Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad

Depot at Phillips c. 1912
Overview
Headquarters	Phillips
Locale	Phillips, Maine, U.S.
Dates of operation	1908–1935
Successor	abandoned
Technical
Track gauge	2 ft (610 mm)
Length	112 mi (180 km)
Other
Website	https://www.srrl-rr.org

The Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad (SR&RL) was a special kind of train line in Maine, USA. It used a "narrow gauge" track, which means the rails were closer together than on regular train tracks. This railroad operated for about 112 miles (180 km) in Franklin County.

Today, you can still see some of the old SR&RL trains running! A small part of the railway in Phillips, Maine has been brought back to life, letting people experience what it was like to ride these historic trains.

The Railroad's Beginning

A powerful 2-6-2 train engine, No. 24, from the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad.

A banker named Josiah S. Maxcy helped bring several smaller railroads together. In 1891, he got permission to combine the Sandy River Railroad and the Phillips and Rangeley Railroad. Over the next few years, he bought more railroads, like the Franklin and Megantic Railway and the Kingfield and Dead River Railway.

Finally, in January 1908, all these smaller lines officially joined to become the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. Maxcy continued to expand, adding the Madrid Railroad and the Eustis Railroad to the SR&RL system by 1911.

When a Bigger Company Took Over

From 1912 to 1923, the SR&RL was owned by a larger company called the Maine Central Railroad. Think of it like a small company becoming part of a bigger one. During this time, Maine Central helped the SR&RL by building new train cars, like box cars and flat cars, and even fixing up some of the SR&RL's train engines. They also built a short new track for carrying goods.

At first, the railroad carried a lot of lumber (cut wood) from the forests. But this started to decrease. Instead, more pulpwood (smaller trees used to make paper) was transported. The Phillips workshop even changed many flat cars to carry these 4-foot-long pulpwood logs by adding tall, slatted sides.

Train mail service between Farmington and Phillips stopped in 1917. The amount of goods carried by the railroad reached its highest point in 1919. However, most of this was pulpwood, and demand for it dropped a lot after World War I ended. After 1919, some parts of the railroad, like the line beyond Langtown, stopped being used.

To save money, the railroad tried stopping service in some areas during the winter. For example, parts of the line north of Kingfield and on the former Phillips and Rangeley line were closed in winter for a few years. In February 1923, a fire at the Phillips train shed damaged eight of the railroad's thirteen working engines. Because the railroad couldn't pay its debts, two people, Josiah Maxcy and Herbert Wing, were put in charge to try and fix things. This is called "receivership."

Troubled Times and Changes

The new managers took over in July 1923. They stopped freight service north of Perham Junction during the winter months for a few years, but passenger trains still ran everywhere. For the next five years, both freight and passenger service north of Phillips were stopped from December to May. However, the line to Kingfield stayed open to serve a mill owned by one of the managers, Herbert Wing, and a new wood veneer mill built in 1924. This veneer mill even used old World War I tanks to pull logs out of the woods!

To save money on passenger service, the Phillips workshop built special railcars (like small trains powered by an engine, not steam) in 1925 and 1926-27. These railcars were used in the summer. But when winter came with snow and ice, the bigger steam locomotives with snowplows were still needed every day.

Some parts of the track were removed to save costs. For example, a 1.9-mile (3 km) section to Soule's Mill was taken up in 1924. More tracks were removed from the northern part of the Kingfield line in 1926 and from the Rangeley Lake House hotel extension in 1927.

In 1928, the Oxford Paper Company started shipping pulpwood from Barnjum. This helped the railroad, and they even ran extra winter trains. Full year service on the former Phillips and Rangeley line started again in May 1929. However, the last steam train left Rangeley in May 1931, and railcar service north of Phillips ended in the fall of 1931. When the last mills started using trucks instead of trains to ship their products, all train service on the SR&RL stopped in July 1932. For the next winter, no trains ran at all.

Taking Apart the Railroad

After seeing that trucks could reliably carry goods even in winter, the Lawrence Plywood Company asked the railroad to start service again from their mill to Farmington. So, trains began running again in April 1933. To pay for this, the railroad started selling off unused equipment as scrap metal.

The process of taking apart the former Phillips and Rangeley line began in the summer of 1934. But service to Phillips was still needed because that's where the railroad's repair shops were. When the track removal reached Phillips in April 1935, the managers asked for permission to completely close the railroad. A company that bought scrap metal purchased the railroad in May, and all train service officially ended on July 2, 1935. The remaining tracks were taken up for scrap metal in 1936.

A New Beginning: The Railroad Comes Back!

Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad

Monson Railroad #3 at Phillips station, June 2007
Overview
Headquarters	Phillips
Locale	Phillips, Maine, U.S.
Dates of operation	1970–present
Technical
Track gauge	2 ft (610 mm)
Length	3 mi (4.8 km)
Other
Website	https://www.srrl-rr.org

In 1970, a group of local train enthusiasts, called railfans, at the Phillips Historical Society decided to learn more about the old SR&RL. This group eventually created their own non-profit organization, also called the "Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad." Their goal was to save and preserve the remaining equipment from the original railroad.

Today, this non-profit group runs a "heritage railroad" on a part of the original SR&RL tracks in Phillips, Maine. It's a living museum where visitors can ride historic trains and learn about the past!

Train Engines of the SR&RL

Here's a list of some of the train engines that worked on the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad:

More to Explore

• Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum
• Brecon Mountain Railway
• Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad - heritage operation in Phillips
• Narrow-gauge railroads in the United States