hustled back to the car to make it to the Maine Central crossing at Ellen.
The non-interlocked MEC crossing was protected by a clas- sic New England ball signal that required the crew to stop before proceeding across the diamond. We found the train stopped just east of the crossing and watched the head brakeman walk up to line the signal — one ball for the AGE. Then the Alcos pulled for- ward, and the brakeman swung aboard.
Departure Lehigh Valley C-420s 414, 413, and 415 depart South Dover Yard with Train No. 1 on the morn- ing of April 3, 1965.
Mike dropped me off, so I could photograph Train No. 1 rolling past the H. P. Hood cream- ery and toward the depot. The creamery building at Ellen had once been a very busy place, but there wasn’t much traffic left here in 1965. Mike set up west of the depot and got the Alcos passing between the Kieffer Coal Com- pany bunker and the warehouses of the Piscataquis County Potato
Packers. Even though the season was beginning to wind down, the potato houses still required daily service.
Once back in the car, we drove toward the village of Center Mon- son. We did not expect to catch the train there but were pleas- antly surprised to find the crew climbing back aboard after mak- ing a stop at the trackside gen- eral store. Soon they were mov- ing again toward Briar Tank and Bolton Mills. With three fairly new Alcos for power, we figured the hogger would be “letting them run” to see what they could do. So we passed on the chance to photograph the train going by the old water stop at Briar Tank to make it to Bolton Mills. The high bridge over the Dead River was an ideal spot to frame the train emerging from the shadows of the former Bolton Woolen Mills Company. The North Eastern Corrugated Box Compa-
ny occupied these buildings now, and it remained a good railroad customer.
At Rangeley River Junction, the train pulled up to the depot so the conductor could go inside to sign the train register. There he learned that they would be filling out to tonnage with some west- bound potato loads. These reefers had been “mine run” to RRJct on a potato extra that was continuing to the seaport at New Landsport, Maine. The power for that train was in the clear in the yard, and an Alco RS-1 yard switcher wait- ed on the passing siding to tack the reefers onto the rear of Train No. 1.
Another air test was performed and at 10:45AM they were off to begin the assault on “the notch.” The extra potato reefers put the train right at the westbound ton- nage limit and three sets of Alco 251 prime movers were in full voice as they passed under the
42 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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