Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad news

"Phiney" has settled with the developer for the hotel,condo,marina,that will have to cross his "right of way",by the original Portland Company shops(home of the Maine Narrow Gauge). "Final price" was "above the $5,000 the City of Portland offered(threatened to take by emminent domain!) and below the 1 "plus" million Sprague wanted.

Think I am in Phineas' corner,with that eminent domain crap for "development"(thanks Supreme Court!).

Seems to be some confusion as to where the tracks run(or ran,or "might run") among those who are NOT familiar with the Portland geography. If you want,I will post a description/brief history,of what came to be known as "the belt line",even though no trains made the complete loop,and there was also a trolley belt line in the "suburbs of Portland". Let me know,and I will post it.

Bud

Please post it!
To interject a bit, I think Portland's character would be better served/preserved by a "Historic" trolley line, similar to what NPS has done in Lowell Mass. That is to say, a line with either original or replica (or highly restored and refurbished to near or better than new) trolleys. Such a system could get closer to town, especialy if it used narrow guage cars, not necesarily 2', but slimmer than the std 4'8.5" .
I think such a system SHOULD be kept separate from the 2' steam trains, and I don't see why the two could not co exist.
JM$.02W

Try this website. And it just happens to be from Portland, OR

Thanks for the info. I've got to stop procrastinating and sit down and write. Tomorrow maybe.

To interject a bit, I think Portland's character would be better served/preserved by a "Historic" trolley line, similar to what NPS has done in Lowell Mass.

I think a heritage trolley would be big draw if they ran it through the Old Port. In fact I'd like it if they city made the whole Old Port a largely car free zone. It'd be easy enough with the right incentives. build municipal parking lots just outside the Port, esp. near the highway exits, and offer free trolley rides to anyone who parks there. You improve air quality, public transportation and create a tourist draw in one go. Like Lowell they could have a partnership with the Seashore trolley museum to lease some of their cars.

Regarding a historical trolley line in the Old Port, the precedent would be Seattle, which since the 1980s has had a very successful tourist trolley line that uses a former Burlington Northern right-of-way along the bar-and-restaurant portion of the city's waterfront. They use old tramcars imported from Australia. A line along Commercial Street would be conceptually similar.

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Much can be learned from the "other" Portland!

I was aware of the Gomaco trolleys running in Portland. Of course the 'other Portland' is nine times the size of the original Portland. Whether a vintage trolley line is practical or affordible would be left to more sensible heads than mine.

I do think that if the MNGRR is planning to get modern equipment to run along with the museum cars, then this would be of great benefit to the city, and would benefit Bayside development. Just running the museum cars would be impractical, and counter productive, as has been pointed out in earlier posts.