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Bridgton & Saco River Railway / OK, Guys, Another Question

« on: June 29, 2013, 02:30:48 AM »

Recall that Bridgton Jct had no siding.  No runaround track.  Trains into the Jct stopped on the hill, the engine would duck in out of the way, the train would be coasted down the hill using handbrakes, the engine connected to the opposite end and the train pushed into the depot on the end of the single track main.

My question comes from the scheduling of Trains 3 and 4 at the Jct.  Train 3 arrives at the Jct. at 9:55 AM.  Train 4 leaves the Jct. at 10:10 AM.  So, just what does Train 3 do for the fifteen minute overlap?  Do the passengers just cool their heels until No. 4 leaves and No. 3 can do the gravity dance to get them to the station?

Timetable attached:

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Bridgton & Saco River Railway / Here I am back again with another Question!

« on: June 23, 2013, 01:30:22 PM »

As the B&SR route for the simulator gets closer to completion, the questions about the actual operation of the railroad begin to pop up.  So here goes:

1.  The published timetables found in books show eight passenger trains a day, four in each direction, with two originating in Bridgton and two originating in Harrison.  But the tables produced are products of May and June and I can't help but wonder if this isn't the Summer tourist schedule and not indicative of what was run during the rest of the year.  Since the railroad never seemed to have more than four engines on the property at any given time, it would seem that this breakneck schedule would severly tax the system to run year round, with two engines dedicated to the passenger operations, one or more to freight and probably at least one of the four in for a boiler wash or running gear work.  So the question is, were less trains run in the off season and does anyone have any timetables for the October to April months?

2.  What of the freights?  What was their normal operating schedule?  We know there was only one caboose and a full crew of the day (Conductor and two brakemen plus the engine crew) would require some conveyance besides a box car roof walk, so was there just one freight running at a time or??

Attached is a timeline based on the June 23, 1924 timetable and there isn't much time for switching freight if the trains were mixed.

Any Ideas?

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Bridgton & Saco River Railway / B&SR Question Two

« on: February 08, 2012, 08:02:04 PM »

This question concerns the vacuum brakes used on the B&SR.  Were they "automatic" vacuum brakes or the older straight version?

Why do the locos sometimes have the can (muffler?) on the ejector pipe and sometimes they don't?  Were the brakes on the engines vacuum also or were they steam rams?

OK, more than one question but that happens sometimes! 

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Bridgton & Saco River Railway / B&SR Questions - Lots of Questions!

« on: February 03, 2012, 02:03:16 AM »

Greetings folks!  This is my first post here and I want to take a second to introduce myself.  I have been a railfan and modeler for well over 60 years, having had my first wind up train at 2 and my first Lionel at 5!  I wore that little 2-4-2 down to a nub!  I discovered HO at about 10 and was bitten by the narrow gauge bug at 15.  The ‘disease’ continues.

For the most part my focus has been the Colorado 3’ gauge operations, particularly the Rio Grande Southern and I have modeled the RGS in several scales.  Standard gauge wise, the AT&SF takes up some of my time.  Maine’s 2-Footers have always been a point of interest but I never could bring myself to actually model them as I was actively involved in other gauges.

Ah but now my medium has changed to computers and all things are possible.  As well as having the ability to run over most of the Santa Fe and building my own RGS, I can now dabble in the Lilliputs!  The computer is the layout and Microsoft Train Simulator is the medium.

“Oh no, not MS Train Simulator” I hear some of you say, but if you haven’t looked at the sim lately you may be in for a shock.  The old low detail models and hokey tracks and scenery are a thing of the past.  Third party vendors and hobbyists have turned the sow’s ear into a silk purse.

I’m working with a friend who has built and released a Monson RR in MSTS, is working on an SR&RL but who is currently building hard and fast on the B&SR.  Just as a few examples of this work can be found in the next post.


The problem is that my friend who is building the route is in Germany and I am in San Diego.  Somewhere in the middle between us is a place called Maine – inaccessible to both of us!  When we have questions we have to rely on the scant printed resources and the very few – as compared with something like the RGS! – photographic works.  And so I anticipate that there will be a serious need to pick the brains of those who are close to the ground and who have spent a lot more of their time with the Maine 2-Footers than I have.

OK, so here goes.  Question 1:  The Summit.

There are numerous references in photo captions and text about trains ‘doubling’ the hill to The Summit but there doesn’t seem to be anyplace near MP 3 to park the first half while you go get the second.  Timetables also show opposing movements that, if you extrapolate the movement of the trains, would put the opposite direction trains together at about Summit, yet no work mentions a siding anywhere in the area – See Jones TFTTL P 53 with Train 3 leaving West Sebago at 10:04 AM, arriving at Bridgton Jct. at 10:30 AM, and Train 4 leaving Bridgton Jct. at 10:07 AM, arriving at West Sebago at 10:37 AM.  If you figure running time on both trains that has 3 past Twin Lakes at 10:14 AM and 4 past Mullins at 10:18 AM.  Somewhere, magically between Twin Lakes and Mullins these two pass.  Where?

Between Bridgton Jct. and Bridgton there only appear to be two passing sidings or run-arounds.  Can this be true?

OK, let’s see what you guys come up with on that one.  There will be more to come.  :LOL: