2024 is the 85th Anniversary year of the founding of what we know as the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine. Today, I was looking through some of Ed Dooks' transcripts of his interviews with some of the early members. One interview was done in 1988 as Ed collected stories from John Amlaw and Henry Brainerd.
The topic was acquiring the Connecticut Company open cars in the late 1940s. One of those open cars was No. 1253. Sadly, shortly after arriving at Seashore, 1253 caught on fire and was badly damaged. In the 1948 Annual Report a paragraph or two talks about the acquisition and transportation.
John Amlaw and Henry Brainerd mention a little more about 1253 in their interview.
Brainerd: "Well, maybe it was '47 that was the last year they ran. I guess '48 was when we got them. That is, they were still there in the barn until spring and we got 4 of them, one of which was 1253 that caught on fire, mysteriously."
"The best we could figure was the cardboard carton with a big glass headlight lens broke open from the rain and the weather and acted as a burning glass and the car was burned beyond the point of salvage. Well, we thought so then. Today, I think we'd know how to rebuild it..."
Amlaw: "We did go through a couple of side roads with it and when we did, there was no room for anybody coming the other way. Fortunately, we didn't meet anyone because we only went down a short road on a detour, probably 2 miles long. But we backed that trailer into James Street Carhouse in New Haven and Operator Hamilton, who's the one we usually asked for, came out. He looked at it and said, "You'll never do it." So we backed the trailer in. Hooked up the rails. He said, "Well if you're going to try it, I'll be willing to try it for you." So, he got into the car and very carefully ran it up the ramp and onto the trailer while we watched from both sides. He got on top of the trailer and went forward as far as it would go until the front truck touched the gooseneck of the trailer, looked down, and said, "I knew you could do it."
"So, this was the point at which we fastened the car down and brought it up to Seashore. One of the things that amused me was that in this short detour, I was mentioning, we stopped to let an automobile get by. We had to come to a dead stop so that he could very carefully maneuver the automobile by the trailer in the other direction. Now, there was something like 30 cows in a field and the 30 cows lined up on one side along the fence, and they all carefully watched while we moved that car away."
Brainerd: "I guess somebody got a photo of it while it was stopped there and they were trying to figure out what to do. The Christian Science Monitor got the photo and I was, by then, working at MIT and was reachable by phone, so they called me. They knew I was the man they could get information from and asked me about it. Of course, this was a black-and-white photo and they asked me what color it was. I said, "It's yellow", and they said, "Well, what shade of yellow?" I knew the boys called it butter yellow. "Well, that doesn't sound quite right. Doesn't it have a real name?" "Well,:" I said, "I think the caption on the photo said, "The butter yellow trolley car going from New Haven to the Seashore Trolley Museum" or something like that. (The color is actually DuPont's Armour Yellow, no. 3421--DGC)
"Altogether we had our fun. We got some publicity."
Henry mentions that during 1253's move from New Haven, CT to Kennebunkport, the tractor-trailer with 1253 aboard, pulled over to the side of the road. Someone took a photo and it was published in the Christian Science Monitor. I did an online search and ta-da!...found the newspaper with the photo and story.
Friday, August 6, 1948 issue.
Page 2 - ibid
Each paragraph in the page 2 story below is shown separately below...fyi
ibid
No. 1253 is listed in the 1948 and 1949 Annual Reports as a passenger car in the "Rolling Stock" collection. However, in the 1950 and 1951 Annual Reports 1253 is listed among the "Additional Work Equipment" in small print below the Work Cars collection list and is mentioned as "No. 1253, Open Car Body. 1253 is not listed after 1951.
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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.
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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
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