End of the line? No, not exactly. The tracks go right by the station.
That’s because it’s on a little loop encircling Mr. Atwood’s model
Edaville village--screenhouse, railroad, and all those cozy cottages
where his employees live--and joins the main line again half a mile
away. We’ll see the switch when we go out. Trains can go out of this
station three different ways. You’ll see.
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
Mr. and Mrs. Atwood smile beside of their de luxe coach “Elthea”,
named in her honor.
]
No. 7’s hauling the excursion train today. Want to see her? A trim
little pot, don’t you think? Baldwin built her thirty-four years ago and
she was the biggest two-foot gauge engine ever built then. Thirty-five
tons wrapped up there. Doesn’t look it, does she? Her outside frames
enclose four thirty-five inch drivers that can really roll. Hundred and
eighty pounds of steam, twelve-by-sixteen inch cylinders. You won’t see
it today but she can bat ’em off at a sixty mile clip!
Like most of this equipment No. 7 came from the Bridgton & Saco River,
up in Maine.
This tricky little car hooked to her tail was the B. & S. R.’s Railway
Post Office, Express, and Baggage car. Yes, they used to have a regular
mail contract, postal clerks and all. That was before the other war.
This coach, too, was a Bridgton car, the old _Pondicherry_. Laconia Car
Works built her and a mate, the _Mount Pleasant_, when the road was new,
sixty-four years ago. Of course, Mr. Atwood has refinished and renovated
them all. When we go out on the train please notice those coaches down
in the yard: the one with double windows and stained glass was a fine
idea of two-foot de luxe coach accommodations. She’s the _Elthea_, named
for Elthea Atwood, Mr. Atwood’s wife. A proper tribute, too, because she
works right with him in everything--cranberry business, railroad, and
all.
Now: this smooth little wagon on the rear here, _that’s_ the parlor car.
Ever hear of the old Sandy River parlor car? You must have! It’s been in
print ever since Jackson & Sharpe built it, ’way back when. In 1901, to
be exact.
[Illustration:
(_Moody Photo_)
Old Coach “Mount Pleasant”, identical to the “Pondicherry”, both built
in 1882 by Laconia Car Co.
]
Want to walk through it? We’ve got time. Here’s the smoking end: two
leather seats and a couple of chairs. And in here is the lavatory in one
corner and the car heater in the other--hot water. This spacious cubical
to your left is the toilet; no shoe-horn needed there, eh? Plenty of
room for the old bustles and hoop skirts to swish around.
[Illustration:
(_Atwood Photo_)
Interior of parlor car “Rangeley”.
]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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