Slate Hauling, and a Grand Old Lady

Sunday, 26th August

After an agreeable breakfast at 'Moosehead Lake Lodge' [1] and a pleasant chat with Jack (I was his only guest the previous night), it was time to wend my way just a little further north, and see what I could find of the Monson Railroad, or the 'Two by Six' as it was known - two feet wide, and six miles long. It was the only one of the two footers to last into the 1940s, and it's raison d'etre for the entire history of the line, was to haul high quality slate from the many quarries on line, down to the the interchange with the 'broad gauge' (standard 4' 8.5" gauge in reality) Bangor and Aroostook at Monson Junction.

Monson depot [2] was easy enough to find, thanks again to Moody, and it is in pretty good shape. I was lucky enough to meet the owner of the property, who was was helping his long suffering wife pull weeds from the slate ballast on the wee bit of line they have adjacent to the depot. Once again, I received a guided tour, and a history lesson. Its neat to see these preservation activities underway, and in particular when it is the work of just a small number of folk with a personal interest in helping save part of their history. It kind of makes me think the human race aint too bad sometimes.

I wish I could remember the gentleman's name, as he was very friendly, and showed me where to find other signs of past activity, including a couple of the quarries, and spots where one can still see the old ROW. I even filched a genuine piece of slate ballast from up the line, as a souvenir















Monson Depot - my northern-most stop!

After leaving the depot, I spent a pleasant hour or so stooging around the quarries (amazing the places rental cars will go without complaint :-), and then headed off in search of the elusive Monson Junction, and the BAR interchange.

One of the old slate quarries serviced by the MRR, long since flooded

Monson Junction was always going to be a challenge to find. I thought I had located it on a 21st century map, extrapolating from period documents, but it is in the middle of nowhere today, with little to refer it to the present day topology. After my GPS optimistically attempted to send me down a 'road' which was actually part of the old right-of-way, and is now a snowmobile trail at best, I finally got lucky when I spotted a minor, minor side road, which the GPS map was silent on, name of Monson Junction Lane. Luckily there was nobody behind me, and after the smell of burnt rubber had dissipated, I nosed my way into the bushes, and voila! Confusion! Well, this must be the right place - that there building looks like an old depot, but it seems to be facing 90 degrees from what I expected. Oh well, snap a few photos, water the ballast, and hope I've got it right!

Monson Junction Station??? Note the flashing on the chimney - the whole building has settled a foot or so, as the foundations have disintegrated over the years.

I need to jump ahead a few days here, as my mystery did get solved, and I WAS in the right place. See the photo below, of part of one of the (prototypically accurate) layouts on display at the convention. The Station IS oriented at right angles to the BAR tracks, not parallel to, as one might expect.

Crap photo (I need a new camera), but it shows the station at right angles to the standard gauge BAR tracks. My 'real' photo was taken from just beyond where the end of the brown boxcar is located top right of the model photo.

By this time, my tummy was rumbling, so it was time to head off towards Kingfield in Sandy River country, with the hope of a good feed somewhere along the way.

Time for a map, eh?

Kingfield was an easy hour and a half drive from Monson country through very picturesque countryside, and was punctuated by lunch at the 'Antlers Inn' at a tiny village called Bingham. The food was nice, but the Inn should have been 'Antler' without the 'S', as the life-size Moose model replica outside was missing one of his. Looked most odd with one antler, and one piece of rebar, where the missing one had been :-). But hey, I finally saw a moose - well, almost.

And so, onward to Kingfield [4], and the Herbert Grand Hotel. Kingfield was an important town on the Franklin and Megantic RR, which was merged into the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes RR with the other five Franklin County lines in 1908. The Herbert likewise played a significant role in the history of the town, so it was quite a thrill to be able to spend a couple of nights there. Do check out their website - I didn't get any decent shots of the hotel myself, and it's worth looking up the Grand Old Lady's skirts, so to speak.

After checking in, I just had time for a nana-nap before dinner - all this touristy business is hard work - then it was across the road for yet another nice dinner at a local restaurant. I think I might be putting on an extra kilo or two - no harm there.

Another early night was on order, in preparation for the legendary 'Gary Kohler 5 Star Whistle Stop Bus Tour of the SR and RL' on the morrow!

P.S. Why the h%$$ won't this blog let me use ampersands?