Flatcars 23 and 24: The Boyd-Harvey Connection
NOVEMBER 10, 1916- In a letter to the Monson Slate Co. management (now the owners of the Monson Railroad since 1908) Superintendent Morrill advised them that he had traveled to Portland and bought two flatcars and two four-wheeled trailers from Perry, Buxton & Doane, a used equipment firm.
These were originally numbered 1 and 2 but Monson renumbered them 23 and 24. But where did they come from? Lets look at a little northwoods history…….
The Carry Pond and Carry Brook Railroad (CP&CB) was built in 1911 as a two-foot railroad. It was owned by the Boyd-Harvey Lumber Co. to haul lumber and mostly cedar ties from the Penobscot watershed to Moosehead Lake. It started at or near Seboomook which is located at GPS 45.880n, 69.736w in the northwest region of Moosehead Lake. It then followed Carry Brook in a westward direction for several miles and meandered 14 miles up into the Penobscot River watershed. You can trace some of the railroad row using on-line historical topo maps (
http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/NorthEastCarry.htm) and Google Earth.
A sawmill was located three quarters of a mile from the Moosehead Lake end of the railroad to cut mainly railroad ties. The ties were then dumped into a three quarter mile sluceway where they were dumped into Moosehead Lake. It ran under private ownership until the last two years, when it was run by the USRA (war administration). Equipment consisted of a dozen flatcars, a number of Portland Co. log trucks and an 0-4-0 ST “dabble tank” locomotive.
The railroad was dismantled in 1918-1919. However some of the flatcars may have been “surplus” because six became available in November of 1916 and the railroad lasted into the war years. Why would they get rid of their flatcars?
However, sometime in 1919, the railroad equipment as well as the sawmill machinery was loaded on a scow owned by John E. Lamb of Rockwood, hauled by the steamboat VIOLET to Rockwood and unloaded at the MEC wharf at Kineo Station. The 0-4-0ST was stored for 3 years at Kineo. According to Mr. Lamb, owner of the scow, the locomotive “looked like Monson #1 or #2 but had a “dabble Tank”.
Anyway, another entry states that six flats were unloaded from the “Lamb scow” at Greenville Jct. and shipped out on the B&A to Portland where Morrill heard of them, went down to Portland and bought two of them. (One source says all 6 were shipped directly to the Monson via the B&A, but I haven’t seen ANY evidence that any more than two were bought by the Monson) The new flats were of heavier construction than what the Monson originally had, and had an additional 2 ton capacity. They were also longer and a little wider. The CP&CB flats were 28’6” long and 6’8” wide as opposed to Monson’s existing flats being 26’ long and 6’6”wide. The new cars had a 22000 pound capacity and cost the Monson $200.00 each. Morrill seemed delighted to have them! The two trailers were constructed of hard pine and oak and cost $25.00 each. They were used to haul waste slate for ballast.
Now………… what is a “dabble tank”? Same as a saddle tank? A saddle tank two-footer? The ST designation suggests that. And what happened to the other six CP&CB flatcars? Anyone know? Maybe it’s all buried in the Maine P.U.C. records of 1918…….
