Good Evening - Welcome to Seashore Trolley Museum - 2024 is its 85th Anniversary!
The Biddeford & Saco Railroad open-car No. 31 arrived here 85 years ago, at what is now
known as the main entrance to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine
Some version of this question always pops up in my mind when I see a particular photo.
Maybe I read about or visit one of the cars in the collection; or, in some cases,
when I read about a departed member/volunteer and their dedicated, passionate,
contributions made to the Museum, I may feel a need to seek answers to those questions
that present themselves to me. I want to know the story.
Visitors to the Museum often have questions…
They too would like to know the story that is connected to many of the sites/items they see/experience while visiting the Museum. Everything and everyone has a story...
I began looking into the activities associated with the founding members of Seashore
Trolley Museum last summer. Thank you to many members and friends who provided
answers, leads, and encouragement to me as I looked into the early years of the Museum.
There were many local individuals and families in the neighborhood where the Museum
is located that helped the early members with various activities in the early years. That
local support has continued throughout the years the Museum has existed. The above
image on the left is longtime member, Jim Hamlin when he was building the stone
flowerbed that circles the base of the Museum's main entrance sign in 1974. Jim,
Judy Warner, Mike Simonds, Ken Bustin, Ernie Eaton, and me, were all attending
Kennebunk High School in the early 1970s. Mike Lennon helped bring the Silent
Policeman to the Museum - another story. The "delivery road" on the left is the
original right-of-way (ROW) of the Atlantic Shore Line Railway. Car 31 was
unloaded in 1939, maybe 50 feet or so further north from the point you can
see of the ROW - another story. So many incredible stories related to just this
one location seen in these two photos. Every vehicle, all the related parts,
equipment, all the buildings brought to the Museum, all the members, all the
volunteers, and the patrons that have visited the Museum's main campus have all
entered the property using this entrance area - for 85 years.
The walking-talk tour taking of this original ten acres from 1939, will
have some photos to accompany several of the many stories that will be shared.
I'm the Narcissus Project Sponsor. Basically, for me, that means I promote the Narcissus
Project and seek help in various ways to move the project forward. Getting the word out
to the greater public audience is important. I was strongly encouraged to kick my
comfort zone to the curb when it came to creating some social media accounts to help achieve
the goals of expanding awareness for the Narcissus Project. The beautiful, high-speed interurban will play a significant role in representing historic electric railways in Maine; its connection to Theodore Roosevelt, and the Seashore Trolley Museum would be well received. Thank you, Patricia Erikson, for encouraging
me and helping me create the Narcissus1912 Blog and my Facebook page.
Earlier in March (2024), the Narcissus1912 Blog's total page view count surpassed 500,000.
Over time, the Narcissus1912 Blog has expanded its content to include histories of
all the Maine Electric Railways for Maine's Bicentennial celebration, including posts on
Maine Trolley Parks, and Individuals that played an important role in Maine Electric Railways.
Restoration progress on the Narcissus. Posts on segments of Seashore's history.
Theodore Roosevelt's connection to various communities in Maine has also been included. Each post
has a link that can be shared with online sites that may benefit from viewing/reading the
posts. Local communities, school teachers/students, homeschoolers, historical societies, etc.
Today, who would have thought, that here, in Maine, in 1915, during that single year, when the total population of the State was about 775,000; with ninety communities having electric railway
services, that in total, they all carried more than Fifty-Seven million passengers! One year...just in Maine.
Posts shared on social media group pages that feature local communities in Maine continue to submit comments that occasionally lead to local electric railway information, questions, and sharing of information on photos, artifacts, and other interesting ephemera. The Narcissus1912 Blog posts have become a great resource for educators, electric railway researchers, and folks who are curious about life back in the day. You will see QR codes on display throughout the weekend that will lead you directly to certain Blog posts you may find interesting.
Click Here: To see and use the QR code list from the NEATO Convention 2024
Life back in the day - Postcards played an important role as one of the social media sources.
I enjoy reading notes on postcards that share experiences when visiting a local community, especially if the transportation used to access the site was the local electric railway. The 1999 publication, The Light from the River, is a great resource for learning about the early years of an electric company in Maine and how in the very earliest days, the electric companies relied on contracts with mills, towns/cities, and on electric railways for their consistent revenue sources. It wasn't until after 1910, that personal homes began to be a growing revenue source for electric companies.
The text in the above slide asks those attending to think about what daily life was like back in the early 1880s before electricity became a common source to power various daily life resources.
Especially in the winter months in Maine. The sun set early and the sunrise was later in the morning. Lighting and heating a home, a working barn, a workshop, etc. was challenging. Transportation, especially in the more rural areas was limited. Mud season and rainy weather also limited consistent transportation modes. Electricity changed everything.
The earliest electric companies generated revenue from three basic sources in the earliest days; the lighting of main streets in cities/towns, supplying electricity to mills to operate their equipment, and, electricity to operate electric railways. Walter Wyman, who along with his partner, formed one of the early light companies that in 1910 became Central Maine Power, was employed after college, at the Waterville & Fairfield Railway. From there he would acquire a partner and start an electric company and later own, CMP would acquire various electric railways throughout Maine
Click Here:
1960 Electric Railroad Edition - The Exciter Magazine by Central Maine Power Company. Click Here: Amos Fitz Gerald became known as the Electric Railway King of the Pine Tree State Click Here: W. Scott Libbey - Owned mills in Lewiston, an electric light company, and the Portland, Gray & Lewiston Railroad Bangor, Maine, had the first electric railway to operate in Maine. A story I enjoyed hearing
was the one describing how the shop staff expressed success when the first cars were being tested inside the Bangor carbarn shop. Electricity was a new thing and a lot of questions revolved around dealing with it. The staff report to the local newspaper was testing was deemed successful in part due to no negative impact on any of the staff's pocket watches. The pocket watch pictured in the slide was given to me by my grandfather. He purchased the watch for $2, at the age of 12 in 1917. It was made in the late 1880s.
The early single-truck streetcar had one of the early trolley poles on its roof that had a box-shaped conductor to the overhead wire to conduct electricity to the car to operate. The box would troll along behind the car as it moved forward...hence the word trolley. It was very shortly after beginning operations that the brass trolley wheel replaced the early box contraption. The interior seating of the earliest cars was very basic as seen in the photo. Over time seating would change and have a variety of options.
Augusta, Maine, along with neighbors Hollowell and Gardiner was the second community to have electric railway service in Maine. The motorman would operate the car from the open platform in every weather condition you can think of. It wasn't until 1906 when Maine laws were made for all cars to have enclosed vestibules to help protect the motormen. Depot Station in Gardiner - Loudon Hill Trestle - 1890 (L.E.Brown Collection)(10-bench open car - Hollowell Public Library - No. 5 of the Augusta, Hallowell & Gardiner Railroad - 16-foot closed car - one of the original cars from 1890 - post Office in Augusta.
Heating the closed cars initially had a coal stove...then electric heaters were installed in 1894.
July 4, 1896 - Augusta Gala Independence Day Event - 10,500 fares collected that day. Oakwood Park opened in 1895 - Britts' Gully off State Street (Vaudeville and variety shows used and outdoor theater) and in 1900 Cresent Park opened in Farmingdale...both were closed before 1903 when Island Park opened at Lake Cobbosseecontee.
Great photo of one of the 15-bench, double-truck open cars - a "Breezer."
There aren't many close-up photos of the open cars when they are full of happy passengers en route or returning from a trolley park. Passengers had such a fun time riding an open car in the summer
Here is one of Seashore Trolley Museum's 15-bench, double truck open cars. Now you see
a car full of happy passengers!
Beautiful!
Click Here: to watch the Birth of Seashore Trolley Museum. An interview with one of the founders of the Museum, Theodore Satarelli de Brasch
This is Kelly's turnout at the Saco-Old Orchard Beach line on June 18, 1939.
Car 31 has Ted Santarelli and many friends aboard during the fan trip to raise money to
acquire Car 31. His comments in the above slide were made as he described his experience
during this very stop.
Ted mentions, nostalgia. Ted grew up in Boston and while attending elementary and middle school at
St. Joseph's Academy in Wesseley Hills (1924-1932), he used the Boston & Worcester Street Rwy.
to travel to school every day. He boarded a B&W car at Park Square (seen above).
During his years of traveling on the B&W cars, he made friends with motormen and conductors.
On occasion, he was able to be upfront with the motorman. Over the years, he visited B&W carbarns and shops and witnessed the various transitions taking place in the electric railways; open cars being removed from daily seasonal service. Only a few remained for special events. Conversion of some existing cars from two-man operation to one-man, and scrapping of many cars. The above group photo of B&W operators is in the Ted Santarelli Collection.
The open car in the above photo was converted to a closed-car one-man car.
Ted and his railway fan friends, over many years, had experienced
numerous emotional episodes as certain types of cars, or perhaps a whole line
closed or it was replaced. One week after Ted finished 8th grade in 1932,
the B & W St. Rwy ended all service.
B&W St. Rwy. car No. 149 was not scrapped when removed from service. The body was sold to become a private home and later would be acquired by Seashore Trolley Museum and arrived on campus in the summer of 1959.
In 1932, Ted began attending the Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury, MA. He would attend school by traveling daily on the surface line streetcars of the Boston Elevated Railway. On weekends, Ted would purchase a "Ride All Day" ticket for $1 from the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway, and travel to dozens of different communities from Lowell, MA, north of Boston, to Fall River, MA, southwest of Boston, and every stop in between.
Ted got into building models of electric railways and tracks, etc. for building model layouts to operate the model cars on. He enjoyed spending time researching details about, track design, and overhead design, at the Boston Elevated Railway Library. He spent a lot of time looking through many issues of Electric Railroad volumes as he constructed models, tracks, etc. Ted became friends with other electric railway fans while traveling to school and on weekends while traveling on the Eastern MA lines and while learning to build models and layouts.
Ted's senior year write-up in the yearbook of the Roxbury Latin School summarized Ted's years attending school there and gave some insight as to his future in the electric railway field.
As a railway fan, Ted would occasionally participate in a fan trip with some of his electric railway friends.
One such fan trip was organized by the Portland, Maine chapter of the Electric Railroaders Association. That local chapter issued a newsletter named, The Maine Electric Transiteer (Thank you, Kevin Farrell, for sending me two of the newsletter:), and took place on April 19, 1939, in Lewiston, Maine, on the Kennebec Railway. Ted joined his friends, John Amlaw and Gerry Cummingham to attend that fan trip. As Gerry got into John's car, he blurted out to Ted and John, "The buses have been ordered!" Meaning, a favorite one of their electric railways, the Biddeford and Saco Railroad in Saco, Maine, had ordered buses and would be replacing all their streetcars with buses beginning on June 18, 1939. Ted, John, and Gerry used the fan trip time together with friends to talk about how they would like to try and save one of the B&S cars...over the next few weeks, their plans started to come together. With help from from fellow electric railway fan friend, Charles Brown, a fan trip was organized to take place using three cars of the B&S on what was to be the final day of trolley operations...June 18, 1939. The fan trip kept its date even though the date of the final use of trolley cars was delayed to July 5, 1939.
The June 18, 1939 fan trip was meant to gather fans to participate in the fan trip to hopefully attract attendees to donate some money so that one of the B&S trolleys could be saved from being scrapped...with thoughts on keeping the complete and in the future being able to operate it.
Three trolleys were used for the fan trip; first was one of the early single truck closed xar, No. 10, second was a single truck Birney car (a former Portland Railroad car), No. 607, and the final car was the 12-bench, double-truck, open car, No. 31. While the fans were riding Car 31, the early members of what would become Seashore Trolley Museum, decided Car 31 would be the car they would try and save.
Enough money was raised to make a deposit of $108 for Car 31, on July 5, 1939. The balance
payment of $42 was made on July 14. Car 31 was transported to a ten-acre piece of property in Kennebunkport next to what was the former right-of-way of the Atlantic Shoe Line Railway,
close to what is now the main entrance to Seashore Trolley Museum. The photo above is of
Car 31, on July 15, 1939, while awaiting the final approach to being delivered in
Kennebunkport. A rented old Mack Truck's rear end far left, with rails secured to its top
that are extended from beneath the end of 1900 Biddeford & Saco Railroad open car
No. 31 with a young unknown boy on his bicycle looking at the unknown photographer.
The right end of Car 31 is held up by Bob Smart’s Mack Truck wrecker. To keep the front
end tires of the wrecker on the ground, the wrecker’s front end is chained to
the rear end of Everett Greenlef’s dump truck, seen to the right of the wrecker.
This “Chained” together parade of vehicles was about 90-feet long. #31 was backed
into the ROW.
Look at the photo below and think about how challenging that would have been.
The drawing on the right shows the slight curve of the Biddeford Road in the south. The original
en acres of land where car 31 was delivered was the shape of an acute angle with that angle being
about 22 degrees. The double line on the west side is the former ASL right-of-way..The ten acres
included about 2,000 feet in distance parallel to the right-of-way. Car 31 had to be backed into the
ROW, heading north, far enough to where the property was wide enough to accommodate all of Car 31.
Top left - the southern-facing end of Car 31 is resting in the former ASL ROW. The light & power company that owned the ROW mandated that Car 31 must be off the ROW before winter arrived.
Top right: 10-28-1939. Success was achieved on Armistice Day (now Veterans Day), November 11, 1939.
Bottom left: 11-11-1939. Bottom right: position of Car 31 after 11-11-1939 - photo taken spring 1940.
The Clough’s driveway was torn up a bit.
The next day, Ted, summering on Peaks Island in Casco Bay (Portland); boarded the ferry
boat, “Nancy Helen”, at the wharf in Portland walked to the Customs Building and took a
Portland RR trolley to Monument Square, where he boarded a Portland bus for Old Orchard Beach,
then board a Biddeford and Saco Bus RR bus for Five Points, then he walked to
Granite Street Extension and continued walking about four miles along the former
ASL ROW to the Cloughs. Borrowed rake and shovel, repaired their driveway, and returned
to Peaks’ Island; by foot, bus, bus, trolley, and ferryboat (roundtrip 62
miles/12 miles of walking by foot).
We continue the
restoration work on the 1912
Narcissus, the only surviving high-speed, luxury interurban coach of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban.
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!
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
