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Maine Scenic Route Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad Crittenden 2 MAPS
The Maine Scenic Route by H Temple Crittenden
Hard Cover w/Dust jacket (has plastic covering)
229 pages + 46 pages
Includes 2 fold out maps in the back
Copyright 1966
CONTENTS
ChapterPage
OneThe Billerica & Bedford Railroad1
TwoThe Sandy River Railroad15
ThreeThe Franklin & Megantic Railroad47
FourThe Phillips & Rangeley Railroad67
FiveThe Sandy River-F & M Combine91
SixThe Eustis Railroad123
SevenThe Prosperous Years133
EightRed Ink and The End161
NineRosters, Lists, and Tables195
Line Drawings, Tickets, Time Table209
Plus 54 Pages of Pictures
64-page Supplement in back plus two maps in pocket on back cover
DUST JACKET INTRODUCITON: ABOUT THE BOOK
Just before World War I the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad reached its peak of prosperity and could boast operating on slightly less than 70% of gross revenue. The S R & R L paid its owners a handsome profit, and in return gave Franklin County, Maine, the most dependable transportation system-before or since-a homegrown product to be spoken of with pride.
That narrow gauge railroad was no toy . . . although even some people who lived within sound of the whistle held the road in contempt. There was the farmer who never bothered to look when he crossed the track for he considered his new Ford touring car a match for any "dinky" locomotive. That is, until the day a passenger train from Kingfield caught him on the track, junked his Ford, and put him and his wife in the hospital. After the Ford's remains had been hauled away from the front end, the train steamed on. From then on the farmer not only looked but also stopped and listened.
But begin with the exciting down-to-the-wire finish of laying steel on the Sandy River Railroad from Strong into Phillips to make a deadline contract despite a foot of snow and an incomplete trestle, accomplished with the help of a rallying cry, "Give a day's work to the railroad!"
And then of course in the winter of 1884, the Italian labor gang held up a locomotive and Dan Cushman on Ledge Hill on the Franklin & Megantic to force the company to pay their back wages, after the contractor had quietly disappeared.
Then there's the story of the employee whose pay was long overdue from the F & M. He desperately needed a new pair of overalls to go to work-he was told by the frugal superintendent to hire out somewhere else until he earned enough money to buy the pants, then report back to work!
The term "bootlegger" may have originated on the Phillips & Rangeley's excursion from Farmington to Rangeley July 4th, 1892, as told by Ozro Roys in his amusing account of the trip.
Josiah Maxcy was really "taken for a ride" to inspect the need for ballast on the old Franklin & Megantic line from Strong to Kingfield-the description of the green-faced, disheveled Maxcy crawling thankfully from his prone position on the caboose floor is delightful.
Read on for the hilarious description of the wild ride from Bigelow to Kingfield of the eight men hanging on a lurching two foot gauge handcar with the pumping handle beating the air-no one was surprised to find that the time for this ride bettered the speed of the regular passenger train by several minutes.
But then there's the tale of Fred Leavett and No. 20-how they left the track without knowing it and bucked snow for half an hour out in a field before they discovered (when they got out to shovel) that they no longer had rail under them.
Temple Crittenden tells the story of the wonderful little railroad-not only with documented stories about the development of the lines which eventually combined to form the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes under the stock manipulation of Josiah Maxcy, but also with facts taken from the official reports, financial statements, minutes of stockholders meetings, timetables, equipment rosters, newspaper accounts, and actual interviews with men who made the little two-footer run.
As he has said many times "The writing began as a hobby some forty years ago and ended as a dedicated task in 1965. This is the best then that can be done 86 years after the first spike was driven and 30 years after the last one was pulled."
A different approach has been used in presenting this history in that ownership has been given primary consideration. Financial manipulations have been taken out of the closet and aired. In short, this is a rather unusual history.
The dust jacket design is the work of another dedicated steam engine designer, artist-illustrator, and author, Jan Gleysteen of Scottdale, Pennsylvania, whose own book on the 4-4-0's has recently been published. All drawings in this book were executed by H. Temple Crittenden himself from scale drawings and plans.
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