It is good to be back on the air again for this beginning of our fifth year\u00a0of gossip about old time things and old time customs. Since our last broadcast\u00a0of the 1951-52 season, Waterville has celebrated her 150th anniversary. Those\u00a0festal days are over and we are settled down to another half century of community development.<\/p>\n
Some of us get a lot of enjoyment talking with folks who participated in\u00a0Waterville’s one hundredth anniversary in 1902. I wonder if folks of 2002 will\u00a0get the same enjoyment talking with the old men and women of that day who saw\u00a0Waterville’s 150th In 1952. Consider some of those kids who acted in the amusing\u00a0schoolroom scene depicting Crosby Hind’s school in the 1820’s. Perhaps,\u00a0when Waterville celebrates its two hundredth birthday, and many of us are no longer\u00a0around, one of those kids may probably tell his grandson, “Yes, Indeed, I\u00a0was an actor in that pageant on Mayflower Hill 50 years ago”.<\/p>\n
The Waterville Sesquicentennial gave many instances of the kind of cooperation\u00a0that is the key to all American progress. I had the pleasure of witnessing\u00a0many rehearsals for the pageant — rehearsals held in the worst heat of the\u00a0summer in the stifling auditorium of the Senior High School. There I saw 400 of\u00a0our citizens give up night after night in tiresome, repetitive practice for the\u00a0big pageant. Then I saw them, with equal devotion and loyalty to their city,\u00a0give up every night for a whole week for the six performances.<\/p>\n
When you add to the devoti on of the pageant cast the work done by the talent\u00a0committee, the costume committee, the make-up committee, the ticket committee. the ushers and ticket-takers, the Red Cross nurses, and scores of other persons\u00a0connected with the pageant alone, one gets some idea of the extent of\u00a0cooperation.<\/p>\n
But the pageant was only one feature– though the principal feature — of\u00a0the celebration. Think of the cooperation shown in other events throughout the\u00a0week – the merchants, industries and organizations that not only provided the\u00a0beautiful floats, but contributed in so many other ways; the hundreds of people,\u00a0including so many clerks in the stores, who dressed in uncomfortable old-time\u00a0costumes in that sweltering weather; the farmers and other neighbors from surrounding\u00a0towns who gave us such a fine exhibit; the twins who came from far and\u00a0near; the old time fire companies that came from as far away as Massachusetts;\u00a0and the totally unexpected number of men and women who became Brothers of the\u00a0Brush and Sisters of the Swish.<\/p>\n
One of the most notable instances of cooperation came from the Maine Central Railroad. Do you know how that miniature train one of the outstanding exhibits\u00a0of the celebration — was made? It was made as a cooperative effort by\u00a0the men in the various shops of the railroad — the blacksmiths, electricians,\u00a0metal workers, founders, painters, carpenters, and all the rest. Every shop had\u00a0a share In making that wonderful train, and every workman took commendable pride\u00a0in his share of the job.\u00a0Then, on the day of the big parade, the Maine Central Officials did a very\u00a0gracious thing. Not only did they allow the shop workers to participate in the\u00a0parade without loss of time, but they also provided cars for those railroad\u00a0paraders, each car marked with a placard denoting the shop its occupants represented.<\/p>\n
Some of you know that I have long been a railroad fan. After seeing that\u00a0wonderful evidence of public spirit by both management and workers of the Maine\u00a0Central, I am more of a railroad fan than ever before.\u00a0I cannot resist pointing out one significant sign of the changed times exhibited\u00a0in this Maine Central contribution to Waterville’s 150th birthday. I can\u00a0well remember the time when a rai 1 road man would have been considered a veritable\u00a0Judas if he bought an automobile. That hated rival of the railroad had no place\u00a0in <\/strong>the railroad man’s family. Back about 1912 I can recall hearing Joe Bennett,\u00a0president and general manager of my old narrow guage road, the Bridgton and Saco\u00a0River, say to my father: “Well, ain’t rode in one of them contraptions yet,\u00a0and I don’t intend to”. So far as I know, Joe Bennett kept his word, and went\u00a0to his grave in the Bridgton cemetery behind a pair of horses.<\/p>\n Since we have got started on the Maine Central tonight, let’s give our attention\u00a0to another item about our railroad. Mr. D. E. Decker of Clinton has\u00a0shown me Time Book No. 57, Regulations for the Movement and Management of Trains\u00a0on the Maine Central, to take effect Monday, May 1,1876. That was just 76 years\u00a0ago, and was a great year for our whole nation, because it marked the one hundredth\u00a0anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n This was of course a timetable and instructions for employees only, and was\u00a0printed in very much the same form as today. Regular freight, as well as passenger\u00a0schedules are shown. A way freight left Portland at 4:10 A.M., reaching\u00a0Waterville at 12: 15 and going through to Skowhegan at 2:05. Loading delays and\u00a0shifting accounted for the long ten hours it took to make the trip.<\/p>\n As for passenger trains between Portland and Bangor, via Augusta, there were\u00a0only two in each direction. A morning train left Bangor at 7:45 and reached Portland\u00a0at 1:45, running time of just six hours. An evening train left Bangor at\u00a08:00 and got to Portland at quarter of two in the morning. In the other direction\u00a0there was a night train leaving Portland 35 minutes after midnight and reaching\u00a0Bangor at half past six in the morning. The only day-time train left Portland\u00a0at 1:40 in the afternoon and got to Bangor at 7:30 in the evening.<\/p>\n Over the back road — the old Androscoggin and Kennebec — there was one\u00a0through train each way between Cumberland Junction and Waterville. The up train\u00a0arrived here at 5:10 in the afternoon, and the down train left here at five minutes\u00a0of ten in the morning.<\/p>\n There is an interesting comment printed on the timetable; “The stations\u00a0where regular trains cross or pass each other are designated by full face figures.\u00a0Trains cross when they meet and go by each other; they pass when one overtakes\u00a0another and goes by it.” Mention of stations no longer used casts light on old railroad days. A prominent\u00a0place in the 1876 timetable is given to Waterville Junction. That was the\u00a0old meeting place of the Androscoggin and Kennebec and the Portland and Kennebec,\u00a0originally roads of different guage. The junction point was between Waterville\u00a0Depot and Fairfield. For instance, the timetable shows that a passenger arrived\u00a0in Waterville from Portland at 5:15 P.M., left for Bangor at 5:25, going through\u00a0Waterville Junction without a stop at 5:27, and stopping at Benton at 5:33.<\/p>\n At Watervi lie passengers for Skowhegan, arriving on that 5:15 train, changed\u00a0to another train leaving at 5:27, which stopped at Waterville Junction at\u00a05:29 and at Fairfield at 5:35. Those times Imply that the site of Waterville\u00a0Junction was much nearer to Waterville than to Fairfield. Of course there were\u00a0originally two Watervi lie stations, the A & K near where the Eastern Packing Company\u00a0plant is now located, and the P & K near the foot of Temple Street, but I\u00a0think the central station had been but It at the lower College Avenue crossing\u00a0by 1876. Does anyone know whether I am right in that conjecture?<\/p>\n Now of course these employee timetables show locations not on the public\u00a0tables;\u00a0so it is possible some of the places on the 1876 table that seem unusual\u00a0to a passenger may be on the employee tables today. At any rate here are some\u00a0of those names you no longer see on the public timetables; Pishon’s Ferry,\u00a0which of course is Hinckley, Somerset Mills (that is now Shawmut), East Turnout,\u00a0between Riverside and Augusta”, State House Siding in Augusta, Camp Ground\u00a0between South Gardiner and Richmond, Harward’s Road between Richmond and Bowdoinham, Oak Hill between Brunswick and Freeport. The Union Station in “Portland had not been built in 1876. After the down train left Woodfords, It made\u00a0three stops — B & M Junction, Portland Yard, and Portland Depot.<\/p>\n The last was the 0ld depot at the foot of Preble Street.\u00a0What is still perhaps the most famous community operated railroad in the\u00a0United States — the Belfast and Moosehead Lake — was operating in 1876 as part\u00a0of the Maine Central. It ran two mixed trains a day, just as it did 45 years\u00a0later in 1921, when I used to ride it as a textbook salesman.\u00a0The branch road had not yet gone through from Newport Junction to Dover,\u00a0but it did go as far as Dexter, operating three dally trains in each direction,\u00a0two of them straight passenger, the other a mixed passenger and freight.<\/p>\n One interesting change over the years concerns the compass directions. The\u00a0current usage calls for east bound or west bound trains. For instance, the latest\u00a0Maine Central timetable has notations like these: “stops to leave passengers\u00a0from Richmond and points east”; “stops to leave passengers from Portland and\u00a0west”.\u00a0The table headings on the old 1876 timetable, however, read: “Trains moving\u00a0North”, and “Trains moving South”. The table tells us, ”Trains from Bangor to\u00a0Portland are southward trains; those from Portland to Bangor are northward\u00a0trains.”<\/p>\n Let us now see what some of the instructions to train crews were in 1876.\u00a0“All trains and engines will use two minutes crossing the bridge over the Kennebec\u00a0River at Augusta”. ”The speed of all trains and engines must be reduced to\u00a0six miles an hour before crossing Blind Crossing on Bath Branch.” “Section men\u00a0running their hand cars over the road should so work them as to enable the men\u00a0riding to look in both directions upon the track in order to avoid a collision\u00a0with engines or trains out of time.” ”Wild, extra, or special trains may be run\u00a0over the road by order of the Superintendent, with or without notice to other\u00a0parties, and therefore the main track must always be kept clear for passage of\u00a0such trains.” “The shifting engine from Waterville has right of track there between the time of arrival and departure of the regular trains.”<\/p>\n Those special rules for trains in 1876 were signed by that famous superintendent\u00a0of the Maine Central, Payson Tucker.<\/p>\n Not all of the narrow guage railroads in North America have yet been abandoned. Mr. Edson Smith of Clinton calls my attention to an Interesting narrow\u00a0guage, one of the longest ever bui It. It is the White Pass and Yukon Rai Iway,\u00a0running the whole 110 miles from White Horse, Canada to Skagway, Alaska. Mr.\u00a0Smith has been a passenger on that little railroad many times, and he believes\u00a0it had the highest passenger rate of any railroad in the world, 23 cents a mile.\u00a0Like my old Bridgton and Saco River, this Alaskan road is a two-footer and still\u00a0uses a coal burning locomotive. However, the broad guage Alaska Railroad, operating\u00a0between Seward, Anchorage, Palmer and Fairbanks, now uses modern diesels.<\/p>\n As a youth I was thrilled by the Klondike verses of Robert Service, particularly\u00a0“The Cremation of Sam McGee”. At one terminus of this last of the narrow\u00a0guage roads, White Horse, is the building in which Service did most of his writing,\u00a0and not far away is the cabin of the man who was the living original of\u00a0Service. Sam McGee.<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #153, broadcast on September 14, 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[787,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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