Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad Sues Maine Narrow Gauge Museum Over Investment in Steam Locomotive

READ:  Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad Sues Maine Narrow Gauge Museum Over Investment in Steam Locomotive

It wants compensation for its investment of over $144,000 connected to restoration of a Narrow Gauge steam engine.

Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad staying in Portland ME

SOURCE:  Portland Press Herald - Randy Billings

The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad is changing tracks. Instead of building a new museum and rail line in Gray, the nonprofit railroad company that has operated on the eastern waterfront since 1993 with popular events like the Polar Express is staying in Portland.

The group recently received zoning approvals to build a new storage facility at the eastern terminus of the 2-foot-wide railway, near the East End Treatment Plant, and is seeking approvals to build a new ticketing booth and passenger center near Ocean Gateway.

The nonprofit plans to pay for the $2 million project with a capital campaign.

Executive Director Wesley Heinz said the nonprofit is finalizing site plans, which he said would only need administrative approval because of the project size and status as an accessory use to the rail line. He hopes to break ground on the new buildings this fall.

“It was all there,” Heinz said of the opportunity to stay in Portland. “We just needed to think outside the box.”

The Narrow Gauge Railroad needs to be out of its current location at 58 Fore St. by Sept. 2, he said. It’s being displaced as part of the redevelopment of the former railroad foundry into a new mixed-use neighborhood, Portland Foreside.

The nonprofit originally planned to move its museum to Gray, where it hoped to build a new rail line, but those plans were abandoned this year.

Heinz said a lack of funding played a small role, but the “show-stopper” was the inability to develop the property located next to a strip mall because it was a wetland.

The new plans emerge at a time of growth for the small rail company. Heinz said ridership has more than doubled in the past five years. Last year, over 60,000 people rode the Narrow Gauge, including the popular Polar Express train in the days leading up to Christmas, compared to 23,000 passengers in 2013, he said.

The nonprofit also is hosting more corporate events, in addition to new family events, including ice cream train rides and a Friday family fun night, which includes music, lights, juice and cookies.

“The business model really supported us staying here,” Heinz said in an interview aboard the train as it rattled along the eastern waterfront Monday. “As ridership grew, it became very apparent that we have a home here.”

Stephanie and Bob Holmes of New York took their 22-month-old granddaughter, Heidi, for her first trip on the train and were pleased to hear it would remain in Portland.

“She loved it,” Bob Holmes said. “She was waving to everyone.”

Plans call for a 1,000-square-foot passenger center and ticketing booth within the railroad right of way along Thames Street, near Ocean Gateway. The railroad also would build a 6,600-square-foot storage facility near the East End Treatment Plant. The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals granted a hardship variance for the nonprofit in May and reduced the shoreland zone setbacks from 75 feet to none.

Heinz said the new buildings are being considered an accessory use to the rail line. Portland has a long history of rail, which the current city has grown up around.

Heinz said that the nonprofit will probably have to use a temporary trailer, or simply sell tickets aboard the train, until the new passenger facility, which will have a waiting area and restrooms, is ready.

The new plan does not call for a museum. Instead, Heinz said a Narrow Gauge exhibit is being established at the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum in Alna, which also will run some of the Narrow Gauge’s trains.

Jerry Angier, a trustee who is leading the fundraising effort, said the railroad is determined to get the project built.

“We’ll do it as long as we need to do it until we have the funds to make this a success,” Angier said. “We’ll leave no stone unturned. And anyone who will listen will get the sales pitch.”

Trolley Museum Gets $10K to Restore Freight House

(SOURCE:  The Recorder) 

By DIANE BRONCACCIO
Recorder Staff

Thursday, January 29, 2015
(Published in print: Friday, January 30, 2015) 

 

SHELBURNE FALLS — Ever since the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum bought the historic Shelburne Falls Freight House in 2004, the old building has been a work-in-progress. But now, thanks to a $10,000 grant, volunteers will be able to finish restoration of the building’s exterior, says Trolley Museum President Sam Bartlett.

Volunteers have already restored and painted two sides of the Freight House, but the H. Albert Webb Award will pay for materials and labor to complete the building’s exterior siding, trim, slate roof and windows. Also, a modern overhead garage door will be replaced with a more historically accurate wooden sliding door.

The museum’s long-range goal is also to restore part of the interior and eventually to move its Visitor Center into the Freight House. 

“We’re delighted to have been selected as this year’s award recipient, said Bartlett. “Improving the outward appearance of this rare building will help to preserve the building, make our (rail) yard more attractive to visitors, and make it look more like it did 100 years ago.”

The Freight House was built around 1867, when the Troy and Greenfield Railroad arrived in Shelburne Falls. Control of the railroad yard passed to the Fitchburg Railroad, then the Boston & Maine Railroad and finally to the Guilford rail system, now known as Pan Am Railways. When owned by the railroads, the Freight House was used for handling less-than-carload (LCL) freight for neighboring towns. 

It also handled freight transfers to the Shelburne Falls and Colrain Street Railway. In 1910, while a new depot was being built, the Freight House temporarily served as a passenger depot for Shelburne Falls riders.

The building was bought in 1963 by Blassberg Trucking, which had taken over the freight business of the Shelburne Falls and Colain Street Railway. Blassberg used it as a warehouse and as a shipping facility for the mills in Colrain.

The award was given to the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum by Leigh A. Webb and Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts President David Brown at the Amherst Railway Society Hobby Show this month.

The Trolley Museum bought the rail yard and all its buildings 11 years ago. Today, the yard is used for the museum’s demonstration trolley car rides, and the Visitors Center is housed in an adjacent former grain store. Also a new two-bay car barn is under construction, paid for by donations. When finished, it will house the current Trolley Car No. 10, which once ferried freight and passengers over what is now the Bridge of Flowers, and a new acquisition — an unrestored trolley car to be housed and restored at the Trolley Museum as soon as it can be moved into the barn.

The museum is now closed for the winter, but it reopens in late May.

Seashore Trolley Museum Snow Removal Donations Needed

Record snowfall in New England has effected all of us, and Seashore Trolley Museum up in Maine hasn't dodged any snow-bullets.  They are asking for donations to help pay for the massive snow removal bills they have had this winter.  The museum has posted snow photos on their Facebook page.   To donate, visit their website:  www.trolleymuseum.org

The New England Electric Railway Historical Society is an IRS 501(C) (3) not-for-profi t educational organization. All contributions are federally taxdeductible to the extent of the law.