The Portland daily press., 1895-05-28
BETWEEN THE RAILS.
Carriages And Teams Must Go in
South Portland.

The Double Rails of the New Electric
Road Fill Up the Road Beds-The Sc
lectmen Say Its All Right, but South
Portland People Don't Think So.
"If they lay those double tracks in the
streets at South Portland, as they re
doing now," said man on Commercial
street yesterday afternoon, "the teams
and carriages will have to drive right
along over the tracks, for there isn't any
room outside. 3"
The PRESS reporter deciding to go
over to Willard and see for himself, ar
rived at the corner that in the old days
was known as '"Dog Square, - where the
Willard hose carriage house and Willard S
store are located. Here the advance guard
ofthe track-layers came into view, at work
upon the rails and bending them SO as to
go around the curve
just beyond the curve the track laying
was in full progress. They had dug a
trench in one side of the road bed, just
a little deeper than the sleepers and were
spiking down the rails at a rapid rate.
From the corner down to Willard street
is only few hundred yards. Willard
street runs straight down to Simonton' S
cove. 1t is new street and the road
/ bed is nothing but soft loam and sand.
Both tracks have been laid the entire
length of the street, which is about a
quarter of mile, and they take up the
whole road. Carriages will, of course,
have to drive right along the tracks; that
is, with the wheels inside the tracks.
If this soft loan foundation, covered
with gravel, will maintain the surface
just a little below the top of the rails !;
that is, a surface like pavement in city.
+. and if it doesn't wear into ruts and
holes, especially in the spring time, it
will be possible of course to use the street
for carriages and teams, just as it is pos
sible to drive along and over the tracks in
Washington street, Boston.
But if this county road remains the
same as other county roads in Maine that
are not paved with granite blocks or
macamized, it will not maintain solid,
! even surface, close to the top of the rails,
y
the wheels of vehicles, and the rails will
project in sundry and divers places, and
the use of a carriage or cart will be at
tended with discomfort and some danger
i The above is the way the "kickers"
in South Portland look at it, The people
of Knightvjlle and the selectmen, we
are informed, don't look at it in this
lirbt A South Dort1a,,d man inform, ad
the reporter that one of the selectmen
said that it was all right for the company
to lay the two tracks in the streets of
South Portland, and that the road bed
would be better than ever before on ac-
count of it. Every morning and night
the railroad will haul gravel along and
grade up the road bed to the top of the
rails, and this will make the road bet
ter than ever before.
The Knightville people seem, as a
whole, to be- entirely satisfied with the
prospects of having double rails in the
streets, and say that the South
Portland people always were kickers and
were bound to kick at everything
The South Portland people retort that
they are the only people in the town
who have got backbone enough to object
to being imposed upon
just between the upper end of Willard
street and the corner, where the hose car
riage house is, and where the track lay
ing is now in progress, is a distance of a
few hundred yards, and the road is only
45 feet wide. That includes sidewalks
trees, cutters and everything. The road
bed is about 20 feet wide. The double
track takes up the whole of it, and the
roads elsewhere in the town, we are in
| formed, are not more than so feet wide
This double track takes up about IA feet,
and that IA feet is taken right out of the
middle of the road bed, and by no pos
sibility, unless the road bed is widened,
can carriages drive outside the tracks
Wherever the electric cars go in South
Portland, except perhaps in few places,
the carriages must go between the rails
One of the selectmen of the new town
of Cape Elizabeth, recently declared that
if the double tracks are extended out be-
yond Willard, along the shore road, into
his town, he will ask an injunction on
it,
About 70 men are now employed on
the railroad, and only about one-third of
them are residents Of Portland and South
Portland These are Italians, who have
replaced the men who struck last week.
1t will be remembered that they were
paid but 81. 35 day, and struck for 81. So
Some were retained and paid 81. so, and
others who were deemed to be worth
only S1.35 by the contractors, have been
replaced by Italians