Maine Bicentennial Series - Bangor Street Railway - 1889-1905

No. 12 Bangor Street Railway with its original type of trolley

pole. This car was the first electric in Maine. Crew members

are O'Brien and Coombs. The ends were open to the men

standing are called the vestibule. The motorman would

operate the car from the vestibule with no protection

from the elements. It would be 1906 before Maine

laws were enacted to enclose the vestibules

on all trolley cars. Image from C. D. Heseltine Coll.

     Here is the newest release in the Maine Bicentennial series of electric railways in Maine. This blog post features the Bangor Street Railway summary/images from the book, "Bangor Street Railway" by Charles D. Heseltine, published as Transportation Bulletin No. 81 January -December 1974 through Connecticut Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society copyright 1976 Roger Borrup and Charles D. Heseltine. Some text/images may be from the NEERHS 2015 publication, "The Illustrated Atlas of Maine's Street & Electric Railways 1863-1946. Additional images will be credited.

• 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

Bangor Street Railway

     Bangor, with a total population of about 20,000, was the first community in the state of Maine to have an electric railway service. The first trial trip took place in the very early hours of April 29, 1889. Two closed cars provided the first public passenger trips on May 21, 1889. On this original 3-mile section of track, from May 21, 1889, through September 30, 1889, four closed cars and four open cars carried 215,547 passengers. During a single day of the State Fair in September that fall, 8,200 passengers were transported on these trolley cars!

Downtown Bangor, December 1889 with cars Nos. 12 and 18

in their original paint schemes with the names of the contractors

painted on the dashers. Here the two cars are passing on the

Main Street turnout in Market Square. Both cars have their

original wood trolley poles.

Image from Charles D. Heseltine Collection

     A company known as the Goff Electric Company had been organized in the early 1880s for the manufacture of electric current and was the forerunner of the power and transportation system that served Bangor over the years.

     Goff was shortly joined by Frederick M. Laughton and George N. Ross and the company was reorganized as the Bangor Electric Light & Power Company on May 2, 1885. The first powerhouse, a steam generating station, opened in a three-story building at Cross and Columbia Streets in the fall of 1885.

     To aid in providing for the establishment of power companies, Thomas-Houston furnished the equipment partially for cash and partly in return for blocks of securities in the various projects. In this fashion, the Bangor Street Railway and the local power interests came under the domination of the Thomson-Houston Company which became part of the Edison-General Electric Company. General Electric held a sizable interest in the Bangor properties for many years.

Veazie hydro station for Bangor Light & Power Company

on the Penobscot River was first developed in 1889 to supply

power for Bangor's trolley cars. It was one of Maine's first

hydroelectric plants. Car No. 52 seen in the photo was placed

on the site as a workman's shelter.

Image from Charles D. Heseltine Collection

     The building of the new hydro station required additional financial arrangements and the Public Works Company was chartered on October 19, 1889, to provide for the management and closer relationship among various water power, electric light, and street railway lines in operation or planned in the Bangor area. Securities of the Public Works Company were passed, in return for the new electrical equipment, to the supplier Thompson-Houston Company.

     The Bangor City Council approved the electric railway project on January 18, 1887, and endorsed the proposed charter. The new company, to be known as the Bangor Street Railway, was duly incorporated by the state legislature on February 11, 1888, and the act, included was signed by the governor four days later. Capital stock was limited to $300,000.

     The route chosen commenced at a point near the "Tin Bridge" close to the East Hampden town line, and extended northeasterly along Main Street to West Market Square and the municipal bridge over the Kenduskeag Stream, through State Street to Exchange Street to Washington, along Washington street to Oak, up Oak Street to State and along State Street to Pearl Street. This route was selected to avoid the steep grade of State Street Hill.

Map by Charles D. Heseltine in the 2015 publication,

"The Illustrated Atlas of Maine's Street & Electric

Railways 1863-1946. 

     A wooden carbarn was built on outer Main Street near Dillington Street, on land purchased from the Katahdin Ice Company. The carbarn originally had only one entrance door, with a transfer table inside to direct cars to different tracks within the barn. It wasn't long before this design required that the barn be rebuilt with a separate door for each track into the barn.

Original carbarn on Main Street was a wood stable-type 

building with a one-track entrance and a transfer table inside.

Image from Charles D. Heseltine Collection

Within two years, modifications were made to the carbarn to

include multiple doors and track entrances.

Image from Charles D. Heseltine Collection

     One car was on the property by early December 1888, and it is apparent that some tests had been made within the carbarn, as a news item reassured citizens that "no serious damages to pocket watches have been experienced in the testing of the electric car." Electricity, it must be remembered, was still a somewhat mysterious force at that time. Even by 1910, only about ten percent of Maine homes had electricity, and those were mostly in the cities or close urban areas.

     As the final touches were being applied to the line and the electrical equipment checked out, the Bangor Street Railway on March 12, 1889, received legislative approval to build a line in neighboring Brewer which had just been incorporated as a city. The line would operate as a separate division until the opening of a substantial municipal bridge in 1914.

     May 21, 1889, is when regular service really was able to be consistent with two of the four original closed cars in operation. A waiting room was opened on Main Street in West Market Square.

When in front of the station, cars for the Main Street trips clanged their foot gongs once before starting, and the cars loading for the State Street trips clanged their gongs twice.

     Initially, the cars operated at night with no headlights. Starting on June 22, 1889, headlights of the kerosene type were first used and were highly acclaimed. Additional cars were added to the fleet, including 8-bench open cars and a snowplow.

     The Brewer division extended from a point near the exit from the toll bridge in Penobscot Square, through Center Street, and along North and South Main Streets to a point near Stone Street, close to the Brewer-Orrington municipal line. A wooden carbarn, 60' by 20' was constructed at the end of the route. Rails ran along the side of the highway the entire route.

Brewer-South Brewer car No. 13 is shown here in the late fall

of 1890, waiting at the toll bridge terminus - the bridge is in the

background. The crewmen in the photo are Mann and O'Brien.

The Brewer line operated without track connections to Bangor

until 1914. Image from Charles  D. Heseltine Collection

     In late August 1890, two cars were carried over the Maine Central Railroad bridge to Brewer and placed on the streetcar tracks. The service started on September 1st. During 1890, ten additional closed cars and eleven open cars were added to the growing fleet.

Open car No. 32 at the carbarn in South Brewer was

purchased in 1890 and was one of the first two assigned to 

the Brewer-South Brewer line when it first opened in 1890.

Image from Charles  D. Heseltine Collection

     With the opening of these routes, the Bangor Street Railway (BSR) had 7.25 miles of track. During the fiscal year ending September 30, 1890, the company reported a total of 616,258 passengers for a total of $30,189 in receipts and a net profit of $8,632. Car tickets were issued on several lines.

     In the following years, some track was extended to improve service in town, and during 1895, while the new Bangor, Orono, & Old Town Railway was being constructed, having in mind its eventual route into downtown Bangor, BSR revised its track plans. In addition, the Main Street line was double-tracked as a result of plans for another new railway line project, the Bangor, Hampden & Winterport Railway.

No. 20, built in 1890, ready for a run via State and Main

Streets to the Highlands.

Image from Charles  D. Heseltine Collection

     In August 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was a visitor to Bangor. So popular was this Great American in the Queen City, that the street railway was hard-pressed to handle the crowds that turned out to see him.

     In 1902, the final construction work of the Bangor Street Railway took place.  Under Public Works Company management, BSR extended the Center Street line from the junction of Center and Congress Streets through Center Street to the corner of Poplar Street. This line was further extended through Poplar, Leighton, Congress, Fountain, and Jefferson Streets back to a connection at Center Street to form a loop operation that opened on August 13, 1904. The BSR, other than the Brewer Division, had no suburban lines of its own. It remained for consolidation in 1905 to place the suburban lines, together with the city routes, into one integrated system.

     The high water mark for passengers carried and gross revenues earned was 1904.
1,656,293 passengers were carried on the 9.069 miles of Bangor Street Railway's main track, generating passenger revenue of $82,852.

     June 30, 1905, was the date of the consolidation at which time the various water power, electric light, and street railway properties were reorganized in a merger creating the Bangor Railway & Electric Company.

Restoration work continues on the Narcissus. The Narcissus is more than 100 years old now and has so many incredible stories to share. The restoration is but one.

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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.

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.

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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