Maine Bicentennial - History of the Calais Street Railway 1894-1929

The Trolley Leaves Calais - Lined up at the carbarn, are three

of the five Birney cars and standing, left to right, are 

Bernard Donahue, Chester Hobart, Mr. Walter Faloon, Edward

Frye, Jr., Edward Frye, Sr., Irving Russell, Fred McConvey,

George McCracken, and Harold Clarke, were the

operating employees on hand at the end. Soon after

abandonment, the five Birney cars were each loaded on a flat

car and shipped out over the Maine Central Railroad,

reportedly for Utica, NY. October 31, 1929,

Photo by H. E. Lamb in the

O. R. Cummings Collection 2009_2_48_020

Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library

     Here is the newest release in the Maine Bicentennial series of electric railways in Maine. This blog post features a Calais (ME) Street Railway history perspective as told by Donald E. Shaw in Volume 3, January 1949 issue, of Transportation. This material is taken from the copy of Transportation kept in the O. R. Cummings Collection at the Seashore Trolley Museum Library.

Click Here for the post: Ninety Communities in Maine with Electric Railway Service!

Click Here for the post: 57 Million Passengers Carried on Electric Railways in Maine in 1915!

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial Series - History of the Portland Railroad 1860-1941

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial Series - Aroostook Valley Railroad 1910-1946

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial Series - Fryeburg (ME) Horse Railroad 1887-1913

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Skowhegan & Norridgewock Railway 1894-1903

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - The Norway and Paris Street Railway 1894-1918

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Benton and Fairfield Railway 1898-1928

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - The Somerset Traction Company 1895-1928

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - The Fairfield and Shawmut Railway 1903-1927

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Waterville, Fairfield, & Oakland Rwy 1887-1937

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Trolleys to Augusta, Maine 1889-1932

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Rockland, South Thomaston, & St. George Rwy

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Rockland, Thomaston, & Camden St.Rwy. '92-1931

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Biddeford and Saco Railroad Co. 1888-1939

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Mousam River Railroad 1892-1899

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway 1899-1904

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Portsmouth, Kittery & York St. Rwy 1897-1903

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Bangor Street Railway 1889-1905

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Bangor Railway & Electric Company 1905-1925

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Bangor, Orono & Old Town Railway 1895-1905

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Bangor, Hampden & Winterport Rwy 1896-1905

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Penobscot Central Railway 1898-1906

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Bangor Hydro-Electric Company 1925-1945

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Lewiston, Brunswick & Bath St Rwy 1898-1907

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Lewiston, Augusta & Waterville St Rwy 1907-19

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Androscoggin & Kennebec Railway 1919-1941

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Portland & Brunswick Street Railway 1902-1911

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Auburn & Turner Railroad 1905-1928

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Auburn, Mechanic Falls & NorwayStRwy1902-7

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Portsmouth, Dover & York St Rwy 1903-1906

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Atlantic Shore Line Railway 1900-1910

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Atlantic Shore Railway 1911-1923

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - York Utilities Company 1923-1949

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Portland-Lewiston Interurban - It Begins 1914

Click Here for the post: Maine Bicentennial series - Portland-Lewiston Interurban - The End 1933

Seashore Trolley Museum, the Museum of Mass Transit in Kennebunkport, Maine, is celebrating its 80th Birthday year in 2019! Many events are scheduled and many more will be scheduled before the opening of public operations on May 4, 2019. 

     Calais, Maine, at the head of navigation on the St. Croix, is an old town, steeped in shipbuilding and maritime traditions. So is St. Stephen, N. B., across the river, and itself an important lumber shipping port in years gone by. In the '90s (1890s), Calais had a population of around 7,000; St. Stephen about 3,000; and Milltown, two miles upriver, some 2,000 more. It was at this time that an electric railway between the towns was first proposed, and it was Charles W. Young of St. Stephen who headed the initial enterprise when it finally got underway. 

     It was necessary to organize two separate companies to consummate this venture, as New Brunswick law required that there be a separate corporate entity to control that part of the road which was to be operated on the Canadian side of the border.

     The St. Stephen Street Railway was incorporated by an Act of the New Brunswick Provincial Legislature in 1891, with a capitalization of $100,000. Its incorporators were Frank Todd, John Chipman, Henry F. Todd, Gilbert W. Ganong, Irvine R. Todd, and Charles W. Young. Operating privileges were granted to this company for 15 years.

     Under the date of March 17, 1893, another company, known as the Calais Street Railway was organized under the laws of the state of Maine, and in this was vested the operating management of both properties. Thus it came to be that the St. Stephen Street Railway during the entire active life of the joint enterprise was leased to and operated by the Calais Street Railway which purchased the rolling stock and equipment and hired the personnel used on both sides of the border.

     A carbarn was built at the head of River St., in Calais, a steam-driven power station adjacent to it. An agreement was made with the St. Croix Gas Light Co., which operated the local electric light service, for the use of its poles. Rails were laid from the carbarn to Bank Corner, Calais, and up North St. to Knight's Corner, Milltown.

     Finally, on the Fourth of July, 1894, hundreds of people from both sides of the river, gathered to see the first electric cars to run in far-eastern Maine. Many were anxious to ride as well. By nightfall, if they stayed around that long, these same customers were already getting a little more ride for their money, as the track crew worked feverishly all day and by night had the 48-lb. T-rails were laid down as far as Baring Street Corner.

First electric trolleys in Calais. North Street and Main Street,

"Bankers Corner" on June 4, 1894. Photo by H. E. Lamb in the

O. R. Cummings Collection 2009_2_48_001

Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library

     Soon the car tracks extended not only for a mile or so down Main Street in Calais to the Lower Wharf at Steamboat Street but also over the upper bridge across the St. Croix at Milltown and down the New Brunswick side of the river to St. Stephen, and on to what was then known as the Shore Line (New Brunswick Southern) railway station in that town.

     This extension gave the road its first actual international significance, with men from both sides of the border being employed on the cars that shuttled across the St. Croix between the United States and Canada with matter-of-fact regularity.

     The old covered highway bridge at Ferry Point, which connected the central portion of Calais with St. Stephen, had once successfully held up Jumbo, the famous circus elephant, but was not considered to be sturdy enough to support the electric cars. However, this was the logical point for a new and more direct connecting link between the two principal towns on the system. With the completion of a new (and presently-used) steel bridge at this location in January 1895, tracks were laid across it to give Calais St. Ry and its leased line a total of a little more than 7 miles of track, forming a loop and two stub ends which taken altogether could give a passenger quite a ride for his 5 cents-4 miles in the United States and 3 in Canada.

The new bridge between Calais and St. Stephen has closed

car No. 4 crossing as it looked before vestibules were

enclosed. Circa 1895, H. E. Lamb photo

in the O. R. Cummings Collection 2009_2_48_022

Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library

     The route of the Calais Street Railway from the junction with Main Street at Bank Corner, Calais, a single track extended west through the center of North Street to a point near Washington Street, where it swung to the left side of the road, to Knight's Corner where the tracks crossed to the right side of the highway. A turnout was located here. A short distance further, at MacFarlane's Curve, the track again crossed to the left side of North Street and alternated with center-of-the-street locations as far as the Upper Bridge over the St. Croix, which bridge it crossed on the west side.

     Turning east down the Canadian side of the river and crossing the highway, the track followed the right side of Water Street to Milltown siding between Deacon and Elm Streets (a regular meet for the cars),  thence continued along the right side of Water Street to West Street turning into West Street, the track followed the right side of the street to "Brickyard Curve" where another turnout was located as the rails curved east onto a short stretch of a private way, then swung out into Schoodic Street which was followed to the intersection of Water Street in St. Stephen. The track then followed the left side of Water Street, where it shifted to the center-of-the-road location through the business district of St. Stephen, and where it was joined by the more direct line from Calais which came over the lower bridge.

Two of the closed cars as they looked about 1924,

on Milltown, N. B. turnout. H. E. Lamb photo

in the O. R. Cummings Collection 2009_2_48_023

Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library

     Near the Canadian Pacific Railway station, the track turned north from Water Street onto King Street for a short distance to Rose Corner, the end of the line in more recent years. Earlier, a single track had extended down the right side of Prince William Street to the station of the Shore Line Railway.

     Another track of the Calais Street Railway extended from the corner of Steamboat Street west along the right-hand side of Main Street, later shifting to the center of the street, and passing through the business section of Calais and across the International (Lower) Bridge to St. Stephen.

     A short spur also extended west from Main Street down River Street in Calais to the 3-mile carbarn.

The details are sharper in this map by Charles D.

Heseltine then in the map it replaced that is 

pictured in the original Transportation copy.

Courtesy NEERHS 2015 book, "The Illustrated Atlas

of Maine's Street & Electric Railways 1863-1946."

    

     Saturday night was the "big night" on the cars when everybody headed for "downtown." It is recalled that it was not uncommon in the old days to see women with their arms full of shopping bundles boarding the trolley in Calais, soon after which the bundles would miraculously disappear so that by the time the customs inspector got aboard at the International Bridge, even his well-trained eye could detect nothing dutiable-for these were the days of long, full, and much-concealing skirts.

Closed car No. 4 at Bankers Corner in Calais before

vestibules were enclosed. Circa 1895 H. E. Lamb photo in

the O. R. Cummings Collection 2009_2_48_005

Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library

     Bad accidents were few and far between on the Calais Street Railway, and during all the years that the cars ran only one man was fatally injured - and even he was not a passenger at the time.

     The 15-year privileges that had been granted to the St. Stephen Street Railway expired in 1908, but another Act was passed by the New Brunswick legislature in that year to give the corporation the right to continue to function without further time limitation, under its 99-year lease to the Calais Street Railway. At this time, George A. Curran was president of the two companies, Charles W. Young was treasurer and general manager, and Charles F. Pray was superintendent and corporation clerk.

     A reorganization of the Calais Street Railway was effected in October 1910, and in 1914 a new power supply replaced that which had been previously furnished by the old steam plant with a hydroelectric power station at Murchie Dam in Milltown now being drawn upon.

     Normal schedules called for the operation of three cars, with two leaving Bank Corner, Calais (one going via North Street and one via Main Street) and one leaving Rose Corner, St. Stephen, at 15 minutes before and 15 minutes past each hour. Two cars met at the Milltown, N.B., siding on the hour and the half-hour under this schedule.

     At the peak of operations, rolling stock consisted of four 10-bench open cars, four closed, one work car, and one snowplow. The four open cars which were numbered 1, 3, 5, and 7, were part of the system's original equipment, as were the closed cars 2, 4, and 6. Briggs and Jackson & Sharp were the builders of the early cars which had Westinghouse electrical equipment and Bemis trucks.

Winter meant tough going in Calais where there is plenty of

ice and snow. The plow jumped the rails coming down

Apothecary Hill and only the sidewalk curbing stopped

it from sailing right into Dan Groves' store.

Circa 1920 photo by H. E. Lamb

in the O. R. Cummings Collection 2009_2_48_018

Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library

     About 1912 another closed car, No. 8m slightly shorter than the others, was purchased second-hand. Later on, as these cars grew infirm with age, the company acquired 5 Birney safety cars from the Boston Elevated Railway. These cars were numbered 9015, 9018, 9056, 9061, and 9075. They were built by the Brill Company and were 6 years old when Calais got them in the fall of 1926.

Calais Street Railway "safety" cars, still retaining their

formidable Boston Elevated Railway numbers must have

looked oddly out of place to strangers who passed through

this remote "Downeast" region. These Birney cars provided

both winter and summer service during the last years the 

Calais trolleys operated. This photo of No. 9075 was taken

at Milltown, Maine, showing Motorman, Mr. Walter Faloon,

(standing), and a passenger. Circa 1926, H. E. Lamb photo

in the O. R. Cummings Collection 2009_2_48_017

Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library

     In December 1924, the road was forced to suspend service for a time due to low water on the St. Croix and a consequent shortage of power. Operations were resumed but a definite downward trend in revenues was already a matter of some concern. It was the same old story in Calais as in small trolley-operating communities all over the land, to say nothing of many of the larger ones as well. Private autos were becoming more and more plentiful. Taxis had already begun to compete with the Calais Street Railway, particularly on the St. Stephen side of the border.

     Dividends had ceased during World War l, and with operating costs alarmingly high, fares were increased in an attempt to cope with the deficits that had been appearing on the company's books since 1919. But it was of little help.

     In 1928, the property was acquired by the Associated Gas & Electric Company and plans were made to abandon the street railway service. It was on All Saints Eve, October 30, 1929, that the Calais Street Railway cars made their last runs. Rails were soon removed from streets, after which there remained few vestiges of a once-flourishing line that had been the most easterly trolley road in the United States and one of only four ever to cross our international borders.

     In addition to the Calais Street Railway, only three trolley lines ever physically connected the United States and neighboring countries. One of these joined Niagra Falls, NY, with Niagra Falls, Ontario, and nearby points with a scenic belt line till in the early 1930s. The other two connected Laredo, Texas, and Neuvo...Laredo, Mexico (abandoned several years ago), and joined El Paso, Texas, and Juares, Mexico (still running). 

Foreword from the publication

     In addition to various standard reference works that have been consulted in the preparation of this manuscript, the following persons have rendered material assistance which is hereby gratefully acknowledged:

     H. E. Lamb, Milltown, ME

     Edward Frye, Sr., St. Stephen, N. B.

     W. L. Dewar, Milltown, N. B.

     G. E. Steeves, Springfield, MA

     W. B. Trites, Secretary-Treasurer of the Province of New Brunswick

     I have also made use of helpful dates contained in a feature article by H. E. Lamb in the "Calais Advertiser," under the date of November 19, 1947.

Donald E. Shaw

94 Federal Street

Springfield, MA

November 5, 1948

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We continue the restoration work on the 1912, Narcissus, the only surviving high-speed, luxury interurban coach of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban. 

Click Here: Narcissus Restoration-Related Posts

Being more than a century old, the stately, "Elegant Ride," Narcissus, is a gem.  This shimmering precious stone of Maine transportation history is brilliantly resplendent as it emanates so many elements of history, including; time, places, people, and events, that it was coupled to, that when just a smattering of its seemingly innumerable stories are shared, the contents captivates, fascinates, then generates, interest to learn more 🙋. The majestic Narcissus is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Please consider joining the epic journey to complete the Narcissus Project by making a donation today!

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The restoration of this majestic icon of Maine's electric railway history is but one in a series of captivating stories containing an abundance of incredible coalition of narratives.

Click Here: History-Related Posts - Narcissus and Portland-Lewiston Interurban

     The Narcissus is featured in the national Gold Award-winning novel, Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride. The "Elegant Ride" is the Narcissus. Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914, between Lewiston and Portland, Maine, while campaigning for the Progressive Party candidates.

Click Here: Bookstores and Businesses promoting the Narcissus Project

Independent book publisher, Phil Morse, holding

the Gold Book Award Winner plaque for

 the Middle Reader category for The Eric

Hoffer Book Award. Congratulations to

award-winning Maine author,

Jean M. Flahive