Radio Script #1282

Little Talks on Common Things
September 27, 1981

It is some time since this program has referred to what was once one of its favorite subjects: Maine’s ten narrow gauge railroads that were thriving at the beginning of this century. Today I want to renew our recollections of the narrow gauge that operated between Wiscasset and Albion, and at one time had a branch line to Winslow.

Although it had the name Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington, the little two-footer never reached Waterville, to say nothing of Farmington. But its branch from Weeks Mills did come to Winslow. That was not intended to become a branch, but rather the main line of the road across the Kennebec to Waterville and on to Farmington, while the part from Weeks Mills to Albion was to be a branch.

What made the change surely needs explanation, and I will try now to give it. The original plan was much more pretentious. It was for a narrow gauge line from Wiscasset to the City of Quebec, and the charter was for the Wiscasset and Quebec R.R. Co. That charter had been secured from the Maine legislature as early as 1854.

At that time Wiscasset was a well known and much used Atlantic port. Its excellent harbor attracted many ships. Its sheltered anchorage was on a broad stretch of the Sheepscot River not far from its entrance into the Atlantic.

Even before the Civil War. enterprising businessmen had become interested in finding means of getting the grain from the west to the eastern seaports for export. During the warm months of the year, much of it went by way of the St. Lawrence River. But that route had two handicaps. No large boats could ply the river above Montreal because of the rapids that are now bypassed by the Seaway; and the river was frozen over during the winter. The transfer around the rapids was long and costly, and only small boats would run the rapids themselves.

A partial solution to the problem had come with John Poor’s building of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence R.R. from Portland to Montreal in the 1840’s, a rail line that made Portland a very important Atlantic port for a full century. Quebec City, always vying with Montreal for business, was envious of that rail connection and was ready to listen to overtures from the directors of the chartered, but not as yet built, Wiscasset and Quebec. Twenty years, however, went by with no action; then a route was fully surveyed for the 241 miles of track between Wiscasset and Quebec. The original plan was to go from Wiscasset to Augusta and cross the Kennebec there. It would then go up the west side of the river through Sidney to Oakland. It would not touch Waterville at all. From Oakland the road would go via North Anson and Bingham to the Forks then cross the Canadian Pacific R.R. at Moose River, go on to the boundary into Canada, then to St. Joseph and Quebec.

After that survey, fifteen years elapsed, until in 1892 George Crosby, head of the Crosby Steam Gauge and Valve Co., a native of Albion, decided it was more feasible to build the narrow gauge from Wiscasset to Albion. He also built in Albion a magnificent home which everyone called the Crosby Mansion. Crosby had not forgotten the road’s name, Wiscasset and Quebec, and approach to the Canadian city by a different route was now considered. The line would be extended to Burnham, there cross the Maine Central and take a northeast route to the Forks. Crosby got enough financial support to start building in 1894, and that year it was built from Wiscasset through Alna, Whitefield, Coopers Mills, and Windsor to Weeks Mills. The next spring it was completed through China to Albion.

At one time a branch was proposed from Coopers Mills to Togus, there to connect with the already existing narrow gauge from Togus to Gardiner, but that plan came to nothing. A roadbed was built and a few rails were laid between Albion and Burnham, but a new snag was then encountered. The Maine Central refused to allow the narrow gauge to cross its track on its way to Quebec. After two years of bitter litigation, the Wiscasset and Quebec gave up the attempt. In fact, it could see no advantage in finishing the job to Burnham, but settled down to being a transportation line between Albion, through prosperous farming country, down the Sheep scot Valley to the sea.

In 1897 came the plan for a longer extension, this time not to Canada but to Farmington. The plan was to build from Weeks Mills to Winslow cross the Kennebec to Waterville. and go on through Oakland and New Sharon to Farmington. The Wiscasset and Quebec applied for a new charter and a new name, the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington. Waterville had a large part in the creation of the new company. It was actually organized in the Waterville law office of William T. Haines, later Governor of Maine. Among the directors were such well known local men as Cyrus Davis. W. B. Arnold. Horace Purinton, Frank Redington, George Fred Terry, and Harvey Eaton. The extension to Winslow was actually built, a road bed was constructed through a part of the Sandy River Valley, but the Kennebec was never crossed. So the object of reaching Farmington became only a dream.

It was the property of the woolen mill in North Vassalboro that was largely responsible for the main road being considered the line from Wiscasset to Winslow, and that from Weeks Mills to Albion the branch, until changed conditions forced the closing of the line between Winslow and Weeks Mills, making the only operation between Wiscasset and Albion where a prosperous creamery had been established. When the road saw a financial crisis threatening its existence in 1900, it was bought by Charles Peck, a department store promoter, who became better known to Maine people through the opening of his big store in Lewiston. Under his ownership, the little narrow gauge saw a few years of prosperity. He ran numerous passenger excursions at a profit, a postal contract brought in money, and freight increased. In 1912 the line carried to market 200,000 bushels of potatoes.

Though the narrow gauge avoided deficits for a few more years, the margin of profit was small. In 1916, despite income of $66,000 its expenses were $64,500, with a mere $1,500 profit. After that, the deficits mounted. Lack of success was certainly not caused by excessive spending. No employee, not even engineers or station agents, got more than $3 a day, and coal for the locomotives was only four dollars a ton. By 1916 Peck had died and his heirs had no interest in the little railroad. They held on for ten years, however, until in 1926 they decided to abandon the line and take up the rails. But a group of local people took over, and managed to keep the trains running for a few more years. Then the Great Depression of the 1930’s assured the eventual downfall.

Linwood Moody, in his book THE MAINE TWOFOOTERS, said of the W W & F: “The situation steadily grew worse. Track was neglected, cars needing repairs lay on the sidings and trains seldom ran on time. In derision folks began to say that W W & F stood for Weak, Weary and Feeble.”

It was a wreck that finally caused the demise of the little narrow gauge. That wreck did not occur in a blinding winter blizzard, but at the beginning of summer. On June 15 1933, a train southbound had just left Whitefield when a rail brake sending the locomotive down the bank. Only two cars left the track, and a few years earlier such a wreck would have been cleared within 24 hours. But both finances and enthusiasm were now so low that this June wreck was never cleared up. Engine and cars gradually stripped of everything valuable, lay there for years. That was the end of the W W & F.

In her book BIG DREAMS AND LITTLE WHEELS, Ruby Crosby Wiggin, a descendant of George Crosby, relates some amusing stories about the little railroad. Here are two of them: “One day a train out of Wiscasset got low on coal. Seeing a pile of bark beside the track. the engineer stopped the train, filled the firepit with bark, and kept up enough steam to reach China where he picked up enough coal to go on to Albion.” Mrs. Crosby does not say whether the owner of the bark was
compensated.

Another yarn tells of the Great Locomotive Chase. It was just before Christmas in 1925, a time when mail was heaviest. After reaching Albion after a very busy day, the mail clerk had gone to bed exhausted. The next morning, when the train was ready to leave for Wiscasset, the clerk had not shown up. After a few minutes wait, the conductor said: “I’ll go down the platform and take one more look. If I don’t see the lights coming down the hill, we’ll start without him.”

Meamvhile the clerk heard the whistle of the train, leaped out of bed, scrambled into his clothes, and managed to start the model T Ford in the yard. The Great Locomotive Chase was on. The clerk hoped to catch the train at China, but when he got there it had already gone. Again he missed it at the Palermo station, but the clerk knew a shortcut over a wood road. He may have shortened the distance but not the time. The clerk had to get out several times to dig out the Ford. Again he missed the train at Weeks Mills, but on a sidetrack was Supt. Sewall’s private conveyance, a gas-propelled conversion of an Old Model T, certainly faster than the old handcar it had superseded. Abandoning his Ford, the clerk jumped into the rail car, and sped down the track after the train. He might have had to chase it all the way to Wiscasset if a hot box had not held it up at Windsor. There, with a satisfying gasp, the clerk boarded the mail train and went to work. So far as Mrs. Wiggin could learn, the case was never reported to postal authorities.

And that ends today’s story of the little railroad that came to be called the Weak, Weary and Feeble.

Year: 1981