Students work to uncover RR history in South Portland

From the Current:

Current wrote:Fourth-graders at Brown Elementary School, working with the South Portland Historical Society, the city and Pan Am Railways, are lending a hand to preserve a special piece of the city’s history.

The goal of the joint project is to uncover and preserve a side rail used to move goods to factories in the Mill Creek area prior to World War II, like the Lovell Arms factory, and then down to the shipyards after the war started.

It’s the job of the fourth-graders to learn about the history of the railroads in South Portland and come up with information to be printed on an interpretive sign at the site.

The side rail is located just off the Greenbelt between Mill Creek and Mussey Street. Kathryn DiPhilippo, executive director of the South Portland Historical Society, called the project a perfect one for the local students.

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The teacher should be recognized for making the kids aware of the rail role in the Portland region.

That is a cool project. Never heard the term side rail before ha.

This project prompted me to think about an old Portland Terminal map I've had for ages. Anyone know the year this was published? I'm guessing ~1955 as it identifies the Sanford and Eastern, and the "new" Fore River bridge (which was built in 1954).

It's not very clear, but the inset lists customers by yard. Back then, PT had 13 yards (+ two Union Station yards). Yard 2 (Commercial Street) alone served over 50 industries!

I know that way back when, long prior to the abandonment of the line in 1944, the Eastern Division of the B&M used to cross the Fore River into Portland. I have never seen a photo of the bridge. When was it removed, and why?

Check out the following. I think that through truss bridge is the background may be the the swing span. The date says 1929.

https://www.facebook.com/PortlandMaineH ... =3&theater" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would think that it was little used or out-of-service in 1929, with Rigby Yard (built ~1923) making the connection to Portland redundant. There's a 1937 photo on the same website and it appears long-gone by then.

From the South Portland—Cape Elizabeth Sentry:

South Portland—Cape Elizabeth Sentry wrote:Among those who jumped in to aid the student project were . . . volunteers from Pan Am Railways, among them Cynthia Scarano and Jeff Beecher, son of City Councilor Maxine Beecher.
. . .
Once the city crew was done, it was discovered the wooden ties that support the rails were still in good shape. Volunteers from Pan Am Railways came up from Dover, New Hampshire, to excavate the ties, working by hand to avoid damaging them. The crew discovered from “date nails” in the ties that they actually were installed between 1956 and 1958, which may have been the last round of significant maintenance the line ever saw. The bumper post was dated to 1920, Eberle said.
. . .
In addition to donating time and labor, Pan Am also gave a load of ballast, the crushed rock packed between the railroad ties. A crew from public works then packed the stone between the ties to better simulate how the line would have looked when in use.
. . .
Eberle said this is not the end of the school department’s Adopt-A-Rail program. Plans are underway for a similar project at Kaler Elementary involving an old granite marker that was once part of the rail line.

“Hopefully, over time, there will be five sites preserved, each of which will be ‘owned’ by one of the elementary schools,” she said.

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Wow, ties do look in good shape, and has tie plates too.

Cowford wrote:This project prompted me to think about an old Portland Terminal map I've had for ages.

PT map.jpg

Anyone know the year this was published? I'm guessing ~1955 as it identifies the Sanford and Eastern, and the "new" Fore River bridge (which was built in 1954).

It's not very clear, but the inset lists customers by yard. Back then, PT had 13 yards (+ two Union Station yards). Yard 2 (Commercial Street) alone served over 50 industries!

I would say that map was from 1954. as it shows the B&M Warren Avenue line continuing through and intersecting the Mountain Division, and that line was severed by the Turnpike in 1954-55.

Also, what's that pink and yellow in the Douglass/Sewall/Davis St. area, north of Thompson's Point?

Pink = land owned by PTM

Yellow = land owned by PTM and available for industrial development

From The Forecaster:

The Forecaster wrote:SOUTH PORTLAND — A new monument to the city's railway history will soon greet walkers, runners and riders along the Greenbelt near Mussey Street.

A culmination of the first Adopt-a-Rail project, the historical marker will be placed alongside a section of railroad that Brown Elementary School students worked to preserve earlier this year.
. . .
The section of railroad track near 71 Mussey St. dates back to the late 1950s, according to Pan Am Railways, which partnered with the school on the project. The bumping post at the end of the rail was determined to have been installed around 1920.
. . .
Eberle said she hopes to facilitate similar restoration and stewardship projects with the city's other four elementary schools in the coming years.

She has tentatively identified four other spots along the Greenbelt Walkway, including a granite mile-marker near the intersection of Broadway and Evans Street that lists the mileage to Portland on one side and Boston on the other.

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