The Somerset reporter., 1906-03-29

Skowhegan and Pishon's Ferry Thirty
five years of this time he has been To-
Gated at the latter place, and Of course
is well known to every railroad aud
travelling man in the State. He, also,
made some interesting talk to the Jour-
nal and among other things said:
/ II began on the old somerset and
Kennebec road in 1852, whose president
at that time was Joseph Eaton. Then
the road was leased to the Kennebec and
| Portland company and the name chang
ed to Portland & Kennebec and under
this name it continued for many years
In 1869 or 1870 came the consolidation
of all these small companies and the
/ Maine Central came into being Under
| this name it is still known and has be-
come one of the great lines of New
! England
/ ~ hen first commenced as station
agent at Plshon's Ferry the road had no
uperintendeut President Eaton did
all the business and looked after the
details. The passenger conductors were
William Mitchell, h. l. Lincoln and
/ Walter Hatch, while Chas. French had
charge of the single freight train The
rails were very short, and as the wheels
struck the ends, it caused the clicking
noise 30 familiar to people who travelled
! by rail forty years ago. Everything was
crude then. Now, the rails are con-
necled by what Is known as the fish
plate, and all that disagreeable noise ls
done away with,
/ The first cars on the line were very
small, being of only ten tous capacity
! Ii by any chance weight of eleven tons
/ got on them 1t caused trouble and the
conductors would get severe calling
down rom Eaton. We now have cars
that will easily carry fifty tons, and
this only illustrates the difference be-
tween the old style of railroadng and
the new. The engines were also small
aud lacked power for fast work.
The old engineers were Sam Carter,
| Henry Penny and George York. Good
men they were but not up to the high
est engineer work of today. Accidents
were quite frequent then, and some
thing or other was always getting out
of gear.
Edwin Noyes came on as superin-
tendent in the late sixties, if | remem-
Der correctly lie was in charge of the
Portland Il Kennebec at first, and after
the consolidation WAS peTintendent of
the Name Central. Levi l.. Lincoln be-
came his assistant, aud Arthur Brown
WAS the assistant stationed on the Lew
ton division, and had his headquarters
in that city Noyes WAS an able man,
brusque in style and manner of speech,
but kind hearted and generous to a high
degree.
"rhen came Payson Tucker. He was
in many respects a remarkable man,
and had natural born gift for rail-
roadng He did great work for this
road
The present general superintendent
is Morris Mcdonald, with Fred L san
born of Portland as his chief aid. OF
course you know Mr. Evans the general
manager, and +. Z Boothby, general
passenger agent. They are first-class
men, aud are thoroughly liked by all
the men, as well as by all the patrons of
the road. | want to say to you that this
company was never 30 ably Offered a.
it is today, and what is more there is
not another railroad company in all
New England that is more ably manag-
ed. Between men and officers there is
the best of feeling, and the same ma J
be said of the public Had all the roads
in the country been managed on the
same high and honorable plane as the
Maine Central you would hear nothing
of this celebrated rate measure that is