Kennebec Central Railroad
| Randolph ME – Toguz ME, as of 1999 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Society: | KC | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 8 kilometers | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 610 mm ( 2 foot track ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks: | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Kennebec Central Railroad is a former railway company in Maine ( United States ).
history
It was founded on October 3rd, 1889 by some businessmen from Gardiner and built an eight kilometer railway line from Randolph to the National Soldiers' Home , a veterans hospital in Toguz . The track width was 2 feet (610 mm). The official opening took place on July 7, 1890, 16 days later regular operations began. Initially, the line had no contact with other railways, but from 1901 in Toguz it had contact with the Augusta tram . In Randolph there is also a road bridge over the Kennebec River to Gardiner opposite, where the Maine Central Railroad operated a railway line. The only intermediate station of the railway was in Chelsea , the engine shed and freight yard were in Randolph. At the Toguz terminus there was a freight connection to the hospital's boiler room. Extensions to the only about 15 kilometers distant route of the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway (WW&F) operating in the same gauge did not get beyond the planning stage.
In addition to the connection to the hospital, general cargo and from 1905 coal were also transported by rail. In the 1909/10 financial year, the company owned two locomotives, 4 passenger cars, a combined passenger and baggage car, and 13 freight cars (8 of which were used to transport coal). This year the train transported over 70,000 passengers. In the 1920s, two more locomotives (No. 3 and 4) were acquired from the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad . This enabled the two locomotives from the early days of 1922 (No. 1 VOLUNTEER ) and 1926 (No. 2) to be retired.
The company has been economically successful throughout its existence. However, after the coal transport to the road was lost and the number of passengers had also dropped to around 20,000 annually, operations on the small railway were stopped on June 29, 1929. The two locomotives were initially parked in Randolph. Shortly afterwards, there was a shortage of locomotives on the WW&F, so the owner of this company, Frank Winter , bought the Kennebec Central Railroad. In 1933 the two locomotives were transferred and ran there for a few months until this line was also shut down. One of the locomotives is still in use in the WW&F museum today. The rest of the rolling stock and some of the facilities in Randolph were destroyed by floods in 1936. The railway line is partly still passable, but north of Chelsea it is partly swampy.
literature
- Robert C. Jones: Two Feet to Togus - The Kennebec Central Railroad. Vermont Evergreen Press, Burlington, VT 1999, ISBN 0-9667264-1-3
- Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .
- Robert L. MacDonald: Maine Narrow Gauge Railroads . Arcadia Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7385-1179-X .
- Richard Andrews: From Randolph to Togus on the Kennebec Central . In: Trains . Kalmbach Publishing Co., September 1951, ISSN 0041-0934 , p. 24-26 .
Web links
credentials
- ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 1999.
- ^ Poor's Manual of Railroads. 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, p. 43.
- ↑ http://www.wwfry.org/ --- Operating history of the KC locomotive 4 (see Railway History >> Equipment >> # 9).