Maine Bicentennial Series - Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway - 1899-1904

Thomas B. Goodall, "father" of the Atlantic Shore Line Railway

sits in an open doorway of the baggage compartment

of Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway Company (S&CP),

No. 6, seen here on Summer Street, Kennebunk, near the

Boston & Maine bridge. No. 6, a combination car (express

and passengers carried) was built in 1899 for the S&CP by

Jackson and Sharpe Company, Wilmington, DE.

O. R. Cummings Collection

     Here is the newest release in the Maine Bicentennial series of electric railways in Maine. This blog post features the Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway Company summary/images from the book, "Atlantic Shore Line Railway" by O. R. Cummings, presented as Transportation Volume 4 by the Connecticut Electric Railway and the National Railway Historical Society-Connecticut Chapter - June 1950 Re-issued January 1957. And text/images are also taken from an O. R. Cummings book, "Atlantic Shore Trolleys", Bulletin No. 2, New England Electric Historical Society, January 1, 1966. Additional text is also taken from an insert O. R. Cummings wrote in "The Atlantic Shore Line Railway and Successors" - Historical Summary-1900-1949. Additional images will be credited.

To see the online version of the 1957 book, Atlantic Shore Line Railway at Bangor Public Library here 

• 3.15.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - York Utilities Company 1923-1949
• 3.14.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Atlantic Shore Railway 1911-1923
• 3.11.2020-Maine Bicentennial Series - Portsmouth, Dover & York St Rwy 1903-1906
• 3.9.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Auburn, Mechanic Falls & NorwayStRwy1902-3
• 3.7.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Portland & Brunswick Electric Railway 1902-1911
• 3.7.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Androscoggin & Kennebec Railway Co. 1919-1941
• 3.7.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Lewiston, Augusta & Waterville St Rwy 1907-1919
• 3.6.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Lewiston, Brunswick & Bath St Rwy 1898-1907
• 3.4.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Bangor Hydro-Electric Company 1925-1945
• 3.4.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Penobscot Central Railway 1898-1906
• 3.3.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Bangor. Hampden & Winterport Rwy 1896-1905
• 3.2.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Bangor, Orono & Old Town Railway 1895-1905
• 3.2.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Bangor Railway & Electric Company 1905-1925
• 3.1.2020  - Maine Bicentennial Series - Bangor Street Railway 1889-1905
• 2.23.2020 -Maine Bicentennial Series - Portsmouth, Kittery & York St. Rwy 1897-1903
• 2.22.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway 1899-1904
• 2.21.2020 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Mousam River Railroad 1892-1899
• 1.31.2019 - Maine Bicentennial Series - The Norway and Paris Street Railway 1894-1918
• 1.27.2019 - Maine Bicentennial Series - Aroostook Valley Railroad 1909-1946
• 10.17.2018 - Maine Bicentennial - Portland Railroad History 1860-1941

A tower wagon in the distance and a carload of rails in

the foreground indicate the Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway

was under construction in 1899. This scene may show part of

the private right-of-way between South Sanford and West

Kennebunk. O. R. Cummings Collection

In the fall of 2016, a section

of 1899 rail from the S&CP

was unearthed in West

Kennebunk. This section 

along the right-of-way

never had the rail upgraded.

Image by Tom LaRoche

The rail above was donated to the

Museum by the contractor that

unearthed it, Hissong Corp.

Sections were cut, cleaned up

and stamped. Larger segments

were put on the end deck of 1906

electric locomotive, ASL-100,

that operated on this track from 1906

til 1927. Other larger sections were

donated to Kennebunkport

Historical Society, the Brick Store

Museum, the Arundel Historical

Society, and the Sanford

Historical Society. Smaller

segments, like the one in

the image was used to raise funds

for YUCo No. 88 PWM

Sanford and Cape Porpoise Railway Company

     Although the Mousam River Railroad (MRRR) was more than adequate in serving the purpose for which it was built, it soon became apparent that some means had to be provided to handle coal for the Sanford mills in a more economical manner, for the cost of bringing it to Springvale via Portland & Rochester Railroad and hauling it to Sanford over the MRRR was almost prohibitive.

     The solution came in the form of the Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway (S&CP), organized by the Goodalls and chartered on October 6, 1897. It proposed to build from Central Square (Sanford), through the outlying districts of Alfred, Lyman, West Kennebunk, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Cape Porpoise, 20.3 miles away.

     To the tidewater terminal at Cape Porpoise, it was planned to bring coal in schooners and barges for transfer to Sanford via the new electric railway, and from interchanges (spur tracks) with the Boston & Maine Railroad at Kennebunk (Summer Street), and West Kennebunk. The S&CP intended to run a direct carload freight service to points along its route.

This locomotive serviced the highly successful Goodall Mills

in Sanford, bringing carloads of coal from Cape Porpoise.

No. 1 was the original locomotive for the Mousam River

Railroad in 1892. It was a four-wheel, single-truck

weighing ten tons with only two, 30-hp Westinghouse

motors, but it could handle up to 45 tons relatively easily.

O. R. Cummings Collection

     Construction began in 1898. The route followed the private right-of-way from the outskirts of Sanford to West Kennebunk. It crossed the Mousam River on a high trestle at Old Falls in Alfred where a hydroelectric power plant and a pleasure park were built. Briefly known as Fluellen Park, Old Falls Park had existed for many years before the Sanford Power Company purchased the site for the hydroelectric plant.

Map by Charles D. Heseltine of

the MRRR. From the 2015 book,

"The Illustrated Atlas of Maine's

Street & Electric Railways 1863-1946

Map by Charles D. Heseltine of

the S&CPRwy from the 2015 book

"The Illustrated Atlas of Maine's

Street & Electric Railways 1863-1946

A substantial steel bridge, with stone abutments, spanned

Mousam River west of Old Falls. Car No. 2 of the

Mousam River Railroad is stopped on the bridge.

O. R. Collection

     Continuing through West Kennebunk, the trolley line paralleled the old highway through Kennebunk village to the Town House at Kennebunkport and thence again over private right-of-way to Cape Porpoise. Here a long trestle, intended to serve also as a coal wharf, was built across the harbor to Bickford's Island where a large casino was erected.

Map by Charles D. Heseltine of the MRRR. From the 2015 book,

"The Illustrated Atlas of Maine's

Street & Electric Railways 1863-1946

The trestle of the S&CP extends to the Bickford Island coal

wharf in Cape Porpoise. A portion of the casino is on the left.

PWM Postcard Collection

The approx. 100-feet by 50-feet casino on Bickford Island

in Cape Porpoise had its grand opening on July 20, 1900.

O. R. Cummings Collection

No. 14 of Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway at the end of the

line in Springvale. No. 14 later became No. 10 of the

Atlantic Shore Line was converted to a line car in 1919.

O. R. Cummings Collection 

     On August 15, 1899, the operation began on 14.6 miles between Sanford and West Kennebunk. Passenger service to B & M station in Kennebunk commenced four days later on the 19th with No. 13, a new Jackson & Sharp 15-bench open trolley, leaving Sanford at 7:30 a.m. with 100 passengers aboard and arriving at Kennebunk about an hour later.  More than 1,000 people traveled on the route that first day. Initially, the tracks in Kennebunk ran through Fletcher Street to Main Street. In mid-November, the rest of the route to Cape Porpoise was complete (5.83 miles). On November 14, cars were rerouted to the newly completed track on Storer Street and on Main Street. On November 20, a local car began operating between the B & M station at Kennebunk and Cape Porpoise. It was not until the spring of 1900 after the ice was out of the harbor at Cape Porpoise, that the hauling of coal to the Sanford mills began.

Laying ties and spiking down rails, trackworkers pave the way

for the construction train along Summer Street, Kennebunk,

during the building of the Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway.

O. R. Cummings Collection

     Shortly after the construction of the new Sanford and Cape Porpoise Railway was completed, with both the S&CP and the Mousam River Railroad under common ownership, The MRRR was leased to the S&CP on August 15, 1899. Both companies began operating as a single system - the Sanford and Cape Porpoise Railway. In a few short years, the same would happen to the Sanford & Cape Porpoise. When the Atlantic Shore Line (ASL) was completed, the MRRR and the S&CP would both come under the corporate umbrella of the ASL and eventually lose their own identity.

     The new Atlantic Shore Line route was built between

Town House and Dock Square in Kennebunkport and 

opened on July 4, 1900.

PWM Postcard Collection

Dock Square, Kennebunkport, February 28, 1901.

Miss Rose Seavey, a Kennebunkport teacher, standing beside

the car will ride to the railroad station in Kennebunk to catch

a train to Washington, DC to attend the second inauguration

of President McKinley. O. R. Cummings Collection

O. R. Cummings Collection

The S&CP joined the ASL to provide an attractive wood-framed

waiting station at the intersection of North Street and

Arundel Road at Town House Junction. The car on the left

has arrived from Dock Square. The car on the right is headed

to Sanford. This is an early image circa 1901/02. The home

and barn behind the waiting station at the forefront were

moved across Arundel Road (on the right) in 1903 to make

room for a new brick office building that would include

a large carhouse and repair shop for the ASL.

O. R. Cummings Collection

Entering Dock Square, Kennebunkport, from Spring Street,

is No. 13 of the S&CP. No. 13 was the first trolley on

opening day to carry passengers to the B & M station on

Summer Street, Kennebunk, August 19, 1899.

It is believed that this S&CP waiting station on Summer Street

was built in 1902 on the northwesterly end of the bridge

passing over the B&MRR. Designed along the lines of a 

typical steam railroad depot, it was designated as

the Kennebunk Station, complete with a lunch counter

and restroom facilities. The spur track to the B&M station

was probably removed at this time.

O. R. Cummings Collection

The B&MRR passenger station at Summer Street, Kennebunk

PWM Postcard Collection

     The S&CP soon developed sizable passenger traffic, especially during the summer months when riding between Sanford and Old Falls Park and to Cape Porpoise Casino was very heavy. The shore dinners and the deep sea fishing excursions available at Cape Porpoise were excellent attractions for tourists and the railway did not neglect to capitalize on these enticements. In addition, the S&CP rapidly built up a lucrative freight business that grossed more than $17,000 in its first year.

Large numbers of children in this view may indicate that at

least two of these three cars in Central Square, Sanford, were

specials carrying Sunday School picnics to Old Falls or

Cape Porpoise. O. R. Cummings Collection

The first image in this post is of No. 6 with Mr. Goodall

seen sitting in the open doorway of the baggage door. Here

No. 6, which was built in 1899, is in Sanford in front of the Mousam

River Railroad's carhouse when it first arrived from Jackson

& Sharpe Co. in Wilmington, DE.

O. R. Cummings Collection

     Once the Atlantic Shore Line (ASL) was created by a group of individuals that were directors and officers of the Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway and the Mousam River Railroad. It would be but a matter of time before the ASL became the dominant member of what would become the railway family including other York County electric railways. The official authorization by the Maine legislature was on March 13, 1903, and on April 1, 1904, the consolidation of the Sanford & Cape Porpoise Railway, the Mousam River Railroad, and the Sanford Power Company was completed and they all merged with the Atlantic Shore Railway.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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     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.

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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