Monson Railroad

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Monson Railroad
Locale Maine
Dates of operation 1883–1943
Track gauge 2 ft (610 mm)
Length 6¼ miles
Headquarters Monson
Monson station building and a short length of restored track, 2007
Monson station building and a short length of restored track, 2007

The Monson Railroad was a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge narrow gauge railroad which operated between Monson Junction on the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad and Monson, Maine.

The primary purpose of this railroad was to serve several slate mines and finishing houses in Monson. The railroad was built in 1883. Monson Slate Company gained control of the railroad in 1908. Track was extended 2 miles to Eighteen Quarry in 1909; but the extension was abandoned in 1922.

Equipment was never modernized, and the railroad used antique stub switches and link-and-pin couplers to the end of operations. Locomotive #3 was the only operable engine after 1936. Passenger service was discontinued in 1938.

Monson became the last of Maine's two-foot gauge railroads in commercial operation when the Bridgton and Saco River Railroad was dismantled in 1941. Infrequent flat car loads of crated slate products moved to Monson Junction until Monson Slate Company bought a truck in 1943. The railroad was dismantled during the winter of 1943-44 and the enginehouse became a garage for the truck.

Linwood Moody found Monson locomotives #3-4 in a Rochester, New York, used equipment yard in 1946. The two steam engines were shipped to the Edaville Railroad for restoration, and are still in operation at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Portland, Maine.

Contents

[edit] Locomotives

Monson Railroad #3 on loan at Phillips in 2007
Monson Railroad #3 on loan at Phillips in 2007
Monson Railroad #4 seen at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in 2006
Monson Railroad #4 seen at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in 2006
Number Builder Type Date Works number Notes
1 Hinkley Locomotive Works 0-4-4T 1883 1621 Named H.A.Whiting. Scrapped 1919, remains converted to a snowplow
2 Hinkley Locomotive Works 0-4-4T 1884 1661 Named G.S.Cushing. Scrapped 1918, remains converted to a snowplow
3 Vulcan Iron Works 0-4-4T 1913 2093 Now running at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum
4 Vulcan Iron Works 0-4-4T 1918 2780 Now based at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, currently on loan to the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad

[edit] Rolling Stock

Number Builder Type Date Length Capacity
1 Laconia Car Company combination 1883 29 feet 10 passengers
1-2 Laconia Car Company box cars 1883 26 feet 8 tons
3-16 Laconia Car Company flat cars 1883 25 feet 8 tons
17-22 Laconia Car Company flat cars 1905 26 feet 11 tons
23-24 flat cars 1914 28 feet 11 tons
wedge snowplow 1888 24 feet

Combination car later renumbered #3

Flat cars #3-4 rebuilt into box cars about 1884.

Flat cars #5-8 rebuilt into box cars in 1891. Box car #7 had small windows on one end of the car and one side of the car for use as a work/tool car.

Flat car #9 rebuilt as a snow spreader in 1888.

Flat cars #23-24 purchased from Boyd Harvey Lumber Company in 1916.

[edit] References

  • Jones, Robert C. (1998). Two Feet to the Quarries: The Monson Railroad. Evergreen Press. ISBN 0-9667264-0-5. 
  • Barney, Peter S. (1986). The Kennebec Central and Monson Railroads. A&M Publishing. 
  • Moody, Linwood W. (1959). The Maine Two-Footers. Howell-North. 
  • Whitney, Roger A. (1989). The Monson Railroad. Robertson Books. 

[edit] External links

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