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,M2-»t MEC ?Vp£^ Maine Central VICE PRESIDENT—ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT Railroad Magazine CONTENTS Vol. IX—No. 8 The Rains Came 4 1953 Bowling Tournament 8 George P. McCallum Editor-in-Chief FROM THE EDITOR Our railroad lost one of its most colorful employes William A. Wheeler last month. Jim Chadbourne, he of the lodge-pin decorated lapel, vest-weighted massive watch chain, Associate Editor Emeritus and magnificent handlebar mustache, sought retire• ment on his 65th birthday April 29, after 47 years of tale-punctuated service. Extra Crew Foreman on the Mountain Subdivision, Jim began with the Maine Central on Dec. 24, 1906. He'd been section foreman at Canton and Chisholm and served in World War I with the 14th Engineers. Twenty-two years ago he went to the Mountains, and working out of, and living in, Bartlett, N. H., he bossed the hardest snowplow job on the system. No records show the long nights or hours spent bucking W. P. REEVES the elements to keep "the Notch" opened to traffic. IK He must have seen some howlers, when the run up to Crawfords and back just barely kept the road open. ok Jim was a railroader in the old tradition. He'd strip to shorts and tough ankle boots in Summer, let• The election of Walter P. Reeves to vice president—assistant to the president of the Maine ting that old New Hampshire sun tan him to the Central Railroad and the Portland Terminal Company, was announced April 28 by E. Spencer color of a fine pine cone. In Spring and Fall his cos• Miller, President of the Maine Central Railroad. tume was a venerable bearskin coat, ankle length, Reeves started his service with the Maine Central in 1901 as a clerk in the freight auditor's draped over a lanky frame, with but dungarees be• office. After successive promotions he was appointed assistant to the Federal Auditor in COVER neath, and a three-cornered fedora above. 1918 and two years later was made Assistant to the Comptroller. In 1921 he was made A long way from home in Jim didn't always agree with "the brass," his work assistant comptroller of the Maine Central Railroad and the Portland Terminal Company. Maine Central locomotive car was an experience to behold. Jim's gone. But Reeves was appointed assistant to the executive vice president in 1933 and was elected 706 shown hauling Boston when the wind starts whistling in the Notch, the air comptroller and treasurer in June 1940. He was appointed assistant to the president of & Maine train 62 near gets blue with the cold, and the conductor says "Take the Maine Central Railroad in April 1952, the position he has held until his present Troy, N. Y. In addition to 'er out," we'll bet Jim's spirit is up there like of old. promotion. illustrating a typical New England Spring scene, it Reeves makes his home with his wife in Portland and has two grown sons. He is a member Published Monthly by also shows how our joint of the New England Railroad Club, the Portland Club and the Astronomical Society operating agreement util• THE MAINE CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY of Maine. izes our motive power effi• 222 St. John Street Portland, Mains ciently. 2 3 BOSTON & MAINE RAILROAD HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARCHIVES Spring Floods The Rains Came By J. W. Wiggins Engineer, Maintenance of Way as told to the Editor The rains came to the Maine Cen• 4. Brunswick to Lewiston Lower tral this Spring and when an ab• 5. Winthrop to Belgrade normal 10-inch rainfall had subsided, 6. Bath to Wiscasset it had disrupted operations, caused 7. Norridgewock to Madison washouts at 17 locations, and cost us Closing of other lines followed with $145,000. the continuous rise of water in the From March 26-April 2, the heavy Androscoggin and Saco River water• rainfall saw roadbed banks become sheds. so saturated that slides began oc• Worse points on the Maine Central curring. The famous watersheds of system relative to disruption of serv• THE KENNEBEC RIVER did this to our main line near Kennebec siding Maine and New Hampshire filled up ice and damage to track were on the and developed runoff rates at flood Mountain Subdivision between Hiram necticut and Mohawk Rivers. It was deep for one rail length to five or six pitch. and Fryeburg, and Cornish to Hiram. the Saco that did the damage. rail lengths washed out, two or three Beginning at 7:30 a.m., March 26, Service was out three and four days In the early morning of March 27, feet deep. respectively; Livermore Falls to washouts were reported on the Moun• The Israel River at Lancaster, the prediction of things to come Rumford, out of service four days; tain Subdivision that took 41 cars of N. H., washed out fill at a bridge abut• originated between Charlotte and St. and the mainline between Augusta gravel to fill, the worst spot being at ment about 14 feet long and 14 feet Croix Junction on the Calais Branch and Waterville. The latter, while out Glen, N. H., where for five rail lengths deep closing the line from Quebec when five or six places washed out of service less than 48 hours, required a three-foot deep gash occurred. Junction to Lancaster. Sandbagging and required two cars of gravel to 28 cars of riprap, 31 air dump cars Working to repair the track here were and five carloads of gravel prevented fill. and 3 coalcars full of gravel to repair Perras' Extra Crew and ten men from further damage. a slide caused by high water in the Thompson's Extra Crew of the Port• THE SCORE Kennebec River. land Terminal under Assistant Track THE ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER On March 27, due to washouts and Supervisor Horace Ames. Maine's powerful Androscoggin water over the track, the Spring THE SACO RIVER The Saco also hit about one and a River, a longtime havoc-wreaker when flood hit with a vengeance, closing The Engineering Department time• half miles east of Hiram where it in flood, hit our Rumford Branch in the following lines to traffic: table of events was classified accord• reached a depth of four feet over the the early hours of March 27 after five 1. Quebec Junction to Lancaster, ing to the rivers causing the floods. rail for a distance of three-quarters inches of rain had fallen. First re• N. H. For example, along the Mountain of a mile. West of Brownfield it went ports were water over the wye at 2. Fryeburg to Crawford Notch Subdivision, trouble was expected over to the same depth for about 900 Canton and then at Worthley's be• 3. Livermore Falls to Rumford from the Saco, Israel, Moose, Con- feet. Washout varied from four feet tween Peru and Gilbertville for about 4 12 rail lengths. Measuring point of the river's flow, Gulf Island at Lewis- the Lewiston Branch. ton, reported 57,000 cubic feet per LOGS LOOSE IN THE RIVER! second at that time. Telephone com• At the height of the flood peril in munications were knocked out, and the State of Maine, the heavily in• thousands of people evacuated from dustrialized city of Lewiston was the region during the flood period. threatened by the Androscoggin River. As the river reached a flow of Damage between Ganton and Dix- 90,000 feet per second the morning field saw 5,400 feet of track washed of March 28, Maine Central crews out requiring about 4,000 yards of moved 20 carloads of rock ballast rock and gravel to repair. Fifty-one out on its bridge on the main line Back carloads of gravel were loaded from Road there when it was reported that Libby's Pit and rushed to the scene; 3,000,000 feet of saw logs were loose Beaulieu's Extra Crew went out of in the river. Train service was not Waterville to Livermore Falls with 20 interrupted and the cars were re• cars of rock ballast, but the water moved when the danger subsided. backed up behind them in the Dead HIGH WATER at Leeds Centre kept patrolmen watchful River east of Leeds Center and closed THE KENNEBEC RIVER the line behind them. Week's Crew The Kennebec River added its fury ville and Portland. Unloaded at the left Norridjjewock where an eight to the flood damage when it began point of slide, cars were shuttled LETTER OF CREDIT foot deep washout had been repaired, coming over the rail on the Lower back and forth between Gardiner and and hit the Leeds Center trouble spot Waterville. In a 37-hour period, 28 Maine Central Railroad with 10 cars of rock ballast. Assistant Road main line between Vassalboro carloads of riprap and 36 cars of Track Supervisor Eddie Davis re• and Winslow at 4 a.m., March 28, but gravel were unloaded at the slide and 232 St. John Street ported the damage in the Canton- receded. At Farmingdale it covered it was opened to traffic. Five more Portland 4, Maine Rumford area as described. the ties, necessitating slow orders and cars of riprap and eight cars of gravel Gentlemen: then receded, but caused a washout were needed further before speed re• Maine Central Railroad is doing LEWISTON LOWER near South Gardiner that took three something to offset the talk that the The Lewiston Branch from Lisbon hours to repair. strictions were lifted. Railroads need vitalizing. Falls to Lewiston Lower was hit about After flexing its muscles the Ken• A LAKE, TOO Upon boarding your train in Bangor the same time when water went over nebec showed its anger March 30 As if it weren't enough for the on a Sunday afternoon at 2:20 P.M.

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