As mentioned in another topic, we spent some time Sunday looking for the elusive cold spring. This has led to more research and re-reading where I found it.
In an article in Down East magazine, October 1968, Edgar Mead repeats what he wrote in Busted and Still Running in that same Year. He was describing a trip North and the last station he mentioned was Ingalls Road where they met the motor car. I will quote the next paragraph.
"Near by was Deep Cut, another of the hilltops, a long cutting through a ledge, now lined with rows of small hemlocks. Along the bucolic stretch of track, with rails and telegraph line the only reminders of civilization, there was a cold spring right beside the roadbed. The spring had bubbled in the middle of the survey line, so construction crews piped its ice-cold water to a mossy enclosure of stones. Although not on the timetable, Cold Spring was a regular stop for nearly every summertime train with a moment to Spare."
This leads me to believe we were in the right spot. That clay pipe may have actually been the right one. I would like to research that spot some more. There was water on the East side but no evidence that is was flowing like it was on the West side.
Now, not to ask to much, but what is the possibility that there were two springs they stopped at? In Trains magazine, Feb. 1959, there is a story called "I Rented a Railroad for $35". In this story, the author talks about running the #8 South. After passing South Bridgton, Everett Brown tells them they will stop for water. The Author describes the location as follows. "From the pilot forward to the horizon atop a small rise, the rails stretched upgrade in a straight line, traversing a shallow fill in the foreground, trenching a hill in the background." A couple sentences later,"We slowed to a gentle stop on the grade midway between a cut and fill." Still a few more sentences later,"A small path led through the wood-worn bare by the countless treads of train crews. At the end was a crystal clear spring of pure mountain water emanting from the rock."-Robert Adams, Trains Magazine, Feb. 1959.
So now I am thinking we may have found one, but still may have one to find.
