Head Tide Wreck of 1905-09-12

[John Scott]

Somewhere under that lot there must be a locomotive. It is interesting to see how the landscape has changed (I think).

[Philip Marshall]

So this is the mysterious German postcard view of the wreck that Moody mentions! I've been looking for a copy but never succeeded in finding one, perhaps because I didn't know what I was supposed to be looking for. Thank you John for posting the image!

[Mike Fox]

Masons Wreck on Trout Brook Bridge, then called Carlton brook. Other images show the locomotive submerged in the water. The cab can be seen with the guys standing on the side of it below the baggage car

[James Patten]

Look to the middle of the car that's angled down, then below it.  There's several men standing on the locomotive cab, which is on its side.  The engine is mostly submerged in water.

The picture was originally taken by Joseph Leighton, a wandering photographer but he lived in the Sheepscot area.  As for the color, photographs were sent to Germany where they were hand colored by artists there and sent back.  Since the artists were German, they would use the colors that the German artists knew, not the actual colors.  So roofs might be red, etc.

That scene has changed quite a bit.  It's all wooded over now.  Certainly with our drought there's a lot less water in the stream than in this picture.

[Phil McCall]

Was this bridge located at the bottom of the downgrade north from TOM?

[Ed Lecuyer]

Was this bridge located at the bottom of the downgrade north from TOM?

Yes.

[Greg Klein]

What is the orientation of the picture?  What direction are we looking?

[Mike Fox]

The good book says it was a southbound train, so we are looking northwesterly. I believe the picture was taken just north on 218 of the Alna Store. There is a field on the left with a small overgrown pond in it. I think the edge of that field is the approximate location of where the photographer stood. There were no trees there of course.

[Craig "Red" Heun]

Very Cool

Thanks

[Phil McCall]

Looking at the people standing on the bridge and the cars, that bridge is maybe 15' long? It is amazing how similar that bridge is in both size and design to the turntable bridge currently being constructed at Sheepscot.

[Mike Fox]

Field and pond I was talking of can be seen here



https://goo.gl/maps/aX6dPGzivJy

[Steve Smith]

That large, irregular patch of bare earth in the background looks interesting. Anybody know whether gravel or some other type of material was being taken from there?

[Bill Fortier]

The photographer was on the bit of high ground between the highway and the brook. The red line indicates the center of the scene. The north end of the combine (#1?) is resting on the north abutment, and for reference, is about 45 feet long. The brook turns northward under the pile-up and is hidden by the plant growth on the east bank. Is the box car a dairy or potato car? That looks like a stovepipe on the visible roof end.

[Phil McCall]

The north end of the combine (#1?) is resting on the north abutment, and for reference, is about 45 feet long.

That would make the bridge quite a bit longer than my 15' estimate (to me, it looked like the truss ended about midway on the combine). 40' perhaps. Was there a center pier under the bridge?

[Wayne Laepple]

The bridge was about 90 feet overall, including the center truss and two approach trestles.

The first car was the three-door baggage-mail car No. 1. The boxcar is actually one of the way cars, which were basically non-cupola cabooses.