Industrial tramway at Mechanic Falls, Maine

[Bruce Wilson]

Hello Dave and Ed!  Great suggestion on checking Sanborn Insurance maps. I intend to ask if those might be available at the Mechanic Falls Historical Society.

As I found out a few years ago at the Norway Historical Society (when I was researching the Norway Branch Railroad), the Sanborn maps have all the rail detail one could hope for.

If Mechanic Falls H.S. has a map available, I'm going to ask to be able to make a copy for the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum archives, as doing so fits the collecting mission of our archives department.

What I found in Norway was for me, just incredible. The map showed all trackage and all customers. The copy that Norway H.S. has is fragile and needs to be copied.

Occasionally these maps show up on eBay, but I have yet to find one of a two-footer town.

[Bruce Wilson]

A very quick browse on eBay, searching "Sanborn Map Mechanic Falls Maine" brought up a list of several maps of 1873. These maps show the Grand Trunk main line and the Buckfield Branch Railroad. No rail infrastructure of the mills at the Androscoggin River or spur tracks is shown. If you look at one of the maps and find the building labeled as 'A.C. Denison & Co. Machine Shop ' (on the Lewiston Road) this is where the Grand Trunk spur entered the large mill complex. Today, this is where remnants of the spur can still be found by the experienced eye.

The Eagle Mill building shown on the 1873 map, is where I believe the narrow gage tramway later operated.

Also on eBay, under the same search, is a copy of a U.S.G.S. 1981 topo map. This map shows the Grand Trunk trackage crossing Lewiston Road and on the mill site.

Continue scrolling down the list of eBay shopping selections and way down the list is a Sanborn map of Waterville at $500. They are relatively rare and consistently pricey from what I have seen.

[Mark Hendrickson]

Library of congress has sanborn maps for Mechanic falls from 1885, 1894, 1901, 1907 and 1912.

1912 map of mill.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3734mm.g3734mm_g035021912/?sp=4&r=-0.146,-0.154,1.532,0.883,0

[Bill Reidy]

The Library of Congress has many Sanborn maps available online at http://loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps

Searching on Mechanic Falls Maine I see several hits.

EDIT:  I missed Mark's post earlier this afternoon.  Thanks, Mark.

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Sanborn fire insurance maps are available for free through the Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/about-this-collection/

[Bruce Wilson]

Thank you gentlemen, appreciate your help and information.

[Earl Leavitt]

 I would try the larger public libraries such as Portland for the Sanborn maps. Researching the Old Colony RR way back in my misty past the Boston public library had the ones for all of eastern Mass.  Maine Historical Society folks could possibly offer a lead?

[Andrew Toppan]

That said, there are no detailed maps of the mills at Mechanic Falls there. Sanborn Insurance maps would be the best bet, but those are not freely available (at least that I am aware.)

I googled around and found a few bits and pieces, including one that showed the mill site (Dennison Paper Mfg Co), but no details of railroads.

[Andrew Toppan]

Mike, I found that the Marcal Corp. used that site. They are makers of paper towels and toilet paper. Maybe that is where the recycled cardboard was being shipped out to.

Marcal was the last paper mill operator. After that the property was divided and repurposed, including a significant cardboard (and other material) recycling operation in the back, a motorcycle parts dealer, and storage. All of those were destroyed when the mill burned.

[Bruce Wilson]

Thanks Andrew. I had thought about all of the businesses that had worked from the mill site and your explanation is very helpful. I had wondered if the cardboard recycling business might have involved trucking the bales of cardboard over to a transload site in Auburn? This question still remains,  unless it was cheaper just to haul directly to a mill nearby.