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Electric Traction Quarterly 1965 Spring Berlin Street Railway by Cummings
Electric Traction Quarterly 1965 Spring
Volume 3 #3
Table of contents:
Berlin Street Railway by O.R. Cummings
27 pages. Map, photos, more.
Nestled high in the age-old White Mountains of New Hampshire are the city of Berlin, known the world over for its pulp and paper mills, and the neighboring town of Gorham, once an important lumbering center and today a noted winter sports resort. Both are located in the Androscoggin River Valley in the Granite State's Coos County and have a combined population of about 20,000, a large percentage of which is of Franco-American descent.
For more than 36 years - from mid-1902 until late 1938- these two communities were served by trolleys of the Berlin Street Railway Company, which was still operating buses until a few years ago.
Organized April 22, 1898 by a group of Berlin residents, including C. P. Day, L. J. Cote, A. M. Stahl, F. M. Clement, C. C. Ferrish, W. H. Paine and G. 0. Holt, the Berlin Street Railway received its charter of incorporation on June 5, 1899. The authorized capitalization was $15,000 and the railway was to be "somewhat less than five miles in length" and was to have a gauge of three feet.
The proposed main line was to extend from Berlin Mills, at a point opposite the pumping station of the Berlin Water Company in the north end of the city, through Main Street and along the present Route 16 to the Gerrish Farm, so-called, at the Berlin-Gorham boundary. There also was to be a loop line through several streets in Berlin and a branch easterly on Exchange Street to the Grand Trunk Railway depot. Later, on Jan. 29, 1901, the company was authorized to extend its main line from the Gerrish Farm along Route 16, southerly and easterly, to the corner of Main and Exchange Streets in Gorham.
However, the Berlin Street Railway was little more than an idea until late in 1901 when the charter was purchased by Frank Ridlon, a Boston street railway supplies wholesaler, and Edward W. Gross of Auburn, Me. They reorganized the company, secured permission to issue $80,000 common stock, $30,000 in preferred stock and $105,000 in mortgage bonds, and proceeded to arrange for the construction of the road - which was to be built to standard (4 ft. Min.) gauge instead of the originally proposed three foot width.
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