The Portland daily press., 1890-11-26
RAILROADS OUT or PORTLAND.
something About the Motive Power
Departments.

The process of consolidation that has been
going on amongst the railroads touching
Portland during the past few years. has
somewhat reduced the Importance of the
city as terminal point-there are not so
many different lines ending here; but it has
also increased the volume of business
materially. There are arriving and depart-
Ing from Portland more trains now than
tnere were ten or five years ago and each
train Is longer and heavier and does more
business. The cars are better. time is faster.
snere are more conveniences In use In con-
nectlon with tickets, and, in short, there mas
been and Is now constant progress In the
railroad business of Portland.
In no portion of the railroad business Is
this improvement more noticeable than In
| the locomotive. motive power. or mechanical
department as 1t is. variously called on diff
ferent roads. A brief account, therefore, of
the locomotives that come here several times
during each week, and the places wnere
they are kept may not be uninteresting.
There are four railroads touching Portland.
the Grand Trunk Railway Of Canada, the
Maine Central. the Boston & Maine and the
Portland g. Rochester. Taking these in
reverse order let us examine the round
houses and their contents.
The engine house Of the Rochester road is
located at the foot of Alder street. Tits
large covered-in brick building, not OF the
conventional round" type aud has pits for
eight engines, a turn-table and stationary
engine for the company's repair-shop all
completely under cover. The locomotives Of
the road number 10, and all are seen at Port
land during the course of a week. The
Rochester road is old enough to have worn
out Its first No. / engine and therefore the
Presumpscot No. is magnificent modern
freight engine coming in on the evening
train, and going out on the following morn
Ing. The remainder Of the engines are the
| original numbers, and the early ones are old
timers that would have had to be discarded
long ago did the road run through an uneven
country. As 1t Is so nearly level and with
out sharp curves the old engines do very
well on easy trains or as shutters, while the
fine ones, Sanford No 8. Sycamore No. 8 and
Algonquin No 10 get over the ground IN
front of the heavier loads. The Rochester
road has four passenger trains and two
freights on the road all the time. each train
having its own engine as they make round
trips every day. The Gorham train with
Conductor Feeney, Engineer Hanscomb and
engine Massabesic spends its time running
back and forth between Gorham and Port
land. The others run to Rochester and re-
turn.
Portland sees but very little of the Boston
q Maine system. although it is the extreme
eastern terminus Of two important divisions.
1t stretches out and ramifies so completely
over New Hampshire. Vermont and Massa-
chusetts that the employees and rolling stock
that come here are OILY very small portion
Of the whole. In all the Boston Sc Maine |
has close upon $50 locomotives and is buying
or building more every week.
The locomotives Of the Western division |
numbered originally from to 100, while |
those of The Eastern ran from 100 to 200, but
as business has increased and accidents have
happened to engines they have been moved
about and there Is now no general rule Of |
numbering to be laid down. The Western
division has some heavy passenger trains to
haul. and therefore has some powerful
engines. Among them are the Gen. Hooker
2i6, the Huntress la, Newmarket "a, viii.
mington 90, Sachem "a and others. OF other
passenger trains reaching Portland. Con-
ductor Gilman's Dover local, with the An /
dover, IS, George Smith. engineer, and Con- /
ductor Cousens's Kenn chunk local, Maine |
IL, Roland b. Bonney. engineer, are we'll
known. This last engine is an old-timer
with diamond stack" and the engineer is
an old-timer too. When the great strike oc-
Cured 10 years ago. Mr.. Bonney stuck to his
am uuho oil ha AL Lot kho;u
q result has life Job. He is seventy years /
old now, yet he makes his runs as sharply /
on time as the younger men, although of
course he does not 60 so far. The majority
Of the runners on the through line are young |
men who are not afraid to "get up and |
travel when 1t Is necessary The freight |
business is mostly done over the Eastern /
division, but several local freights run on /
the Western. the engines being the " ansha-
cum 223, Hinkley 80. Madbury go, Plaistow
%. Atkinson SO, Wakefield n, Melrose rs,
Maiden 70 and others.
The heavy freight trains that come in on
the Maine Central go out over the Eastern
division to Boston and to haul them through |
on time some tough engineers are needed.
People who live In the western part of the
city hear, In the small hours of the |
morning series of whistles, followed by
long and laborious putting. out over the
Eastern line gradually fading away In the |
distance. 1t will interest such people, and
others too. doubtless, to know that the
engines that make all this noise are six
wheel mogul freighters, or four-wheelers
built low down and able to climb up any
ordinary grade with long string of coal or
ice, or lumber cars, and to get them into
Boston by daylight. Some OF these engines
are the Wenham, 103. Ipswich, 104. Penob-
scot, 105, Arundel, 112, Manchester, 1873,
Greenland, 1876, Gov. Endicot, 1913. and there
are many others. The Eastern pulls some
pretty heavy passenger trains. especially the
night Pullman and such engines as the Gen.
Lander, 118, Gen. Hancock, 102, driven by
the veteran Waterman; Falmouth, PA,
James BowdOin. 211, LoDgfellow, 2lO, Col.
Coleman, 100. Excelsior. 181, Enoch Paine,
1872. are needed to do the work. The large
freight business of this railroad requires |
large number of shifting engines at every
important station and Portland has her sharr. |
On the Eastern are the Maverick, 101, Pride's |
1863, Wells. 1888; on the Western the Bradford, |
70, CODqueror, 100, and Glenwood, 1893. The
round house of the Eastern division is at
Turner'S Island and has pits and complete
arrangements for 81 engines. The Western
division round house is at the old Transfer
station.
The Maine Centralas it now is is essential
ly Portland institution and its details are
better known than those of any other of the
railroads centering here. There is so much
of interest concerning it however. and the
recent changes and improvements on the
line, that description of this and the Grand
Trunk is necessarily reserved for lack of
space In the present article
Thanke QIvino MarkafS