Bangor Public Library Bangor Community: Digital Commons@bpl Books and Publications Special Collections 1959 Portland Railroad: Part II, Rolling stock, carhouses, power supply Osmond Richard Cummings Follow this and additional works at: https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs Recommended Citation Cummings, Osmond Richard, "Portland Railroad: Part II, Rolling stock, carhouses, power supply" (1959). Books and Publications. 42. https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/42 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections at Bangor Community: Digital Commons@bpl. It has been accepted for inclusion in Books and Publications by an authorized administrator of Bangor Community: Digital Commons@bpl. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A PUBLICATION OF CONNECTICUT VALLEY CHAPTER Transportation Volume 12. JANUARY 1959. Price $1.50 WAREHOUSE POINT, CONN. ·PART II • • Rolling Stock, Carhouses, Power Supply Portland Railroad SCENE TYPICAL OF PORTLAND as late as the 1930s shows a big railroad roof car on the suburban Riverton line. No. 196 was one of 10 semi-convertibles built by Brill in 1902 for Westbrook, Windham and Gorham service. In 1918 these cars were equipped to haul the 760 class trailers to Westbrook. 2. TRANSPORTATION Vol. 12, Page 2. PORTLAND RAILR OAD were acquired. Such technical in­ Among those who have furnished INTRODUCTION formation as is available has been material or pictures for this effort CONVERTED horsecars, large, included and every known detail of are Ernest R. Rowe ·o f Westbrook, interest has been noted. Unfortu­ Maine; Charles D. Heseltine and easy-riding suburban types with nately, the only official record George F. Monahan of South Port­ and without smoking compart­ available is a numerical roster of land, Maine; Edward D. Leavitt pf ments, single and double truck equipment, which is incomplete in Biddeford, Maine; Edwin B. Robert­ Birney cars, center-entrance trail­ many details. But it has been pos­ son of Westbrook, Maine; the late ers with trolley poles and small 4- sible to find much supplementary Harold D. Forsyth of Marblehead, wheel arch roof semi-convertibles data in the Street Railway Journal, Mass.; Charles C. Holt of Saugus, -all of these wer·e among the wide the Electric Railway Journal, vari­ Mass.; Gerald F. Cunningham of variety of rolling stock owned by ous issues of Brill Magazine and Washington, D. C.; Charles A. the Portland Railroad, Maine's several scrapbooks kept by former Duncan of Danvers, Mass., and J. R. third large§t electric railway. employees of the road. McFarlane of St. Albans, Vermont. Altogether, the Portland Railroad J. Emmons Lancaster of West owned over 300 cars during its life­ The first part of the report covers Falmouth, Maine., attended to the time-from 1863 to 1941-and most the horsecar days; the second the drawings of the carhouse diagrams. of them were products of J . G. early electrics; the third, equip­ 0. R. CUMMINGS Brill or two of its subsidiaries, ment taken over from companies 105 Theresa Oourt Wason and Stephenson. There also absorbed by the Portland Railroad; Manchester, New Hampshire were a number of Laconia, Jones, and the fourth, the cars purchased American and home-built cars on from 1900 through 1941. These are the roster, but these were in the followed by descriptions of freight minority. and express cars, service equipment Transportation and snow plows. Portland Railroad cars were Volume 12 always well maintained and they Every effort has beeri made to were being overhauled and painted insure accuracy and where infor­ January 1959. mation has conflicted, that which right up to within a year or two of Published by : the end of rail service. It can be seemed the most reliable or most logical is quoted. Connecticut Valley Chapter, said truthfully that the nearly 40- National Railway Historical Society, year-old cars being used in the last The roster is followed by a Inc. years of trolley operation were in description of the carhouses, power as good oonditi·on as when they houses and substations, and the Roger Borrup, Publication Chairman were purchased. more serious accidents on the Port­ Warehouse Point, Conn. This report will deal with the land Railroad system over the Printed by the Wadsworth Press, cars in the order i:l which they years. Warehouse Point, Conn. MONUMENT SQUARE, Portland , Maine, as it was in the 1930s when trolleys still d omin ated the scene. PORTLAND RAILROAD Part II, Page 3. company produced two more closed cars were fitted with ring bolts so Horsecars cars, Nos. 72 and 73, equipped with they eould be drawn by horses JT IS all but impossible to present Robinson Radial 6-wheel trucks. between the carbarn on Munjoy an adequate discussion of the The Radial truck cars were 33 Hill and the start of the overhead horsecars of the Portland Railroad feet in overall length and had a wire in Monument Square. This because information about them is seating capacity of 34. They were procedure was continued until 1895 scanty and photographs of the constructed of bird's-eye maple and when the city lines in Portland early equipment are few and far were straw in color, with gold were electrified. between. lettering reading "Deering, Oakdale The original rolling stock of the and Morrills." Interior rurnishings New Rolling Stock line consisted of two cars, proba"Jly included Fowler stoves and red both closed, as operations be~an in plush seats with German silver WITH complete electrification -of the fall -of 1863. But,. by 1874, the kimmings. the system in 1895, many new company -owned 26 cars and the Like the converted horsecars and cars were purchased from Brill and stables held 83 horses. i.he new opens, they were equipped Wason, and as of June 30, 1896, Pictures of closed horsecars in with Thomson-Houston motors and passenger equipment consisted of operation durin:?; the 1870s and con trollers. 32 closed and 29 open electric cars, 1880s indicate they were box-like Originally, it was intended that of which 20 and 23, respectively, affairs, with slightly curved roofs the two opens, Nos. 70 and 71 , be had been acquired within the year. and D windows on each side of the equipped with Robinson trucks, but Of the total, 44 were single truck, body. They had driver's platforms f or some reason this was not done. two had 6 wheels and 15 had double on each end and were drawn by The two closed cars retained the trucks. two horses. 6-wheel trucks until 1900 and per­ Ten-bench single truck open and By 1890, the year prior to the haps later J. 20-foot single truck closed cars start of electrification, there were With the opening of the Port­ predominated among equipment 50 horsecars, both open and closed, land-Westbr-ook line in 1892, two purchased in 1895. There was one on the roster and 225 horses were 25-foot closed (Nos. 74 and 75) and 22-foot closed car (No. 109), and owned. Open cars were of the 7- four 12-bench open cars (Nos. 76- o:1e of the four Wason-built closed and 8-bench type, while the closed 79) were c-onstructed by the Port­ cars (No. 113) was equipped with cars were both 16 and 18 feet in land Railroad. Both types were vestibules. This was the first vesti­ length. Most were built by Brill. equipped with an early design of buled car on the system and no Four new closed horsecars were maximum traction truck, Thomson­ more were added until 1901. built by the Portland Railroad in Houston WP-50 motors and rheo­ Beginning in 1896, the company 1890 and were among the 6 of that stat controllers. began to acquire large numbers of type motorized for operation on the Two 20-foot single trucK cl-osed 12-bench double truck opens, all Deering line in 1891. By 1896, the cars (Nos. 80 and 81) were built in built by Brill and all equipped with year after the electrification was the company shops in 1894 and as maximum traction trucKs. One 25- completed, horsecars on the roster of April of that year, rolling stock foot double truck clo~ e ::i car (No. numbered 22 closed and 20 open. of the Portland Railroad included 143 ) was delivered by Brill in 1897, Some of the closed cars were con­ 42 horsecars, 18 motor cars and 8 but the Portland Railroad did not vel'ted to service equipment and trailers. The trailers were used on begin to buy double truck closed both open and closed horsecars the Westbrook line. ca rs in any quantity until 1901. were· used as trailers behind the Both the Deering and Westbrook A brief description of the passen- elcctrics for a number of years. The last 6 closed and 14 open horsecars ~· ~ were retired in 1905. Early Electric Cars WHEN the Portland Railroad em- barked upon the experimental electrification of its Deering line in 1891, it motorized 6 of its newer closed horsecars (including the four built in 1890) and constructed two 10-bench opens, Nos. 70 and 71 , in its own shops. The electrics were equipped with Peckham trucks, two Thomson­ Houston WP - 30 15 - horsepower motors an d Thomson - Houston rheostat controllers, probably of the 51-D type. All 8 cars went into operation when the Deering line opened on TYPICAL of the 10 - b ~ nch single truck open cars of the Portland June 19th. Later in the year, the Railroad was No. 93, built in 1895. There were 50 cars of this type. 4. TRANSPORTATION Vol. 12, P age 4. ger cars of the Portland Railroad Both open and dosed cars were New Equipment of appeared in the March 1896 issue equipped with Bemis trucks and The Portland Railroad of the Street Railway Journal and General Electric motors and con­ read as follows : trollers.