Edaville in 1959 on 16mm film

[Steve Klare]

I'm a Maine Narrow Gauge Fan, and I'm also a film fan.

The "Film Fan" part of it is actually because of the Two Footers. When I was in high school, Sunday River Productions had ads in railfans' magazines for Super-8 prints of railroad films. I was already big into the Two Footers at the time, so when I saw titles like "Two Foot Gauge in Maine" and "The Bridgton and Harrison", I scraped together whatever money a high school kid could and bought some prints.

I also got a movie camera and started making films of my own. In 1982 a couple of friends and I went to Railfan's day at Edaville, and I shot a film that day.  We rode the Model T track car and paid extra to ride in the cab of B&SR #8. I also shot some films at the SR&RL museum: one color and one black and white.

It was great fun at the time, but certain...distractions got in my way: college, dating, career, marriage, homeownership!

About the turn of this century, I went on the internet and tried to find out when 8mm film died out and in as a surprise result went into it deeper than ever! I got sound, got several cameras, got a bunch of projectors, and built myself a little home theater including video projection and a sound system that can rattle my wife's china-closet and scare the cats!

I also made some more films including a vintage style WW&F film around 2002. (My first visit!)

It's a great hobby: all sorts of technical challenges restoring and maintaining old equipment and frankly with eBay out there it's almost TOO easy to find films. I get together with a bunch of other film collectors at least twice a year and we have these great weekends showing films. (The crowd there has come to expect at least one railroad film from me!) 

What brings us here today is a couple of weeks ago, I was on e-Bay looking for film prints and struck just a little bit of 2-Foot Gold!  There was a reel of 16mm home movies containing some time at Edaville, and I just had to have it. I've watched it a few times now and it's like a window two-thirds of a century back!

Whoever filmed it had a passion for boats and trains. It starts out showing the departure of the Nantucket ferry, and it ends on the St. Lawrence in Montreal.

What matters especially here is the middle part: a loop around Edaville in 1959. That year is special because that is the date that Linwood Moody published The Maine Two Footers. Edaville on this film really resembles the black and white present-day pictures in Mr. Moody's great book.

We see Monson #4 leading coaches lettered "Bridgton and Saco River" and "Wiscasset and Quebec" (#3), and "Phillips and Rangeley" and then about three excursion cars and an SR&RL long caboose. This caboose is special to me: when I was a young kid, the same week Apollo 11 landed on the moon, my family went to Massachusetts to visit relatives in New Bedford, and we all went up to South Carver and rode in that caboose. I didn't figure out exactly what that meant for maybe another 10 years! Dad sad it was "narrow gauge", (-whatever that meant to a second-grader...). In my early teens I thought maybe "3 foot", but a few years later I knew better.

On screen, it's a beautiful, bright day with blue skies. #4 is in spotless condition, with a silver smokebox and diamond stack. Once aboard the train, the whole crowd has opted for the excursion cars, so the coaches are empty. The cameraman is standing in one of them with the train in motion and we can see the coach in front bending around the curves through the open platform doors. The scenery is sweeping past the windows. The camera is also out on the open cars for a while, and I would pick the landscapes out as the old Edaville anytime. What's interesting is the direction around the loop. I've been to Edaville maybe five times over the years, and the trains always ran counter-clockwise around the loop (Cranberry Junction Station on the fireman's side). In this film, the station looks like it's on the engineer's side (-clockwise around the loop).

The film is Kodachrome, perfect color and great condition. If I didn't know any better, you could fool me that it was shot last summer. What the photographer never meant this to be was a spectacular show of 1950s American cars in beautiful (-well: "new") shape. (Despite all that, it very much succeeds!)

16mm itself is kind of surprising: back in the day that would have been a premium format for home movies, but it looks like our filmmaker was pretty serious about it and at least this time not gone Standard-8mm. It is nicely filmed: maybe an amateur, but if so a pretty skilled one.

It's kind of sad: there is no context here. I have no idea who shot it, or if any of the people on film are special to whoever has the camera. There is some scribble on the film can about the names of a couple of ships and (of course) Edaville #4. There was a bulk grain carrier on the St. Lawrence that was only 4 years old at the time of filming that was scrapped in India about 4 years ago (-so Google says...). I bet when whoever made this film was standing next to their projector decades ago, there was a spoken story, but that's probably gone now.  Whoever's memories these were, they are now mine to preserve.

-maybe in a small way, I'm now a Historian!     

[Bruce Wilson]

Steve,

Great post! Thoroughly enjoyed reading of your film interest. When Mr. Atwood began running trains out from the cranberry screen house in 1945, the operation was out to end of track and back, on what became known as the old main line. Operation was clockwise. At some point in time, trains began to operate counter clockwise as you have said. This wasn't always the case however. It would be possible to examine old photos of Edaville trains and fix the direction of travel by any prints that were dated by the photographers. This is something I endeavor to do one day from my own collection of Edaville photos.

I'm glad that Edaville film went to a good home!

Bruce

[Bruce Wilson]

Steve,

A year ago, a fellow member of the W W. & F. Ry. Museum sent me the following 4 films which are all Kodak Positive Safety Film, 100' x 16mm

The original Kodak yellow and green cardboard boxes are labeled in pencil.

The contents are indicated to be:

"Steam & Zephyr, steam stock (except B & H)"

"Steam Engine w/snow plow B & H #1"

"Portland & Lewiston street car"

"NYC w/streetcar & elevated train"

I've done nothing with these and would like to move them along. You may have these free of cost if you would agree to share with the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum archives department.

If you would like, please e-mail.me your mailing address.

wilsonwaterford57@gmail.com

[Brian Whitney]

I would be very interested in seeing the Portland/Lewiston street car film. I'm sure that the trolley museum in Kennebunk would be interested as well. They are restoring the only surviving car from that line, The Narcissus. I live on the Intervale in New Gloucester and have a great interest in the history of it.
Brian W.

[Steve Klare]

I am agreeable to doing this (-and grateful...), and I would be willing to share the Edaville footage too.

I'd imagine this sharing would involve a transfer to digital format: not everybody has a working Kodak Pageant like I do! (-built for use in schools: simple and rugged like an Army Jeep! It will outlast us all!)

The next night I watched the Super-8 "Two Foot Gauge in Maine" and "Bridgton and Harrison". The B&H film is actually a great film for New Years Day since it begins with a ride up the line in their Chevrolet railbus on January 1st, 1937.  I watched it January 1st, 2017 and saw backwards exactly 80 years.

This film has footage shot in the cab of #8 in the late 1930s. When I was at Edaville on railfan's day, I bought the extra ticket (-maybe the best 5 bucks I've ever spent!) and I rode on the fireman's side of #8 in that exact spot. I happened to have my Super-8 camera and a bunch of film cartridges. I did my best to duplicate the Albert G. Hale footage in the original film. I still have this film and watched it last summer. When I shot it, I was a college kid. Now I'm not very far from retirement.

I did this wedged between the firebox side and the cab wall.  This should have been kind of sweaty on a June day, but it had been raining that entire day and it was cold and damp. I was never more comfortable that whole day than during that 5.5 miles. THIS was worth 5 bucks all by itself!

[Bruce Wilson]

Hello Brian,

I have written down your interest in the Portland and Lewiston interurban film. I am also interested in seeing this film and have enjoyed 20 years of travel on Maine Route 100 from Auburn down to Portland and observing sections of the old grade in all seasons.

A member of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum is a Director of the Shelburne Falls (Massachusetts) trolley museum. He sold me on a membership a few years ago, by providing a copy of that groups excellent newsletter.

At this moment, I am working with Steve to determine how we will proceed with these films.

When a course of action is determined, I will remember your request.

Bruce

[Bruce Wilson]

BTW...anyone interested in Maine and New England trolleys, do a search of the author O.R. Cummings and you'll be able to find a list of his numerous publications. Many of these are listed on eBay.

[Brian Whitney]

I do have a copy of O. R. Cummings book "Maine's Fast Electric Railroad" the Portland - Lewiston Interurban. It is a great book.
I also have a bound copy of "Transportation" Volume 10 dated May 1956. It was published by the Connecticut Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. It is a 28 page history of the interurban by O. R. Cummings.
Included is a full size "O" gauge drawing of the car Arbutus plus two time tables. One effective July 21, 1921 and the other effective Sept. 30, 1928.
Both are very informative with lots of pictures.
Brian W.

[Bruce Wilson]

Brian, great that you already know of Mr. Cummings. I had some of his publications, but moved them along a few years ago. Now I will look for his titles in the book sale at the museums' 2026 Annual Picnic. There were some I'm the 2025 picnic book sale, but Linda (W.W. & F. Ry. Museum Archivist) grabbed them for the archives library.

On the subject of the films, the camera work is by E.O. Clark. I suggested to Steve that possibly there could be a relation there with the Clark family of Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, N.H. Mr. Clark was friends with Nelson Blount and likely the two men were competitors at many railroad equipment auctions back in the 1950's.

Steve also advised me to "give a sniff" to that old film. Often due to improper storage and the tight fitting metal containers, the film decomposes with a wretched smell. This film seems o.k. in that regard.

[Bruce Wilson]

Steve and Brian have both been very helpful with my questions and in offering suggestions. It will be a project of mine to bring these films to a relatively local camera shop for evaluation. The shop is about an hour from me, so in the big scheme of things, that makes it local enough. I have no idea when I will get over there, but will post here with results.

[Steve Klare]

Sounds Good, Bruce!

These old films are something special. Any railfan alive today missed out on standing trackside and seeing one of the historic Maine 2-Foot lines operating. These films are our only chance today.

The films often have interesting back-stories, for example the Newell Martin films were shot by a friend of Linwood Moody during the same railfan trips that eventually led to Mr. Moody writing the Maine Two Footers.  The book is dedicated to his memory since he died young.

I found out about another back-story on my own. Albert G. Hale was a great rail photographer and film maker. He made a film called Two Foot Gauge in Maine which was eventually published on Super-8 and 16mm by Sunday River Productions. (later on VHS and DVD too...)

I found out about this when I was 16-17 years old: a high school kid, broke, and without wheels. I had already read The Maine Two Footers. and The Maine Scenic Route and I was pretty hooked on SR&RL. I had to see this one! I typed a letter and rode my bike up to the bank and got a money order. After that I headed to the post office. 

I was IN!

This reel showed up in the mail, but I had a problem! NO Projector: we were a 35mm slide family! I had all the patience of a typical teenage kid, so I did the entirely unreasonable thing: I peeled back my blankets and started unspooling this 200 Foot reel of film on the bedsheets. As a teenager I could actually see what was going on inside a Super-8 frame (-in my sixties? -not so much!), so this did the job for the moment. Maybe a week later the lady across the street showed it on her projector and screen, and that Christmas, my parents bought my my own projector.

OK: That's the boring part, here's where it gets interesting!

A couple of years passed and I got a driver's liscense and a car. I started to go up to Phillips and I got to know the Phillips Historical Society. I also learned the back story of Two Foot Gauge in Maine while I was up there.

Hugh Montgomery by then was kind of an Elder Statesman in Phillips. At many things around town that benefitted the area, you might find him lending  a hand. He ran the Railroad Room at the Historical Society and was often found at work at the railroad museum across the river. His wife, Elizabeth Beal Montgomery was descended from the same Beals that were so important to Phillips and the SR&RL. Her father was once the president of the Sandy River RR.

Saturday Night at every Old Home Days, Hugh Hosted "An Everning of SR&RL Memories" featuring Two Foot Gauge in Maine  and the Newell Martin film projected on 16mm. I went every time I could!

I once spent a week at the SR&RL with a friend: our "rent" for the week was being two young bodies willing to help get ready for Old Home Days. We helped paint Ariel's boiler and caboose 556: still a road trailer on the lawn behind the Historical House before she got trucks again. We also learned how to change rotten ties over at the railroad. (-under supervision, of course.)

The Montgomeries saw to it that we were well fed! We ate at their home several nights that week. We enjoyed their hospitality and they liked young people (-even from away) wanting to help out.

Hugh told me that Albert G. Hale was a friend of his at Harvard. In the Spring of 1935 it was becoming obvious that the SR&RL's days were numbered, so Hugh invited Mr. Hale to come North with his movie camera and film what he could while there was still time. The Hale footage was shot with literally weeks left before operations ceased. Scrapping was already in progress north of Phillips  and many of the trains are mostly flatcars loaded with scrap rail headed for Farmington.

After he went to Phillips and became an early Maine 2ft. fan, Albert G. Hale went on to film #3 operating on the Monson and a handcar ride along the Sheepscot on the WW&F, since operations had ceased years before. He filmed so much on the B&SR that Sunday River published this as a seperate reel with a couple of minutes of Belfast and Moosehead Lake at the end. (This was my second film.) 

Albert G. Hale went on to shoot 16mm of many different lines. I have prints of films by him of Central Vermont, Colorado and Southern and Boston and Maine plus one of miscellaneous New England shortlines. Since they are all silent, I often enjoy them when I need to keep my on-screen railfanning quiet!

He saw to it before his death that his library was archived: it would have been a huge waste to lose it. 

[Bruce Wilson]

Great stories Steve and thanks for sharing. So glad that Mr. Hale squared away his own collection and made arrangements for future use and security. It is always good to hear things like that.

Newell Martin was a close friend of Linwood's (as you know) and Mike Torreson has some original correspondence sent by Newell to Mr. Moody. The two men were trying to get a trip to Colorado planned, but it didn't happen due to the costs. Newell went, Linwood did not. As you may also know, Newell worked in the photography department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In one of his letters, he detailed how the photo lab was being upgraded and even provided Linwood with a floor plan.

There were many references to Newell's camera work and his movie presentations made at monthly RRE meetings. Some of these presentations are discussed briefly in the RRE magazines of the 1930's that came to us from the H. Lincoln Harrison collection this past Fall.

Recently, I sent images of two Moody Railroad Photos, which show a man at Phillips, Maine posing with an S R. & R.L. RR  locomotive, to Mike. I asked if he might be able to confirm that the individual is Newell. So, I am still very much in the discovery phase of things and don't see that changing anytime soon...

Your visits to Phillips and your volunteer work there are admirable. Some good memories. As you may know, Allan Socea was very involved with the P.H.S. and helped organize their railroad exhibit. Like Mike, Allan knew Linwood and carried on a correspondence with him and visited many points on the old Sandy River system with him. Allan visited to the Moody residence in South Union, Maine and swapped many a story.

I will tell you of one of my first visits to Phillips. At the railroad, I found a little gift shop open within the Sanders station. There was a basket on the counter in which vintage tickets were being sold, maybe for a buck a piece. I got to that basket in time to see the fellow ahead of me empty the last few tickets from it. The gentleman offered to mail me some of his own duplicates if I wished. I think it was on that day thar I became a ticket collector due to the generosity of the man I met that day. That fellow was Marcel Levesque and I've never forgotten his helping me out.

In another thread within the forum, I see that snowfall totals are being discussed. James mentioned the snow being dry and here in West Mosquito Bite, it is the same. Lots of it, but due to the cold temps, easy shoveling. Sometimes you can catch a break!

Thanks again Steve!

[Steve Klare]

Hi Bruce,

You have basically doubled my knowledge of Newell Martin in one post! I still know very little about him!

All I really knew about him is he was a close friend of Linwood Moody, he made an important SR&RL film and he died young. (Do you have any idea what happened?)

Google is kind of useless here: There is a book out there "Lectures Delivered to the Employees of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company" delivered by H. Newell Martin that seems promising until you find out it was published in 1882: not the same guy!

Linwood Moody not getting to Colorado is a real shame: that trip would have to have produced at least one great book!

Newell Martin having gotten to Colorado means there probably is or was more 16mm out there somewhere. The problem is that film (like any photographic medium) needs to be treated with care or it can degrade. There's a decent chance that there was a lot more film of the Two Footers out there that is just lost to time which we can never see. Sometimes all it takes is some well-meaning soul deciding to "save Dad's movies"...in the attic!

16mm came out in 1933 and all of a sudden there were all these amateur filmmakers out there looking for interesting things to film: there's the possibility. Still the same, it needs to survive into our times to make a difference. (That 35mm, 1920s WW&F film is the Holy Grail here!)

Early Sunday River cuts of Two Foot Gauge in Maine show a man in a suit and a fedora talking to Dana Aldrich next to #24's cab. I wonder if given that he started the project if this gent is actually a young Hugh Mongomery.  (I've bought several looking for a print in good condition and not printed on color stock: better Black & White than Red & White!)

I know the gift shop at SR&RL very well! About 35 years ago my girlfriend (now my wife) worked there one or two weekends a year! As young and crazy as we were back then, we would drive 8 hours up to Phillips on Friday, be at SR&RL all weekend and get back home Sunday night for work Monday morning!

We live about halfway out on Long Island and got socked pretty hard on Sunday. I have two advantages: a snowblower and a college-aged son! So far, I still go out and work with him: maybe some winter soon I'll just stand in the doorway with a hot cup of coffee and yell out that "That's NOT how I did it!"

Maybe he'll move out on his own! Maybe I'll get a lawn tractor with a plow! (-always wanted one!)

[Bruce Wilson]

Hey Steve,

I'm going to try to respond to all that you have written. Will start out with a story that Bob Buck of the old Tucker's Hobbies in Warren, Massachusetts had told me. The story starts out however by my meeting Robert W. Nimke at a model railroad show in Vermont. Mr. Nimke had a table at the show and he was selling several of his excellent line of Vermont and New Hampshire railroad books. He was also taking orders for future Rutland Railroad books in that series. I signed up for his future work and bought everyone of his previously published volumes. Mr. Nimke then told me about his (out of print) first book on the Green Mountain Railroad. A book much like what Linwood Moody would have written about his time on the Belfsst & Moosehead Lake Railroad, had he written one. Profusely illustrated, filled with author sketches, track diagrams, cartoonist drawings of co-workers and loads of good natured ribbing. Mr. Nimke told me that Bob Buck had one copy of his book left and I drove down immediately to buy it.

Mr. Buck recalled visiting Eric Sexton at his home in Rickport, Maine. During one weekend visit, there were other two foot fans there including Mr. Moody and Newell Martin. At that time, Eric had been involved in purchasing some equipment from the S R. & R.L., right around the time of Newell's passing.

I do not know what caused Newell's death. Whatever it was, took him quickly. With his proficiency in camera work and the lab upgrades at M.I.T., I wonder what key role Newall might have played with military camera work, such as fighter plane gunsight cameras and  aerial photography in World War Two.

I wonder if the circa 1882 Baltimore & Ohio author, H. Newell Martin was a relative. Unusual name, Newall. A relative seems likely.

It seems possible to that if Linwood got out to Colorado with Newall, that loads of photos would have been the result. Though I have been looking for years for any Moody Railroad Photos of Colorado, it was only last September when I won an eBay bid for a large lot of his Colorado prints, that were taken by others. I have yet to cross reference those prints to his numbered catalog descriptions. And yes, I'd say you are right in assuming that Newell exposed movie film on that trip.

I hear you on your long drives to Phillips. That takes dedication! My own drives typically ran in the 5 to 6 hour range, from south of Boston and on up. Many times, the railroad was closed, but it was fun to walk the line and just sit at Sanders and ponder older times.

I hope you are able to get the lawn tractor and plow. That storm was sure a bomb!