Biddeford – Old Orchard Beach Tram
The tram Biddeford-Old Orchard Beach was a tram service in Maine ( United States ). It existed from 1888 to 1939. The line had from 1902 in Saco and from 1903 also in Old Orchard Beach connection to the Portland tram and from 1904 in Biddeford to the Atlantic Shore Line Railway , an intercity tram.
history
Horse tram
The Biddeford and Saco Railroad was founded on February 24, 1885 and intended to build a horse-drawn tram between Biddeford and Saco. On March 15, 1887, the government extended the concession to include the section from Saco to Old Orchard Beach, as well as the option to operate the route electrically. However, initially no use was made of the latter right.
Construction work on the line began on May 7, 1888. Superintendent John N. Akarman had announced the opening for Independence Day (July 4th), but it was delayed due to the late delivery of the harness. Regular operations between Biddeford and the depot in Saco began on July 9, and the rest of the route followed six days later.
Electric tram
The line was electrified on May 30, 1892 as one of the first streetcars in Maine with 600 volts DC voltage. Initially, only the section from Biddeford to Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco was operated electrically. The rest of the section followed on June 4th. In the spring of 1893, the turnouts were relocated to allow a continuous 15-minute cycle and were now in Biddeford on Main Street, Saco on Main Street and south of the railway bridge on Old Orchard Road and Old Orchard Beach in Washington Avenue. As early as May 1890, the railway company applied for the construction of a large loop in Biddeford across Elm Street, Five Points (Elm Street / Alfred Street) and Alfred Street to Main Street. This new line did not go into operation until September 8, 1900.
In May 1901 the old bridge over the Saco River was replaced by a new steel bridge. From July 24, 1902 to April 16, 1932 there was a track connection to the Portland tram in Saco. Their car used the route of Biddeford & Saco in Main Street to the intersection of Common Street (Pepperell Square), where the terminus was. From June 15, 1903, there was also a rail link to Portland in Old Orchard Beach. Here the railways from Portland used the route in Old Orchard Street. The terminal system in Old Orchard Beach was expanded for this purpose and in 1912 the two butt tracks were replaced by a siding. The possibility of changing free of charge has been set up at both junction points. Starting in 1910, individual cars from Portland drove through to Biddeford, City Square (Main Street) late in the evening.
From August 8, 1904, Biddeford, City Square was connected to the Atlantic Shore Line Railway . This interurban tram terminated on Adams Street and ran on South Street, Crescent Street, Graham Street, Birch Street, Hill Street and Granite Street from Biddeford to Kennebunk and Sanford . At the intersection of Birch Street / Alfred Street, a connecting curve was built in November 1915, but it was not driven along a line.
The turnout on Alfred Street was moved to the Ray Street intersection in 1905. By May 24, 1914, the company expanded the line in Main Street in Biddeford between Alfred Street and Lincoln Street to double track. In August 1915, a goods shed was opened on Alfred Street in Biddeford, across from Pool Street. By 1921, the turnout in Alfred Street was abandoned and the one in Old Orchard Beach was moved to Union Avenue. In the summer of 1923, the railway company built another turnout on Main Street in Saco, between Water Street and Storer Street. The turnout in Five Points was moved from Elm Street to Alfred Street in 1927.
After the York Utilities Corporation ceased operations between Biddeford and Sanford on September 15, 1927 , Biddeford & Saco leased their section between Biddeford, City Square and Proctor Road. On September 16, it began passenger traffic with a shuttle railcar. Eleven trips per working day and direction were made to Proctor Road. 24 more trips ended on West Street. On Sundays traffic was quiet on the Granite Street Branch . The change at Biddeford was free. Due to a lack of passengers, the section from McKenney's to Proctor Road was closed for good on September 24th. Now a half-hourly service was offered over the entire route. From October 14, the operating time was severely restricted. On January 14, 1928, traffic between West Street and McKenney's ended. The regular service on this route was finally stopped on June 30, 1928, as the number of passengers continued to decline. From December 6 to June 1929, however, one car per working day and direction ran for school traffic after the Biddeford School Board had paid the costs. However, the York Utilities Corporation dismantled the contact line systems and the tracks in the summer of 1929, so that operations could not be resumed with the new school year.
Similarly, from April 17, 1932, Biddeford & Saco was to lease the Portland tram line from Main Street in Saco to Moody Street and run a railcar every 15 minutes. General manager Stride refused and the track connection at the intersection of Main Street and Beach Street was dismantled on April 25th.
In 1932 the bridge over the Goose Fare Brook was replaced on the Old Orchard Road. However, this was the last track or route renewal. On July 5, 1939, the railway was shut down for economic reasons and the facilities dismantled. Even necessary track repairs were no longer carried out in previous years.
The company continued to operate the route as a bus route and only changed its name to Biddeford and Saco Bus Lines in 1956 . Railroad fans bought railcar 31 and took it to a former farm south of Biddeford. This resulted in the Seashore Trolley Museum , which today claims to be home to more than 200 trams and buses. The bus route has been operated by the Biddeford-Saco-Old Orchard Beach Transit Committee since 1978 .
stretch
The original horse-drawn railway line began at the junction of Elm Street and South Street in Biddeford and ran over Elm Street and Main Street, over the Saco River to Saco. On the river bridge was a level crossing over the Cummings – Portland railway line . The route continued alongside Main Street in Saco and reached the city limits of Old Orchard Beach via Beach Street and Old Orchard Road. In Beach Street and Old Orchard Road by the bridge over Goose Fare Brook, the horse-drawn tram line crossed the railway line again, but at these two points there are underpasses under the embankment that the tram could use. At Old Orchard Beach, the route went through Saco Avenue and on through Union Avenue and Washington Avenue, at the north end of which it met Saco Avenue again. The detour was necessary to connect the Camp Ground, a well-frequented open-air meeting place for Christians. Saco Avenue was followed by the railway line to Old Orchard Street, through which it reached its end at Old Orchard Beach station.
Most of the route lay on its side next to the road. In the urban area of Biddeford and Old Orchard Beach and partly in Saco, the route was in the middle of the street. The total length of the single-track line was 9218 meters. The track length including the turnouts was 9701 meters. However, it is not known where these diversions were in the first years of operation. Steel rails weighing 17.4 kg / m were used, which were replaced by 28 kg rails between Biddeford and Pepperell Park in 1896. On the remaining section of the route, 1900 rails with 30 kg / m were installed.
The loop in Biddeford was between the previous terminus and about the intersection of Elm Street / Orchard Street in the middle of the street, from there on the side to Alfred Street / Emmons Place and from there to Main Street again in the middle of the street. The new line was 3,031 meters long, increasing the total length to 12,249 meters. Part of the new line in Elm Street was built with 45 kg rails. New turnouts were built on Elm Street just before Five Points and on Alfred Street between Mt. Vernon Street and Washington Street. In 1924 50 kg rails were first installed on Elm Street in Biddeford.
The railway company had not installed a signaling system. The dispatcher sat in the depot and checked the entire network. There was, however, an internal telephone network that connected the terminals, including the intermediate terminals and diversions, to the depot. Often several railcars drove in a row in the summer to cope with the transport volume. The railcars, which were followed by another railcar traveling in the same direction, had to wear a sign saying "CAR FOLLOWING".
Depot
The depot was in Saco on Beach Street, across from what is now Promenade Avenue. A double-track carriage hall was enough to accommodate the twelve horse-drawn carriage. Next to it was the horse stable with space for 60 animals. The stable was expanded to 94 places in the spring of 1889. In 1892 the railway power station required for electrical operation was added.
From 1903 to 1921 the depot was expanded and rebuilt several times. The stables became wagon sheds with a total of six tracks. The old carriage hall of the horse tram was now used for long-term parked wagons and the access from Beach Street to this hall was dismantled. Access was only possible from the rear. A coal shed for the power plant and a warehouse were also built. A small single-track wagon repair shop was also built in the power station building, but major repairs were done in the main Portland tram repair shop.
vehicles
The four closed singles and eight open pairs for the horse-drawn tram were built by the Jones company in Watervliet , New York, and delivered in July 1888. The closed cars had 16 seats on longitudinal benches, the open car 40 on a total of eight transverse benches. The cars could only be braked manually. In October 1888, a snow plow was also purchased, but it was overwhelmed with great depths of snow, so that sometimes a rail replacement service had to be operated with three horse-drawn busses acquired in 1889 for months.
Five of the open horse-drawn tram cars and the closed cars were converted into electric railcars in 1892; The cars received new chassis from the Bemis company in Springfield (Massachusetts) . An additional electric snow plow was also purchased. On June 15, 1892, the railway acquired four used open sidecars from Boston and another former horse-drawn tram was converted into a motor vehicle. In May 1893 two more railcars were acquired from the Newburyport Car Manufacturing Company in Newburyport, Massachusetts , followed in 1896 by two cars from the CD Morse Car Company in Millbury, Massachusetts and two from the Briggs Carriage Company in Amesbury, Massachusetts . In January 1900 the four former closed horse-drawn tram cars were replaced by new railcars from JG Brill and Company in Philadelphia . More cars, including some used ones from Portland, were purchased in the years that followed. The railway company procured the last new vehicles for passenger transport for the time being in 1903.
In 1910 the railway company had 9 closed and 22 open passenger cars available. There was also a horse-drawn and two electric snow plows.
From 1915, two flat freight cars and a new snow plow supplemented the fleet. After the state of Maine passed a law in the same year that all streetcars had to have so-called “human catchers”, the railway company converted its vehicles accordingly by 1916. These aprons at the front of the vehicles should prevent people from rolling over. Only at the end of 1919 were new passenger railcars delivered again. Six closed cars for the one-man operation of the Wason Manufacturing Company were put into service. They were named Birney cars after their designer . In 1920 the sidecar operation was given up and the existing sidecars decommissioned. At the same time, two more of the Birney railcars were acquired. These were the last new build vehicles that Biddeford & Saco bought.
In 1923 and 1925, Biddeford & Saco acquired a total of seven used railcars from the Portland tram. From 1927 to 1937, the rail company bought a total of 30 used Birney cars from various factories in Massachusetts and Maine, replacing almost all of their fleet.
Operational flow
Horse tram
In the closed car, the driver was also a conductor and in winter also had to light the coal stove. A conductor drove into the open car next to the driver. Additional horses had to be harnessed for the steep slopes in front of and behind the bridge over the Saco River. In the beginning there was a half-hourly service, the journey over the entire route took an hour. The operating time initially extended from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
A new timetable came into effect on September 10, 1888, as the traffic to Old Orchard Beach had decreased significantly. Since more journeys were required between Biddeford and Saco, the cars from Biddeford to the depot now ran every 15 minutes, while the rest of the section ran every hour. The traffic to Old Orchard Beach ended seasonally on September 30, 1888 and the four closed cars shuttled between Biddeford and Saco every 15 minutes with a journey time of 20 minutes. In the case of rail replacement traffic due to snow, only half an hourly service was run. This occurred for the first time on February 7, 1889. From 1889, during the summer season from mid-April to the end of October, carriages drove the entire route to Old Orchard Beach every half hour, while the rest of the time there was every quarter of an hour between Biddeford and Saco. On December 18, 1890, operations were completely stopped. In the summer season of 1891, cars only ran to Old Orchard Beach every hour, only every 30 minutes on Sunday afternoons. Even during the winter of 1891/92 the train did not run.
Electric tram
Trains with sidecars were manned by a driver, two conductors and a brakeman in the sidecar. The closed railcars ran in one-man operation until 1900. With electrification, the 30-minute cycle was reintroduced on the entire route. The operating time extended from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. The electrification reduced the travel time for the entire route to 45 minutes. In the following years the travel time could be further reduced to 30 minutes. From September 11, 1892, a car ran every 30 minutes between Biddeford and Eastman Park (Main Street / Beach Street) in Saco, so that there was again a 15-minute cycle on this section. For the first time, trams ran to Old Orchard Beach throughout the winter in 1892/93, but due to the weather, all operations had to be stopped several times in the following winters. In the summer of 1894 a train ran the entire route every 15 minutes, while in the winter there was a half-hourly service between Eastman Park and Old Orchard Beach. This timetable was not finally introduced until 1897. In March 1896 the horse busses drove for the last time in the rail replacement service after heavy rains had endangered the river bridge.
At the beginning of 1897, the first operating regulations were issued because the near-misses, especially at the level crossing on the river bridge, increased.
When the loop opened in Biddeford, the total travel time had increased to 45 minutes. The terminus was now in Biddeford on Alfred Street south of Main Street and the journey led first on Alfred Street, Five Points and Elm Street, before the route to Saco and Old Orchard Beach was tackled. In the opposite direction, the cars drove this route in reverse order, so the loop was traveled in both directions. The intermediate terminus in Saco, which was approached every 30 minutes outside the summer season, was at Laurel Hill Cemetery from this time on. In early and late traffic, some additional courses drove to the intersection of Saco Avenue / Ocean Park Road on the city limits of Old Orchard Beach. At Main Street / Alfred Street in Biddeford, passengers from the direction of Saco could transfer to the car free of charge via Elm Street and did not have to travel via Five Points.
Freight transport
From the spring of 1909 two weekday freight trains ran from Portland via Saco to Biddeford, which were operated by the Tarbox Express Company. The goods were unloaded at the intersection of Alfred Street and Main Street; the vehicles belonged to the Portland tram. From January 1, 1915, the Portland tram and the Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville Street Railway , an interurban tram in Central Maine, joint general cargo services to Biddeford and Old Orchard Beach. Shortly afterwards, a freight station was built at 76 Alfred Street to avoid traffic jams at the Alfred Street / Main Street intersection. From January 2, 1917, two freight trains drove from Portland to Sanford on working days and used the Biddeford & Saco tracks as transit between the Portland tram and the Atlantic Shore Line. Although the general cargo transports were stopped on August 1, 1920, the through freight trains ran until the closure of the route from Biddeford to Sanford on September 15, 1927.
Tickets
The fare for the entire route was ten cents, for parts of it five cents. The tariff limit was initially at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco, but was moved to the city limit between Saco and Old Orchard Beach on May 1, 1889 at the urging of the city council. Monthly tickets were sold from July 1, 1889. From November 1890, there were also 30-trip tickets at one dollar each for trips within Biddeford or Saco. The board members of the railway company, their wives as well as the mayors, police chiefs and road inspectors of the three cities received free season tickets for the summer season from 1891.
As of August 1, 1927, the fare from Biddeford to Old Orchard Beach was 15 cents. There were two tariff zone boundaries, namely at Laurel Hill Cemetery and just before the city boundary with Old Orchard Beach. A trip within a zone cost five cents, a trip across a zone border ten. With the takeover of the Granite Street Branch in September 1927, another tariff zone boundary was introduced on West Street. Changing to and from the shuttle railcar on this route was free. As of January 14, 1928, the ride on Granite Street generally cost ten cents.
President
The first president of the railway company was Stephen F. Shaw, a shoemaker from Saco. He resigned on November 5, 1890, and was succeeded by Esreff Banks, President of First National Bank in Biddeford. On March 19, 1900, the entrepreneur Charles H. Prescott was elected as the new president. He died on December 13, 1923. His successor, Harry P. Garland, resigned on July 20, 1933. The fifth president of the Biddeford and Saco Railroad Company was then J. Burton Stride. After his death on January 25, 1956, the company was renamed Biddeford and Saco Bus Lines and Stride's son, Richard J. Stride, became the new president, which he remained until the company was dissolved in 1978.
Special occurrences
On February 7, 1889, a horse omnibus burned down in the depot due to a discarded cigar stub. The vehicle was used for the first time that day and was soon replaced by a new one.
After the pantograph had slipped off the overhead line, a railcar stopped on January 11, 1893 on the level crossing on the bridge over the Saco River. A freight train on the Boston and Maine Railroad caught the car and knocked it off the crossing. Everyone was able to get to safety in good time. A collision between a railcar with defective brakes and a derailed railcar at Goose Fare Brook on June 20, 1893 also went smoothly for the people involved.
The railway's first fatal accident occurred on June 13, 1895, when a young boy was run over by a streetcar on Main Street in Biddeford. A total of six passengers and passers-by died from collisions with trams. The last fatal accident on the railway occurred on February 19, 1927 shortly before midnight. On Elm Street in Biddeford, a pickup truck with eight people collided head-on with a streetcar. The driver of the car died and another person was seriously injured.
attachment
literature
- Osmond R. Cummings and Edward D. Leavitt: Street Cars to Old Orchard Beach. The Biddeford & Saco Railroad and Connecting Lines. Harold E. Cox, Forty Fort PA, 1989.
- George W. Hilton and John F. Due: The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA, 1960. ISBN 0-8047-4014-3
Web links
Individual evidence
The numbers and data in this article are from Cummings & Leavitt 1989, see literature. Further sources:
- ↑ Transit Systems in Maine ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_hr1t1k
- ^ Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., New York NY, 1911. Page 2064.
