Central shops in Waterville, No. 17 would have a long life, even through the last days in 1935.

  The three Eustis Railroad Forneys were heavies, weighing a ton over Phillips & Rangeley No. 17. Numbered 20, 21, and 22 on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, they would continue mostly in branch-line logging service. Here is No. 21 at Phillips in the World War I period.

  Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 22 (formerly Eustis No. 9) is shown at the same location about two decades later, when the Sandy was sold for scrap in 1935. Note the headlight facing backward on the cab. The Forneys were great for two-direction operation. (Linwood Moody photograph.)

  This Baldwin builder’s photograph, taken in 1892, shows Laurel River & Hot Springs Railroad James Wyman, which became Sandy River No. 3 (later Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 16). This was rebuilt into something quite different in later years, as were the other two Mogul 2-6-0 types.

  This is nearly the same engine as the one shown in the previous view. When the Maine Central Railroad shipped the little 2-6-0s off to its Waterville shops, they were returned in 1916 with bigger boilers, air brakes, automatic couplers, and a rear set of wheels, another 2-6-2.

  Phillips & Rangeley’s George M. Goodwin (later No. 3) became Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 15 and, like its sister 2-6-0 Mogul types, became 2-6-2 Prairie types through the expertise of Maine Central’s Waterville shops.

  Sandy River Mogul No. 2 became Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 18, changed into a good-looking little Prairie type. It was the last engine under steam on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, hauling the rail-dismantling tasks and scrap-salvage trains during the last months of 1936. Finally, it met its extinction by torch at Farmington in late summer of that year.

  The first engine built especially for the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes was another Baldwin in 1909 and numbered as No. 9. Although it had the same 2-4-4 rear-tank wheel arrangement as No. 8, it differed with its outside-the-wheels driver frames and counterweights. With its 36-inch drivers, this engine was used primarily for passenger trains. In later years, it was used in mixed train service.

  Engine No. 10, built new by Baldwin for the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes in 1916 was a heavy engine that was used only on the main line between Farmington and Rangeley. This powerful “high stepper” was a passenger engine that set a few unofficial speed records. Because of its weight and fuel consumption, it was rarely used in late years. The economy model, No. 9, was much preferred by a low-budget management.

  The Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes had some big two-foot-gauge engines, but nothing ever larger than a 2-6-2. The railroad eventually had six of these. No. 23 was the giant of them all at 63,000 pounds—3 tons over the next closest in weight. Built by Baldwin in 1913 for operation only between Farmington and Phillips.

  No. 24 was the last engine built for the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad. This Baldwin of 1919 vintage was smaller than No. 23 and was light enough to be run over all the main-line tracks as well as some of the branches. In the last years, No. 24 could often be seen with mixed trains.

  The Phillips yard tracks were extensive with adequate space for car storage and provisions for a variety of servicing and maintenance activities.

  Phillips was the headquarters for the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, where a 10-stall brick roundhouse with attached engine and car shops were located. These buildings were actually erected before the merger, after a fire that destroyed Sandy River Railroad’s wood structures.

  Many types of machinery and tools were available in the Phillips shops to perform any work required.

  The shop buildings at Phillips had interior tracks, permitting direct movement of rolling stock and engines under cover for repairs and rebuilding.

  For many years, Rangeley kept servicing facilities on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad, including a coal shed and three-stall enginehouse. When this picture was taken in the early 1930s, there was little business left, either freight or passenger.

  Strong was a major center of activity on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, where trains met, moving east over the old Franklin & Megantic to Kingfield and Carrabasset and west to Phillips and Rangeley. It served wood-turning mills and lumber operations. Full station and servicing facilities were maintained.

  As in the case of Strong, Kingfield was a center for wood-turning mills and lumbermills. The depot and yard were located at the end of a spur track. Kingfield’s atypical station design has its freight shed built on to the depot itself. It is still standing today.

  Aside from Kingfield having been the headquarters of the old Franklin & Megantic, the town’s position of promine
nce in the Carrabasset Valley required the presence of full servicing facilities for engines and cars. A turntable, a three-stall enginehouse, and a small car shop were in service all the way to the last days of operation in 1935.

  One industry that kept the old Franklin & Megantic east of Strong in business was the Lawrence Plywood Company at Carrabasset. Engine No. 18 is shown switching the mill. Note the three-track sidings.

  Mill complexes on the Sandy River line flourished as long as the wood supply held out in a particular area. This Dead River Company mill, located on Toothaker Pond in Madrid, was a major customer of the narrow gauge between 1902 and 1908.

  A four-mile mill branch situated on a heavy grade was built in 1912 from Perham Junction off the Rangeley line to a vast mill complex at Barnjum. This view of Saddleback Mountain emphasizes the steepness of the line.

  The huge operation, owned and operated by Frank Barnjum, involved both sawn lumber and pulpwood, using timber harvested from an 8,000-acre tract in Mount Abram Township.

  These two 1920 views of the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad feature passenger trains. The photograph above shows engine No. 16 crossing the Baker Brook trestle at Fairbanks. The other photograph, taken at Farmington Union Station, is a study in contrast with a Maine Central “broad-gauge” train. It shows Sandy River’s heavy engine No. 10 with a train, probably for Rangeley. Passenger business soon went into rapid decline when substitute mixed trains and home-built rail motor buses appeared.

  The Farmington narrow-wide-gauge transfer station is very labor intensive in this 1903 scene. Ultimately, improved roads and trucks in the 1920s and 1930s were its nemesis.

  The contrast is more than size with this Farmington transfer yard scene of the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes in the mid-1930s. Note the all-steel standard-gauge Maine Central Railroad boxcar in background and the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes all-wood, paint-scarred relic of the 19th century. Its preservation into the 21st century had to be one of nostalgia and affection.

  This photograph, taken in 1935 at Farmington, offers a study in contrasts of narrow and standard boxcars. A note on the picture says that the two-foot-gauge wooden boxcar is the last revenue car on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes. (Elliott Steward photograph.)

  The Farmington depot is called Union Station for two railroads—the Maine Central Railroad standard gauge and the two-footer Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes. This is a mixed train in 1934 with Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 24, its last-built engine, and combination No. 14 on the tail end. Note the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes has a canopy sheltering both train and passengers.

  This ancient Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes caboose No. 551 was built by the Sandy River Railroad in 1904 and was rescued and restored by Ellis Atwood for his Edaville Railroad in late 1947. It is now a part of the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad collection in Portland. (Linwood Moody photograph.)

  This is how the interior of caboose No. 551 looked when it was still on the active roster of Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes equipment. (Linwood Moody photograph.)

  The Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad had a half-dozen each of snow-fighting equipment—plows and flangers. These photographs of flanger No. 501 and plow No. 513 were taken in the 1930s. No plows survived, but the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad museum in Phillips has flanger No. 503, partially restored. (Linwood Moody photographs.)

  This July 27, 1933 photograph at Avon shows the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Vose inspection car (with superintendent Oris Vose in knickers next to it) and the section crew at work with their Model T track car. Both are preserved today—the Vose at Maine Narrow Gauge and the section car at Owls Head Museum of Transportation. (Linwood Moody photograph.)

  Rail motors No. 4 and No. 5 are shown in a mid-1930s scene. One of these will be headed for Kingfield and Carrabasset, and the other to Phillips. The one on the left later served the Bridgton & Harrison Railway. It is now at Maine Narrow Gauge in Portland. (Linwood Moody photograph.)

  Four

  BRIDGTON CONNECTS

  Bridgton, an industrial and tourist center of western Maine, had depended on slow-moving, seasonal transportation for many years—stagecoaches and water transport. Canal boats passed through the many locks of the Cumberland & Oxford Canal between Portland and Harrison, and steamboats traveled from Sebago Lake Village to Bridgton Landing. “Bridgton on the Lakes” was an appropriate slogan. In the warmer seasons, at least, after the narrow gauge came, tourists could even alternate modes of travel with rail and water.

  Late-19th-century railroads that bypassed Bridgton also doomed the canal boats. Lake steamers could not operate in winter, and road conditions restricted stagecoach travel. Bridgton needed a railroad of its own.

  Narrow-gauge evangelist George E. Mansfield came to the rescue of Bridgton, just as he did with the residents of Franklin County. In 1882, he helped them build a 16-mile two-foot-gauge line, joining the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad at Hiram.

  The earliest two-foot-gauge engines were products of Hinkley of Boston, including Nos. 1 and 2 of the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad. No. 2 was sent to the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington at Wiscasset in 1906, and three years later, the Wiscasset road sold one of its Jackson and Sharp coaches to the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad.

  The Bridgton & Saco River Railroad prospered. In 1898, a five-mile extension beside Long Lake was built to neighboring Harrison. As at Bridgton, a steamboat landing existed to accommodate lake steamers—an alternate way to travel, especially for those who would enjoy both rail and boat transport in a very scenic region.

  Delivered in 1892, the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad’s third engine was built by the Portland Company. In this photograph taken c. 1900 near the turntable, master mechanic Mel Caswell is standing in front of the cab.

  This 1937 picture of former Bridgton & Saco River No. 3 may be one of the last. It has changed hands twice. In 1922, it was sold to the Kennebec Central Railroad as its No. 3 and, 10 years later, became Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway No. 8. It was involved in the wreck that closed the line on June 15, 1933. Souvenir hunters have stripped about all that is removable without a torch.

  Bridgton & Saco River engine No. 4 was built by the H.K. Porter Company of Pittsburgh in 1901. Its steamhead was located inside the cab, so the pop valve and whistle were on top of the cab. The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway would have a similar engine built by Porter in 1902.

  No. 4 was still active on the Bridgton & Saco River, as seen on this mixed train at Harrison in 1923. At the time, passenger traffic was still healthy, judging by the baggage car and two coaches. (Hugh G. Boutell photograph.)

  Bridgton & Saco River No. 5 was built by the Portland Company in 1906. This is a new design for the two-foot gauge, with a two-wheel lead truck. No. 5 is only two years old in this Bridgton Junction scene in 1908. Boxcars are gray with red letters. This mixed train is meeting the Maine Central connection, seen through the station canopy.

  In this 1933 photograph taken in Bridgton, engine No. 5 is after its retirement and will soon be junked. The running gear to engine No. 4 (behind) had the boiler removed to supply heat for buildings. (Linwood Moody photograph.)

  Bridgton & Saco River No. 6, like No. 5, was a 2-4-4 rear tank with its two-wheel lead truck and inside driver frames. This is a Baldwin Locomotive Works builder’s photograph. No. 6 was built in 1907 to the same plans as Sandy River Railroad No. 16, which became Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 8 upon delivery in 1908.

  This 1933 photograph of No. 6 switching at the Bridgton yard shows the two Socony tank cars on the siding serving Howard Burnham’s fuel supply business. Burnham was a director of the railroad at the time. (Linwood Moody photograph.)

  Engine No. 7, a later Baldwin, built in 1913, was one of the first two-foot-gauge engines in Maine to have a Walschaert valve gear, as well as outside frames and counterweights. The view above was taken at Bridgton Junction in 1915, when the engine was practically new. The picture below, taken at Bridgton in 1937,
shows that things have changed little except for the use of electric headlights. No. 7 was the last engine to operate on the Bridgton & Harrison Railway, hauling the train dismantling the line in 1941. It was preserved along with most of the remaining rolling stock by Ellis Atwood of South Carver, Massachusetts. (Below, Phil Bonnet photograph.)