The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-01-20
DAM' o. ANDEhsON, I IOoIVtCII
Engineers Report.

Engineers Report.
PORTLAND, Me-, Jan. 5, 1875.
President and Directors:
Gentlemen, During the past year the
road-bed and track of that portion of your
road under operation, has been kept in excel
lent condition, many of the unfinished places
of the former have been completed. few
ties and about eighty tons of new rails were
laid in the main track and most of the iron
thus replaced was put into sidings, many of
which have been heightened to accommodate
the demands of the steadily increasing busi-
ness. A new siding has been constructed at
East Baldwin. A new station has been
erected near the confluence of the Ossipee
and Saco rivers, in Baldwin off against the
thriving village of Cornish, distant about one
and one third miles, with long through sid
ing and the grounds suitably graded. The
trestles, by which the siding at Sebago Lake
was extended over the ravine west of the sta
ton, have been filled, together with the area
between the siding and the main track and
the wood shed formerly standing on the lake
side of the latter has been moved over to a
more convenient position between the two
tracks and extended about one hundred and
eighty feet. The long trestle near Centre
Conway has been filed and well replaced
with solid embankment of sand, the mate
rial being taken from the road bed on the op-
posite side of the river and obtained by low
ering the grade throughout the river bank to
the summit, as was contemplated when the
grading was first done, and mentioned in the
report of 1872, page II. The trestle work
crossing of the westerly stream of the East
Branch of the Saco has been partially filed
up with stone; the main channel of this river
was cleared out, deepened and Strengthened,
and a substantial levee constructed across
the low place in the east bank below the rail-
road to aid the proprietors in protecting their
interval meadows from the encroachments of
future freshets.
All traces of the great freshet of Oct. 1878,
have been obliterated from that portion of
your road west of Conway, and the only re-
naming marks of it upon any part of the
railroad are the two gaps in the bank near
the outlet of Walkers pond in Conway,
which have not yet been filled, but the track
is securely carried across them by good tres
ties. The several culverts and other struc-
lures of masonry disturbed by this flood, es-
pecially the piers under the oaco
river bridge and Burnham bridge abutments
have been most thoroughly and substantially
repaired and protected from future encroach-
ments, and the embankmeut along by the Ell ,
lis river has been raised about three feet
higher than it was originally made, so that
the track here, as elsewhere, is now believed
to be above the reach of any food.
Between the Glen station and the one at
Upper Bartlett large part of the fencing has
been done and more ballast has been placed
upon the road-bed, to quite heavy amount
on the two miles east from the Bartlett sta
ton. West of Bartlett two large and admir-
ably good bridges over the Saeo and a SINH
lar one over Sawyer's river have been erected
by Messrs. Kellogg and Maurice of Athens,
Pa, and the track has been extended about