Vintage track vehicles

I saw this on the rail trail a few miles from my house

 

Maine was the only state in the US that developed a network of 2-foot gauge railroads. This highly unusual gauge was not uncommon in the United Kingdom, Europe, South America, Australia, and Asia.... but it was exceedingly uncommon the US.

If you see narrow gauge action in the US today, it will almost always be 3-foot narrow gauge. For trains in mountains like the Smokies and Rockies, 3-foot gauge offered a mix between high-capacity hauling and nimble mountain climbing. Most narrow gauge railroads that are still around, especially in the United States, reflect this 3-foot heritage.

The story was different in Maine. Even the 3-foot gauge was too prohibitively expensive to build when it came to the far-flung mountains and lumber fields of northern and western Maine. Unlike other mountain areas in the US, Maine did not have large deposits of gold, silver, and ore waiting to be mined, which would justify the cost of building a very expensive railroad. Instead, Maine had lots and lots of world-class lumber, slate, and potatoes. Railroads could help bring these commodities to market, but it would require a special adaptation to make it profitable.

That adaption was deciding to put the rails even closer together than 3-feet, leaving only 24 inches between the two rails. The central idea is that narrower gauge track meant the trains could take sharper corners and climb hills more easily, leading to cheaper overall construction costs. And so, America's first 2-foot gauge railroad, called the Billerica and Bedford Railroad, opened in Massachusetts in 1877.... but was unfortunately out of business by 1878. The railroad's promoter, named George Mansfield, felt that the concept of 2-foot railroading proved successful, even if his railroad company had not. He decided to try again in Maine.

His next railroad, the Sandy River Railroad, opened amid much drama and fanfare in 1879. It connected to the standard gauge Maine Central Railroad in Farmington and ran deeper into the woods and hills than the Maine Central was able to build. It success was due to its small footprint, costing roughly half as much to build as a standard gauge railroad, with half the operating costs, and earning an outsized profit for its hauling ability.

Inspired by the Sandy River's success, more narrow gauge lines opened in Maine over the next couple decades. These included the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad, the Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railroad, the Kennebec Central, the Monson, the Eustis, the Phillips & Rangeley, the Franklin & Megantic, and others - plus mergers, company reorganizations, name changes, and more meant that these railroads took many names over their lifespans.

With so many miles of 2-foot rail, Maine's remote interior had at long last been opened. The arrival of railroads to the distant villages of Maine sparked economic and cultural growth on a scale previously unseen in Maine.

Some other states did have a small amount of 2-foot gauge railroads, but no state built them to the extent that Maine did during this time.

Like most railroads in the country, narrow gauge railroading in Maine peaked in the early 1900s. Newly-developed roads, cars, and trucks became more and more competitive against the railroads. The Great Depression hampered the financial interests of the railroads that remained, and emerging war priorities took out what little remained of Maine narrow gauge railroads by the start of the 1940s. The last remaining historic Maine narrow gauge railroad, the Monson Railroad, put out its final steam boiler in 1943.

That could have been the very end of narrow gauge railroading in Maine, if not for the vision and unstoppable enthusiasm of a small group of railfans in northern New England who wanted the narrow gauge trains run again. But that is a story for a different day...

 

Portland Maine

 

1961 making room for a strip mall.