Car 31 has the unique distinction of being the first trolley car (anywhere in the world) to be saved by a group of individuals to start a trolley museum. Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME, was founded in 1939 with the acquisition of Car 31. Car 31 is recognized as the "Mother Car" of all trolley museums worldwide. Car 31 is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is also a member of Save America's Treasures.
The Biddeford and Saco Carbarn on Beach Street in Saco.
J. Burton Stride is to the right of the automotive vehicle.
Gerry communicated the price to Ted, John, et others in the new group. They were initially struck with how challenging it would be to raise that amount of money, especially with so little time to do so. In addition, there would be a need for more money to acquire a place for the car to be relocated to, the costs associated with prepping it for transportation, and the costs to transport the car. It was during an economic time when one might have a job that pays a weekly amount of $15 to $20. After a day or two, they decided to approach Mr. Stride again to see if he would reduce the price.
This time, Ted and John went to the Beach Street carbarn to see Mr. Stride. They were told Mr. Stride was at his home at Graham Street in Biddeford. They went to Mr. Stride's home. Mr. Stride was mowing his lawn. He mentioned he was busy and couldn't chat with them at that time. Ted offered to take over mowing the lawn so he could chat with them. Mr. Stride agreed. John thanked Mr. Stride for offering to sell the group a trolley, John then restated the group's desire to save a trolley and that they would comply with Mr. Stride's promise to the Rotary Club to have the trolley be located outside of the three communities, however, they were struggling with the price. They asked Mr. Stride to consider a lower price. This approach must have made a positive impression on Mr. Stride. He took a moment, then he replied, that the price would be $150.
(Reading the transcripts from various interviews of many early members/founders of Seashore, conducted by longtime member, Edward "Ed" Dooks, during the late 1980s, it's unclear whether Ted and John began the search for a location and transportation sources, before the June 18 fan trip, or after the June 18 fan trip. For this post, I'll write the process taking place before the June 18 fan trip occurred)
Once the group felt they could acquire a trolley, they next had to find and secure a location outside of the Biddeford, Saco, and OOB communities, and sources to provide transportation of the trolley and its trucks, to the location.
The former carbarn of the Atlantic Shore Line/York Utilities Railway
was located at Town House junction in Kennebunkport. After the YUCo
ended service, the building and some of its vehicles had been sold to
Everett Greenleaf of Kennebunk.
No. 104 - Built in 1907 - is at the Atlantic Shore Line Carbarn.
This photo was taken c1915. The carbarn was one of the stops
the ERA members made and found some nuggets to keep.
Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library:
O. R. Cummings Collection 2009_2_7_099
When asked for any suggestions for a source to talk to about a location outside of the three communities, one of the Beach Street carbarn staff members referred Ted and John to seek Everett Greenleaf. He was the owner of the former carbarn of the York Utilities/Atlantic Shore Line Railways in Kennebunkport.
Ted and John traveled to the former carbarn and met up with Mr. Greenleaf. Upon hearing the story of the need for a location for a saved trolley in the coming weeks, Mr. Greenleaf explained his suggestion for Ted and John to seek a piece of property owned by a local farmer up the road. Mr. Greenleaf also offered to help with the transportation. He also referred Ted and John to a fella who had a wrecker.
To keep the story short, through Mr. Greenleaf, Ted, and John met Fred and Mabel Clough. They owned a farm near the former right-of-way of the Atlantic Shore Railway. Mr. Clough was a former motorman for the railway. Mr. Clough told Ted and John, that there was a neighbor farmer, George Hill, who owned a ten-acre strip of landlocked property that ran parallel between the Clough farm and the former right-of-way of the electric railway.
Ted and John next visited George Hill. Mr. Hill was interested in hearing the plan of saving a trolley and yes, he would lease/sell the ten acres to the group.
The original ten acres where Car 31 would be placed on
July 15, 1939. Shaped like a 22-degree acute triangle,
due to the length of Car 31, it would need to be unloaded
where the width of the property was wide enough
for the complete car. That meant backing into the
right-of-way a few hundred feet before reaching a
wide enough piece for 31.
Next up was following up on Mr. Greenleaf's referral for a wrecker. Bob Smart had owned a wrecker but he had sold it to Tom Scott. Mr. Smart wanted to help transport the trolley. Ted and John visited Mr. Scott and he too wanted to help. He and his wrecker were available to move the trolley when needed.
The group then started thinking of the number of friends needed to achieve the goal of raising $150, plus additional money for the transportation-related costs. But, first things first. $150 to secure the purchase of a trolley. Ten people at $15 each was the goal for the June 18th Farewell Fan Trip.
Copy of a ticket for the Farewell fan trip
on June 18, 1939.
It was during the Farewell Fan Trip while they were riding on Car 31, that the group decided Car 31 would be the trolley they would save.
Biddeford Daily Journal - June 18, 1939
With only about 35 attending the Farewell FanTrip and the need to pay the B&SRR for the fan trip, the group didn't gain much from the Farewell trip. They did have a handful of friends in total, pledge or commit, to helping financially, but more money was needed.
Fortunately, the delivery of the buses was delayed. That led to a change of date for buses to replace the trolleys to July 6.
On July 5, Ted had the $108 and tracked down Mr. Stride to negotiate the $108 being a deposit to save Car 31. Ted waited at the Old Orchard Beach train station for the train that had Mr. Stride as a passenger who would be disembarking from the train. The train arrived. Ted met Mr. Stride, Ted talked about the finances, Mr. Stride accepted the $108 as a deposit, and required the balance of $42 be paid by July 14 to the representative of the Salzberg Company that was under contract to scrap all the trolleys of the B&S. Mr. Stride and Ted shook hands on the negotiated deal.
Postcard of the Old Orchard Beach train station PWM
During the next few days, the group was able to raise the balance of the $42 for purchasing Car 31, as well as a few more dollars to pay for the wrecker and secure renting a used rear end from a junked Mack dump truck. The rear end would be used to secure one end of the body of Car 31 during transportation to Kennebunkport.
On Friday morning, July 14, Ted was in Biddeford. He didn't have the $42 with him. John Amlaw sent it to Ted via Western Union shortly after lunchtime. Ted met up with the rep from Salzberg Company and paid the balance due for Car 31. Ted then went to the Beach Street Carbarn to start prepping Car 31 for transporting to Kennebunkport.
The backyard of Beach Street Carbarn. Car 31 would use one
of those two tracks extending from the center bays to rest on a track
while awaiting to be prepped for leaving.
Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum Library:
O. R. Cummings Collection
Car 31 was waiting in the backyard of the Beach Street carbarn. It was on a piece of track that extended through one of the bays into the backyard. Ted, with no experience in removing trucks from under a trolley car, borrowed a jack and the many, many pieces of wood blocks, from the Beach Street carbarn, to use for jacking up one end at a time, of Car 31, and removing each truck.
Ready for the wrecker to arrive and hook up.
Car 31 with both of its trucks removed. The body is resting
on wooden saw horses. The end of Car 31, opposite the
carbarn, has two rails secured to the underneath of the body.
Those two rails extend out from the body and are secured
to the top of the rear end of a Mack dump truck.
Courtesy Seashore Trolley Museum
John Amlaw arrived after Ted got started and he helped with the process. Each end of 31 was jacked up 6 feet high or higher for the trucks to be able to be rolled out from underneath the body. The first end was lowered back down onto wooden sawhorses. Before the back end was lowered all the way down onto the used rear end of a junked Mack dump truck, a pair of rails had to be secured to the underneath of the body and to the top of the rear axle of the Mach dump truck. This setup would act as a trailer for the rear end of Car 31 during the transportation to Kennebunkport.
The next morning, July 15, Ted was the only one of the group that was at the Beach Street carbarn when Bob Smart and Tom Scott arrived with the wrecker and Everett Greenleaf arrived with his truck to transport each truck separately to Kennebunkport. In addition, to transporting Car 31, the wrecker would be used to load/unload each of Car 31's trucks into and out of Everett's truck.
With how Car 31 was positioned behind the carbarn, it was going to be challenging to hook up the front end of Car 31 to the wrecker and have the wrecker drive through the carbarn, exit through the front of the bay doorway, out to Beach Street, en route to Kennebunkport.
The carbarn was going to be totally razed within a couple of weeks. The process had already begun with some sections. A new storage and repair shop for the buses was going to be built.
The wrecker backed up to the end of Car 31 which would be held by the wrecker's crane. After the sawhorses were removed and the full weight of Car 31 was on the crane, the front wheels of the wrecker lifted up away from the ground. Of course, the driver was not going to be able to steer the wrecker with the front wheels in the air. The team reset 31 so that the front tires of the wrecker returned to the ground.
Ted came up with the idea to chain the back end of Mr. Greenleaf's truck to the front end of the wrecker. Thinking the added weight of the truck on the front end of the wrecker would keep the wheels on the ground when Car 31 was lifted by the crane. It worked.
However, now they had the 90 to 100-foot-long parade of chained-together vehicles to try and maneuver through the carbarn bay. In Ted's transcript of his interview, he mentions crew members from the company dismantling portions of the carbarn stepped in and removed portions of the building that were blocking the parade from exiting. Then the long parade was able to maneuver through and exit the carbarn. Then it was off to Kennebunkport.
This is an early '70s aerial view of the area where the entrance is to the Seashore Trolley Museum. The roads you see at the entrance to the museum were
not there in 1939. You can still see where the old right-of-way extended
from the top right of the photo, heading south, passing over the Clough
Farm driveway, and continuing just in front the their son, Carl's, house, and
on running parallel with the east side of Biddeford Road (now Log Cabin Road).
Using the photo above as a reference. You can get a sense of the challenge the drivers of the wrecker, and lead truck chained to the wrecker, were presented with as they contemplated the approach needed to back the 90 to 100-foot-long Car 31 parade up the right-of-way several hundred feet before they could reach the property where it was wide enough to place Car 31. Where they needed to place Car 31 is further up along the right-of-way than is visible in this photo.
They had to drive toward Kennebunkport until the very end of Car 31, resting on the rails that were on the rear end of the Mack dump truck, were in line with backing straight into the right-of-way. Coordinating the backing up of these chained-together vehicles must have been very tough.
Ted mentions in his transcript, that the Clough Farm driveway was torn up and damaged by the vehicles backing over it. This was the first direct experience of Car 31 being next door to the Cloughs. They were not happy about the damage done to their driveway. Ted being Ted, he apologized to the Cloughs and told them he would return to repair the damaged gravel driveway. Ted was staying with friends on Peaks Island, off the coast of Portland. The next morning, Ted took the Ferrry from Peaks Island to Portland. Walked to the Customs House. Took a trolley to Monument Square. Boarded a Portland bus to Old Orchard Beach. Board a Biddeford-Saco bus to Five Points. Walked to Granite Street Extension. Then entered the old right-of-way of the YUCo/ASL Railway and walked the four miles to the Clough Farm. Borrowed the shovel, etc. needed to repair the gravel driveway. Fixed the driveway. Ted thanks the
Cloughs and he returned to Peaks Island later in the day.
The Cloughs were impressed and became longtime, dear, caring volunteers, overseeing the collection of cars over many years while the early members were serving during WWII and during the weekdays that the early members were not able to be with the collection on property. Mr. Clough, as a former ASL motorman, with help from his three sons, all were so very helpful in providing guidance as to track work, pole placement, overhead wire, working on the cars, etc.
Car 31 as it looked when it was first unloaded at its new home.
You can see the right-of-way parallel with the electric poles.
You can also see that this end of Car 31 is resting on a portion
of the right-of-way. That was a problem. The Electric
Company; Cumberland County Power and Electric, began to
complain about this predicament. They required that Car 31
be totally removed from the right-of-way before winter fell.
On November 11, Armistice Day, the task was accomplished!
Below is a link to an interview with Ted Santarelli and his first-hand accounting of how things unfolded and how the first couple of streetcars were acquired (1900 open car No. 31 from the Biddeford
& Saco Railroad and 1906 interurban No. 38 from Manchester & Nashua Street Railway.)
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