right, let alone because it’s the last of the two-foot gauges. It isn’t
completed yet, either. Doubt if it ever will be: there’ll always be a
new spur to build or a bog-siding somewhere to install. Maybe some new
equipment, too--such as a nice, new Plymouth diesel for the cranberry
freights.
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
No. 4 heads a freight train into clear to allow the passenger job to
gallop by.
]
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
No. 7 crosses some undeveloped bog. Maybe next year cranberry vines
will bloom over there in the brush.
]
Eh? Sure: why not? What’s wrong with diesels? You fellers always get
emotional when someone says diesel. Want to see the Edaville go in the
red? This railroad (although you’d never guess it) isn’t a plaything;
it’s a plantation utility, designed to facilitate Mr. Atwood’s cranberry
business. The passenger train and the parlor car, and Sunset Vista, are
gestures he and Mrs. Atwood make from their own pockets to give people
some fun down here--and to have a little themselves. But he can’t run
his freight trains at a loss just to see coal smoke smudging all over
those nice red cranberries. Red’s a pretty color, but not on the ledger!
Probably if the other two-footers had bought some Plymouth diesels
they’d all be running today. Lots of difference between coal at ten
bucks a ton and oil at ten cents a gallon. Personally I’m for it--a ten
ton, eight-wheel diesel Plymouth. Besides, that’ll save the steam
engines for Sunday and holiday passenger trains!
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
No. 7 when she was a girl at home. Here she waits at Bridgton Junction
for men to load mail and express into the baggage-car; then she’ll
breeze up the hills to Bridgton, 16 miles, in an even 40 minutes!
]
Gosh! Here it is Six-thirty; they’re backing the _Sunset Special_ in.
Maybe Mr. Atwood would like to show you those pictures of old
two-footers in the few minutes that are left. I see he’s finished his
steamed clams now.
Guess I’ll mosey onto the platform and see who’s in the crowd. Always
hoped Kilroy might be here sometime!
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
The first 2-foot gauge enginette in America, Bedford & Billerica
“Ariel” No. 1. You see her here as Sandy River No. 1 less a
monstrous smokestack and goldleaf filigree.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix
You’d think I’d written a five-foot shelf of books instead of a small
travel-guide pamphlet, if Forewords, Introductions, and Appendixes are
any criteria. This is how it seems to stew out though, so it’s how
you’ll have to take it. Keep cool!
Lots of you won’t be interested in this Appendix. It’s designed for the
fellers who’re more or less railroad minded and thirst for technical
details. It’s a brief critique about the gears and rods that made the
wheels go round, during those hectic, vortical years. A cursory account
of engines and cars and mileage that made up the Edaville’s immediate
predecessors.
Here again we’ll have to condense the facts in favor of space. To
include a really comprehensive _expose_ of these historical
lines--locomotive rosters and dimensions, car measurements and
classifications, capitalizations, earnings and expenses, and
blow-by-blow reports of the septuagenary rise and fall, as well as
scale-drawings for model fans--would be a book in itself, and a
family-Bible size at that. No one but the most serious students of
railroad lore would read beyond the title page. Let’s try to jam a lot
into a few pages here.
EDAVILLE RAILROAD
Just when the Edaville was conceived is a risky guess. Maybe in 1941
when the moribund B. & S. R. prodded Mr. Atwood’s imagination. Maybe
forty years ago when, as a lanky young feller, he mused on the pleasure
of owning something better than rickety sections of portable track and
tiny one-yard dumpcars.
He did something about it in 1941, anyway. They were busting up the
Bridgton road. He bought the biggest part of it. Wars came. You couldn’t
call your soul your own unless it was kept out of sight. Without an
AA-12-PDQ-RSVP-1/2 priority there was no such thing as moving things by
freight, and these coveted ratings weren’t being handed out to move
narrow gauge railroads from Maine to South Carver. Unless they moved
into the Community Scrap Drive, and I never understood how this one
escaped those zealous patriots.
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
Important in pygmy power development were the little Moguls. The Sandy
River had engines with separate tenders as well as those like Mr.
Atwood’s--built all in one piece.
]
It did have a tight squeak. Mr. Atwood was notified that his railroad
equipment might be seized anytime for Government use and for him to
leave it strictly alone. Engines and cars needed for self-defense--don’t
touch!
Funny how it came out: A few weeks later he was advised he might protect
his ownership by moving everything to Carver at once. Mr. Atwood tartly
replied that such extravagant use of transportation facilities and
scarce gasoline, when our country was fighting for its life, wasn’t
becoming a patriotic gentleman. Mightn’t he wait until the wars were
done? An answer sizzled back! Henceforth he might not only do as he
pleased, but the government had oodles of railroad equipment they’d like
_to sell him_, war or no war. Would he buy?
He wouldn’t; then.
The wars petered out. We were allowed to use the gasoline again. Big
trucks and little ones headed north in the fall of 1945, and rumbled
back with loads of little cars. The City of New Bedford owned a private
railroad that once hauled coal to their Water Works pumping station, and
they agreed to sell. Two and a half miles of fifty-six pound steel.
Three miles more came down from the mountain grades of Parker-Young
Company’s logging road in New Hampshire. Ties from Maine and more from
the New Haven. Crews assembled.
Some desultory track-laying began in 1946 but it wasn’t until late that
fall that a former New Haven track man lined up his gang, and work began
in earnest. In the car shops repairs were progressing, for the day when
trains would begin to run.
Mr. Atwood did the engineering. He scooches to a transit as easily as
Farmer Jones milks a cow. He personally supervised everything else, too;
nothing was too small to escape his attention, no detail too mean for
his august decision. Mostly his own crews did the work. When cranberry
work could spare them they turned-to and became railroad men. Except for
the track boss no former railroad men were hired, although Badger might
as well have been an ex-Master Car Builder: he knew enough to be.
The locomotive crews are Mr. Atwood’s own cranberry men, instructed in
their exotic duties and performing them with remarkable efficiency.
Friends, visitors, and well-wishers have joined in offering suggestions
and criticisms to help the enterprise along. Mostly, though, it’s been a
series of inspirations plus years of secret planning from Mr. Atwood
himself.
Today the physical properties of his railroad are:
Miles of road:
Main line 5.5 miles
Grove Cutoff 0.6 miles
Yards 1.0 mile
Total 7.1 miles
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
This was biggest of them all, Sandy River No. 23. My pet grief is that
Mr. Atwood didn’t go into the railroad business ten years sooner,
and catch some of these tricky little pigs when the S. R. & R. L.
went broke in 1935.
]
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
Gasoline rail-buses on the Sandy River. The further one, with the
trailer attached, is now on the Edaville.
]
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
The freight train waits while pickers scoop another box of berries.
I’ll bet their backs’ll ache before night!
]
Engines:
No. 12 1-ton Bog Engine, Model T Ford
13 1-ton Bog Engine, Model A Ford
14 5-ton Plymouth
3 0-4-4T Vulcan ex-Monson R. R. No. 3
4 0-4-4T Vulcan ex-Monson R. R. No. 4
7 2-4-4T Baldwin, ex-B. & S. R. 7
8 2-4-4T Baldwin, ex-B. & S. R. 8
Cars, Passenger:
No. G1 Model T Trackauto ex-S. R. & R. L.
G2 Model T Trackauto ex-S. R. & R. L.
G4 Reo Railbus
Baggage No. 31 ex-B. & S. R. 31
Coach 15 ex-B. & S. R. _Pondicherry_
17 ex-B. & S. R. 17 (now named _Elthea_)
18 ex-B. & S. R. _Mount Pleasant_
3 W. W. & F. 3
Parlor 9 S. R. & R. L. _Rangeley_
Freight:
Box: 15 cars
Flat: 14 cars
Excursion: 4 cars
Tank: 2 cars
Caboose 557 ex-S. R. & R. L. 557
101 B. & S. R. 101
Snowplow 2 B. & S. R. 2
Flanger 1 B. & S. R.
4-wheel dump: 32 cars
Total number of cars, 80
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
The berries go aboard. Boxcar 13 already has a load, and presently the
little train will meander down to Edaville screenhouse and the
graders will take over.
]
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
Here is little engine No. 3 before she came to the Atwood family. Lots
of snow in Monson, eh?
]
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
Transferring sand from a “wide gauge” car to the narrow gauge, at
Monson Junction years ago. See the link-and-pin coupling on the
Monson flat.
]
BRIDGTON & SACO RIVER R. R.
Chartered in 1881, built in 1882, opened in 1883. Extended to Harrison
1898. Maine Central purchased it 1912, sold it 1927. Reorganized it as
Bridgton & Harrison Ry. and new company assumed control in 1930.
Harrison line abandoned 1930. Entire line abandoned 1941. Cost to build
and equip approximately $200,000. Peak year of earnings 1921 when
revenue was $112,000.
[Illustration:
First train order issued on the Edaville; members of the National
Railway Historical Society made this trip, August 31, 1937.
]
[Illustration: Edaville Sign]
Miles of road:
Hiram to Bridgton, 16 miles
Bridgton to Harrison 5 miles
Engines:
No. 1 0-4-4T Hinckley 1882
2 0-4-4T Hinckley 1882 Became W. W. & F. No. 5
3 0-4-4T Portland 1892 Became K. C. 3: W. W. & F. 8
4 0-4-4T Porter 1901
5 2-4-4T Portland 1906
6 2-4-4T Baldwin 1907
7 2-4-4T Baldwin 1913 Became Edaville 7
8 2-4-4T Baldwin 1924 Became Edaville 8
Cars:
2 Baggage, 1 Combination, 4 Coaches
1 Caboose, 69 Box and Flat, 2 Tank, 1 Plow, 1 Flanger
BILLERICA & BEDFORD R. R.
Chartered in 1876; built 1877. Abandoned Jan. 1878. Sold in entirety to
Sandy River R. R.
Miles, 8.6.
2 Locomotives,
_Ariel_ 0-4-4T Hinckley 1877, became S. R. No. 1
_Puck_ 0-4-4T Hinckley 1877, became S. R. No. 2
Coaches, 1; Excursion, 2; Combination, 1; Box, 1; Flat, 6.
SANDY RIVER & RANGELEY LAKES R. R.
Sandy River R. R. chartered 1879, built 1879. 18 miles.
Franklin & Megantic R. R. chartered 1884, built 1884. 15 miles.
Kingfield & Dead River, chartered 1893, built 1894. 16 miles.
Phillips & Rangeley R. R., chartered 1889, built 1890-91. 29 miles.
Madrid R. R. chartered 1903, built 1903. 11 miles.
Eustis R. R. chartered 1903, built 1903. 19 miles.
The 1908 Consolidation of these roads formed the S. R. & R. L. system,
and including logging branches it gave the new company approximately one
hundred and twenty miles of line, of which the forty-seven mile
Farmington-Rangeley road, the thirty mile Strong-Bigelow line, and the
ten mile Eustis Branch had scheduled passenger trains.
The S. R. & R. L.--or just plain _Sandy River_ as it always stayed in
the hearts of Franklin County--deserves a book in itself. Its history
and pictorial display would fill a big one. But here are the scantiest
of facts: With the Consolidation this new company inherited a galaxy of
equipment; whether or not all these units were renumbered into the new
S. R. & R. L. roster, or if some older ones were scrapped, is (and ever
will be, probably) a moot subject among railroad fans. I’ve spent
hours--yes, months, trying to track it down and willingly admit that I’m
bewildered and as uncertain as before. I admit, too, for the benefit of
serious fans who believe they’ve identified these old engines and cars,
that some logical and chronological sequences look pretty convincing;
and that’s all. There’s no proof, no positive evidence. I’m not
extending my neck. Here’s an all-time roster of motive power as complete
as I can find indisputable records to substantiate it.
Locomotives:
Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 are open to question. Probably F. & M. 1 and 2; S.
R. 1; and P. & R. 4 _Bo-peep_ were the culprits; but which were which no
one knows.
No. 5 0-4-4T Portland Co. 1890? ex-S. R. 4
6 0-4-4T Portland Co. 1891 ex-S. R. 5
7 0-4-4T Portland Co. 1891 ex-P. & R. 1
8 2-4-4T Baldwin 1907 ex-S. R. 16
9 2-4-4T Baldwin 1909
10 2-4-4T Baldwin 1916
15 2-6-2 Baldwin 1891 ex-P. & R. 3
16 2-6-2 Baldwin 1892 ex-S. R. 2nd 3
17 0-4-4T Baldwin 1893 ex-P. & R. 2
18 2-6-2 Baldwin 1893 ex-S. R. 2nd 2
19 2-6-2 Baldwin 1904 ex-S. R. 8
20 0-4-4T Baldwin 1903 ex-Eustis 7
21 0-4-4T Baldwin 1904 ex-Eustis 8
22 0-4-4T Baldwin 1904 ex-Eustis 9
23 2-6-2 Baldwin 1913
24 2-6-2 Baldwin 1919
Sandy River 1st 3 was an O-4-4T Porter, sold to the W. & Q. in 1894. No.
6 was sold to the Kennebec Central about 1922 as their No. 4, and was
acquired by the W. W. & F. in 1933.
Cars: Another blank wall. The company’s _schedule of property_, typed in
1935 for prospective scrap buyers, says they had 73 boxcars, 58 flats,
and 136 “other freight train cars”. My own observations around there
would place the number of boxcars at nearly twice 73. Several official
reports had given the total number of freight cars as 350 whereas this
_schedule_ amounts to only 267. Just another of those vicissitudes the
historian must bang his head against!
As for those “other freight train cars” they were probably the swarms of
flats fitted with rack sides, for hauling pulpwood. Some may have been
the truant boxcars. Ho-hum.
As for passenger cars, this august _schedule_ says “12 coaches, 3
combination, and 2 baggage”. The 3 combinations and 2 baggage comes out
all right, but I’m nostalgicly moved to wonder where they hid all those
twelve coaches all the years I used to be over there. I was familiar
with five. To be sure, there were a couple of old, abandoned coaches and
one retired combination boarded up, and used as camps. But still, no
twelve.
The _schedule_ lists six cabooses and four gasoline railcars. I’ve seen
eight cabooses, and ridden in five railcars. There were five snowplows
in service, and seven flangers. There were big turntables at Farmington,
Strong, Phillips, Madrid Station, Rangeley, and Kingfield. Three-stall
wooden enginehouses at Rangeley and at Kingfield, and another at Bigelow
before that Carrabasset-Bigelow section was abandoned about twenty years
ago. The big ten-stall brick house at Phillips is still there, used for
a woodworking mill.
MONSON RAILROAD
Chartered in 1882; built in 1883. 6 miles. Abandoned 1945.
Engines:
Nos. 1 and 2, O-4-4T Hinckley 1882
3 O-4-4T Vulcan 1912 now Edaville 3
4 O-4-4T Vulcan 1918 now Edaville 4
Cars: 1 Combination; 28 flat and boxcars. 1 snowplow, 1 spreader.
KENNEBEC CENTRAL R. R.
Chartered 1889; built 1890. 5 miles. Had no physical connection with any
other railroad, as its western terminus, Randolph, is separated from the
Maine Central’s “Lower Road” at Gardiner by the Kennebec River. Barges
unloaded Togus coal at the railroad coal docks, on the Randolph side.
The K. C. was also unique in having no ballast supply on their line. All
gravel was carted in to them, the same as coal would be.
Engines:
No. 1 0-4-4T Baldwin 1890 _Volunteer_
2 0-4-4T Portland 1891
3 0-4-4T Portland 1892 ex-B. & S. R. 3
4 0-4-4T Portland 1891 ex-S. R. & R. L. 6
Coaches, 2; Combinations, 2. Box, flat, and dropside gondolas, 13. Also
a freakish kind of snowplow-flanger rig.
So, we’ll call this an introduction to a two-foot gauge history. Maybe
our more accomplished brethren will call it less complimentary names. If
the printer will correct the misspelled words, and I have any luck at
South Carver next week taking pictures, maybe _Edaville Railroad_ won’t
be so bad, after all.
(I guess this is all.)