Robert C. Melcher (1921-2007) - Electric Railway Enthusiast and Historian - Maine

Photo of Robert C. Melcher from Westbrook, Maine,

in the newspaper that mentioned he had been re-elected 

President for the Portland Division of the Electric Railroaders

Association - Portland Press Herald - December 3, 1938

    Robert's obituary in the April 7, 2007, Portland Press Herald, states: "He was raised, educated, and resided in Westbrook (Maine) all his life. He served in the Army Air Corps. Following his military service, Robert had been employed by the S.D. Warren Co. for over 30 years.

    He was a member of the Westbrook Warren Congregational Church. He was a railroad enthusiast and historian, who spent a lifetime creating a pictorial and written history of New England's railroad and trolley car heritage, he was a member of the 470 Railroad Club. Robert also volunteered much of his time to Mercy Hospital of Westbrook and the Warren Memorial Library."

    Personally, I never met Robert, but I had seen his name as the photographer on some photos and also as a resource for some electric railway publications. In recent years, his name popped up several times as I was conducting research. I put some of those accountings together for this post. 

    Here is Robert's story of his very first railfan trip, with him visiting the Lisbon Street Carbarn of the Androscoggin & Kennebec Railway, with fellow fan enthusiast, Edwin "Bill" Robertson, in 1936.

Early Railfan Trip

    A page from Robert Melcher's Journal dated Saturday, June 6, 1936 -

    Bill (Edwin "Bill" Robertson...blogger) and I left Westbrook at 3:00 A.M. this morning because we went into Cushman's Bakery in Portland with his mother and father when they went to work. I got up (at) about 2:30 a.m. and had breakfast. From the bakery, Mr. Robertson took us over to Union Station after he picked up his load of bakery products. We got to Union Station about 5:45. We purchased our tickets and our train left for Auburn at 7:10 A. M."

    We enjoyed the train ride very much, we saw many places and things from the train that we had seen while we were watching trains. After stopping at (about) every station on the way, we arrived at Auburn at 8:30.

    We walked directly to the trolley car yards on Lisbon Street in Lewiston, where someone stole our lunches, Bill's leather camera case, and some pictures of mine while we were taking pictures in the yard. Two car barn workers aided us in trying to find our (lunch) loses, but, it was in vain.

No. 128 of the Androscoggin & Kennebec Railway in the yard

outside the Lisbon Street Carbarn in 1940.

Photo by Robert Melcher

    After leaving the Lisbon Street Carbarn Yard, we walked along Lisbon Street,  and across to the Lewiston Upper Station and engine house where we saw two engines. From there we decided to ride the trolley to Sabattus. I went to the A&K (Androscoggin & Kennebec Trolley Line) office and found the fare to be 20 cents each way. We rode out to Sabattus Pond, a distance of nearly 10 miles. Car 138 covered the trip in a half-hour. On the way, we saw a girl struck by a car. There are some places where the electrics do not follow the highway. One of those places is at Sabattus where the car passed by the store, through the woods, and crossed over the Maine Central track away from the highway. On the way to Sabattus Pond, there was an interurban car in the field. When we got back to Lewiston, we got a transfer and rode a four-wheeled car out towards Lake Auburn, but we got off about halfway and visited Mr. Adkins, a friend of Mr. Jamison who had some interurban pictures. Mr. Adkins took us to the Auburn Station in his truck so that we could board the 4:08 P. M. Train. We got off the train at Woodford's Station and walked home to Westbrook. So ended a most enjoyable day.

No. 132 at Sabattus. The track that continued on to Sabattus Pond

shows behind the car. Ralph Brule was the motorman in this 1938 photo.

Photo by Robert Melcher

A trolley crossing the Maine Central Railroad as it travels away from

Sabattus village. In the map below, the overpass is seen between #3 & #4

on the LA&W, later to be the Androscoggin & Kennebec Railway.

Photo from the O. R. Cummings Collection at Seashore Trolley Museum

Map from O. R. Cummings 1963 book, "Lewiston,

Augusta, & Waterville Street Railway

Note:

Money was hard to come by back in 1936, so the loss of our lunch and pictures was very serious to a couple of schoolboys out on their first railfan trip. As I remember the day, we had to make hard choices of, buying a lunch or riding the trolley to Sabattus. The Interurban Car in the field on the way to Sabattus is now at the Kennebunk(port...blogger) Trolley Museum. Bill Robertson

Blogger Note - 9-9-2024 - Robert mentions visiting Mr. Adkins in Auburn. I shared this post with Mr. Oscar Adkins' granddaughter. She was thrilled to learn the names of the two boys who visited her grandfather...she shared Mr. Adkins' entry from his diary...

Oscar S. Adkins - Diary (He served as a conductor, motorman, and dispatcher for the Portland-Lewiston Interurban - He also led the PLI Reunion Committee for the former PLI employees' annual reunions in 1938, '39, '40, and '41)

Saturday, June 6, 1936

Fair & Warm

"...Two young friends of Ed. Jamieson Called on me and brought me a letter.

"...The Boys came up to the House and I showed them Pictures of the Interurban and then took them down to the Train with the Truck."

Oscar Adkins did attend the April 19, 1938, Portland Division - ERA fan trip to the Androscoggin & Kennebec Railway excursion that Robert Melcher helped organize...here is Oscar's diary entry of the trip...

April 19, 1938

"Got up at 8:00 AM. Shaved and Dressed up and Took the 8:45 AM car to McFalls. Met the electric Railroaders Assn Special Car There. Went to Lake Auburn then to Sabattus. Had our Dinner there. Box Lunches. Took Pictures all the way out and Back. From Sabattus, we went to Lisbon Fall and Back to Lew. Then at 3:45 went to the Aub. Sta. I saw them off on the train."

Here is a photo of the Narcissus, with Oscar Adkins

on the left, and John Cluff on the right in Gray

1918 - Photo supplied by Oscar and placed in the

PLI Employees Reunion Scrapbook

Very cool for me to be able to find connections to stories from back over 80 years ago 😊

Here is the Narcissus in the field near Sabattus Pond in the late 1930s

filmed during an A&K fan trip that Robert Melcher helped organize.

Click Here: to see the film footage as the A&K trolley

approached and passed the Narcissus. Footage from the O.R. Cummings

Collection at the Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Maine

Click Here: to see the post on the very first issue of the Portland Division - Electric Railroaders Assoc. newsletter, The Maine Electic Transiteer. March 1938. Robert Melcher working with the A&K to plan the first fan trip is mentioned, along with many very interesting electric railway-related topics; a short history of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban, that motormen in South Portland were known as "Motorneers,"...and so many more :)

From the Maine Historical Society archives in Portland, ME.

Front cover of a copy of the first issue of the newsletter

 of the Portland (Maine) Division of the Electric

Railroaders Association (ERA) - March 1938 Volume l, Number 1

Click Here: to open the post with newspaper articles featuring the first year of the Portland Division - Electric Railroaders Association in Portland, Maine - 1937-1938 - Robert Melcher and several other well-known Maine Electric Railway fans/photographers/history buffs were actively involved.

Robert C. Melcher presents to, Miss Mary Godell, librarian at

Warren Memorial Library  the "History of the

Westbrook Electric Cars"  from the Portland Division of the ERA -

local Maine electric railway historian, Charles D. Heseltine, was

also a key member of the ERA in researching and creating

the Westbrook history contents.

Portland Press Herald - April 10, 1938 page 38

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid - April 10, 1938

    Another fan trip that Robert helped organize took place on June 5, 1938.

Journal Tribune - June 2, 1938 - page 1

Click Here: to see the post with details and photos of the June 5, 1938 Portland-Division - ERA fan trip that ended with visiting the 1912 Portland-Lewiston Interurban, No. 10, Arbutus, at Mrs. Gertrude Libbey Anthony's home in Bay View, Saco.

Click Here: to open the post with 1939 and 1940 newspaper articles featuring the activities of the Portland Division - Electric Railroaders Association in Portland, Maine - 1939-1940 - Robert Melcher and several other well-known Maine Electric Railway fans/photographers/history buffs were actively involved - including founding members and other very early members of what would become the first trolley museum in the world, the Seashore Trolley Museum.

    1938 was also the first year that the former employees of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban held a reunion of the closing of the PLI. The annual reunion took place in 1938, '39, '40, and '41. Robert Melcher was featured on a page in the 1941 Reunion Scrapbook.

On page 61 of the incredible PLI Employees Reunion Scrapbook - 

The first photo of Robert Melcher and his A&K collection.

Sun Journal - February 15, 1941 - page 17

The PLI Employees Reunion Scrapbook was in the

 possession of Charles Heseltine. He worked with the PLI Reunion 

Committee and was thanked accordingly. Heseltine gave the

Scrapbook to his friend and electric railway history colleague,

O. R. Cummings. O. R. Cummings, is the well-known and

prolific publisher of dozens of books on the histories of

various electric railway companies. O. R. passed the

Scrapbook on to Seashore Trolley Museum's Library. 

After several years of fundraising, we were able to

have the incredible contents of the scrapbook professional

conserved and each page/photo photographed (800 dpi)

by the Northeast Document Conservation Center

(NEDCC) in Andover, MA

    As you looked at the above photo of the PLI Employees' Reunion Scrapbook, you may have noticed that the photo of the open scrapbook was each labeled at the bottom with the word; BEFORE

That is because, on November 11, 2022, I was able to pick up the newly conserved Scrapbook and the memory stick full of its professionally digitized contents!

    This is one of several posts that will include materials and related stories connected to the contents of the PLI employees' reunion scrapbook. Below are the remaining newspaper clippings featuring Robert Melcher.

Ibid

Ibid

Click Here: for the post on the history of the Androscoggin & Kennebec Railway 1919-1941

Click Here: for the post by O. R. Cummings, the "Figure Eight" route through Lewiston-Auburn and shares photos of the last trolley trips in 1941

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid - February 15, 1941

Click Here: for the post on the history of the Lewiston, Brunswick & Bath Street Railway 1898-1907

Click Here: for the post on the history of the various railways serving Kennebec County-1889-1932

Click Here: for the post on the history of the Lewiston, Augusta & Waterville Electric Railway 1907-1919

Click Here: for the post on the history of the Portland-Brunswick Street Railway 1902-1911

Click Here: to see the post on the history of the Casco Castle Trolley Park 1902-1914

Click Here: to see the post on the history of the Underwood Spring Trolley Park 1899-1907 

Click Here: to see the post on the history of the Merrymeeting Trolley Park 1899-1906

Click Here: to see the post on the history of the Riverton Trolley Park 1896 -1933 

    Back to 1939...Robert Melcher helped organize several fan trips hosted by the Portland Division - ERA in Portland, Maine. One of them was the final trip of the Portland Railroad's Thornton Heights route on April 15, 1939.

Portland Press Herald - April 17, 1939 - page 14

Click Here: for the post on the history of the Portland Railroad 1860-1941 - including the Horse Railroad, the Portland-Saco line, the Portland-Yarmouth line, and all other aspects throughout the history of public transportation service 1860-1941

On to 1940...

Portland Press Herald - April 22, 1940 - page 12

Sun Journal - April 22, 1940 - pages 1 & 12

Robert enlisted in the Army Air Corps. The announcement was made on 10-19-1941.

Portland Press Herald - October 19, 1941 - page 16

    Robert served through WWII and returned to Maine when his service time was over. As his 2007 obituary mentions, throughout his entire life, Robert was very active in helping his community.

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

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

Click Here: Narcissus Restoration-Related Posts

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!

Click Here: Donation Options

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