Maine Central Railroad Magazine Vol. X—No. 11 Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those CONTENTS inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our George P. McCallum species. Every improvement of the means of locomotion benefits mankind Editor-in-Chief Hurricane Edna 4 morally and intellectually, as well as materially, and not only facilitates the interchange of the various productions of nature and art, but tends to remove William A. Wheeler Conant Builds Home 10 national and provincial antipathies, and to bind together all the branches of the Associate Editor Emeritus great human family. Paper Mills 14 —Thomas B. Macaulay. Europe's largest railway station restaurant is in Zurich Central Station, in FROM THE EDITOR Switzerland. It is staffed by 400 employees and can accommodate 1,600 persons at a time. We'd be the last to dispel the popular miscon• * * * ception held by metropolitan cliff dwellers and un• fortunate residents of other states that Maine is still An interesting volume entitled "Stories on Stone" compiled by Charles L. a deep, dark wilderness inhabited by Indians, lob• Wallis, published by Oxford University Press, 1954, contains the following railroad items: sters, and until the recent election, furtive Democrats. We always make it a point to mention, in say Cleve• In Greenridge Cemetery, Saratoga Springs, New York, is the tombstone of land or New York, the fact that just the other day Willoby S. McMillan, a locomotive engineer, who died in 1853. It bears the following inscription: having a desire for a venison steak for breakfast, we stepped to the back porch and dropped a prime buck. My engine is now cold and still No water does her boiler fill Hence, we're glad to pass on this most recent The wood affords its flames no more proof of the legend. On our desk is a succinct car• My days of usefulness are O'er. bon of a report to the vice president-Operations from The tombstone of Locomotive Engineer John Amos Barnes, in Bay View THE COVER J. H. Libbey, conductor August 28, on our popular Cemetery, Bellingham, Wash., bears this inscription: train to the Maritime Provinces, "The Gull." A veteran Wabash Railroad engineer An unidentified track Took his last orders and made his final trip to patrolman typifies the ter• Explaining a 15 minute delay, on the line of the a mansion in the sky. rible damage hurled at report where it says, "Cause (briefly)" the conduc• Maine Central by Hurricane tor wrote: "Eng. 557 struck bear on main track." In Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, Colo., on a granite monument Edna. This scene is on the to Charles B. Gunn, railroad conductor, who died in 1935, are the words: Farmington Branch, where * Papa—Did you wind your watch? the patrolman surveys one of the many washouts that Published Monthly by hit it. Photo is by George Wilbur, Livermore Falls THE MAINE CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY There are more miles of railroad in the United States and Canada than there are in Asia, Africa, South America, and Australasia combined. photographer. 222 St. John Street Portland, Maine The world's longest daily non-stop passenger train run is 393 miles, made by "The Elizabethan," between London, England, and Edinburgh. Scotland. 3 Hurricane Edna Wreaks Havoc On Maine Central . $350,000 Damage. Washouts Riddle Entire System. Service Nearly Restored. Efforts of Personnel Wonderful cancelled. No. 15 was held at Northern second work train with 20 carloads of Maine Junction, No. 116 at Franklin, gravel and the Kohring ditcher was No. 57 at Freeport when the rain dispatched on the Back Road. At stalled its locomotive, No. 8 backed Leeds it turned the ditcher over to from Vanceboro to McAdam to feed Work Train No. 1 and took from it, 182 passengers. locomotive crane 163. Train 2 then RD—1 was halted with 45 cars at went to Oakland where two bad wash• Livermore Falls with a washout in outs had occurred. (For the sake of front of it and a track slide behind it. clarity in this narrative bad should be With reports of disastrous damage considered the equivalent of "terrible" piling up, the Engineering Department and minor what would be considered determined that the best place to "hit" bad washouts at any other time.) was the Back Road via Lewiston to Waterville as it suffered the least damage. OAKLAND HOLES A severe washout 1J/2 miles east of The Oakland washouts were located Freeport had the Lower Road mainline one on either side of Smick Road un• tied up when a culvert blew and gravel derpass at the easterly end of Oakland fill to the depth of 40 feet was carried yard. When the work train arrived out. work was begun immediately under Track Supervisor Maurice Thorne to WORK TRAINS OUT fill the westerly hole, measuring 25' deep and 40' long. Sweet's and Smith's Saturday night a work train was Carpenter Crews also began trestling The Lady Was a Tramp! dispatched from Portland to work its way through to Waterville. Although the easterly hole that measured 20' there were track washes between deep and 50' long. When repaired, Royal Junction and Lewiston, e.g., 6' traffic was resumed Portland-Bangor long x 2' deep, 10' deep x 25' long; via the Back Road by noon Tuesday, they were light compared to the rest Sept. 14. Edna—a vicious little tramn of a As the Magazine went to press, of the system. No real trouble was en• Hurricane—stormed into Maine, Satur• mainline and most branch line service countered until the train reached While this action was underway, day, Sept. 11, unsheathed her nails, had been resumed, but Engineering Greene where there were several Work Train No. 1 proceeded to a bad and clawed the Maine Central system Department officials, eyes red-rimmed washouts. One was 35' long x 5' deep to ribbons. with fatigue, and bone-weary Operat• and another 90' long x 3' deep, these ing men, estimated the system would were blocked or cribbed up. Statewide, 80-mile-an-hour winds not recover from Hurricane Edna for hurled torrential rains against railroad three weeks. The train eventually reached Leeds culverts that had successfully with• Junction where additional gravel was stood the onslaughts of Mother Nature Approximately 1,200 carloads of obtained at Libby's Pit. Meanwhile a for more than 100 years, punching gravel and fill will be needed to repair gaping holes in our mainlines and the inumerable wash-outs, in addition riddling every branch line on the sys• to special jobs by private contractors. UPPER left is a view of one-half tem. mile of track washed between Mountain Junction and Cumber• Eight inches of rain, the heaviest TRAINS CANCELLED land Mills near so-called Dole's Grade. This photo was taken downpour on record, "blew" culverts A timetable of Edna's guttersnipe about midway in the washout to• with the tireless rapidity of a repeat• actions recorded by the Engineering ward Cumberland Mills. ing squirt gun causing an estimated Department showed that by 5 p. m. AT RIGHT, is the washout out $350,000 damage to our railroad. Sept. 11, all trains on the system were at Oakland described above. 4 Engineer Harry Homans recorded the damage. A harmless brook with the improb• A MESSAGE OF THANKS able name of "Sedgeunkedunk Stream" west of Elm Street crossing, South When emergency and crisis in the Brewer, undermined our bridge abut• form of hurricane and flood over• ments, making it necessary to "under• whelmed our railroad and caused com• pin" it. There were Ave bad washouts plete cessation of all train movements on the branch. One of the worst was for one of the very few times in Maine at Hurd's Brook, South Orrington. Central's 92-year history, concern and This normally pleasant, meandering care were tempered by feelings of brook has moss-lined banks, trickles thankfulness and relief as the capa• through quiet shaded dells, passes bilities, loyalties and energies of our through a sturdy stone box culvert Engineering and Operating people a man can walk through upright, and were applied to the huge task of re• passes quietly into the Penobscot. storing service and efficiency. Not so with Edna's eery visit. It I know of the long, hard hours built up a 50' headwall, hit the culvert, many of our people worked, of the split three ways and will require 5,000 difficult tasks they accomplished and cubic yards of All to repair. of the unselfishness they demon• Another bad one was farther west strated, and am pleased to record in Bucksport Centre. Rich's Brook got through this medium a word of appre• into the act and blew a hole under the ciation and profound gratitude to track in which you could place a large each of them. two-story house and never touch the sides. To repair these washouts, roads Spencer Miller have to be built from the main high• President way even before contractors can start tc make the fill. sump hole across the bog west of BINGHAM BRANCH Frost Street. Traffic not interrupted Riddled with washouts ... all the however as trains routed to Cumber• DAMAGE at Morrison's Underpass, Hampden, described below, in this photo taken from mainline way from Oakland to Madison. One land Mills via Deering Junction over and showing Hampden mainline and a side track. Pipes are pumping intakes from river wharf of near Oakland, 25' long x 25' deep; Webber Oil Company. the old Worcester, Nashua & Portland four within a two mile area east of track.