Thank you so much for posting this video. It's great to see footage of the old Maine Central steamers in action. I really wish more Maine Central steamers were saved for preservation. I saw some footage of MEC #519 being led away to be scrapped, but due to some sort of miracle, she escaped the scrapper's torch and is part of the collection at Steamtown in Scranton, PA. The other two MEC steamers are MEC #501, which resides at the Conway Scenic Railroad in North Conway, NH. MEC #470 was on public display for 62 years after her retirement and has been moved to Washington Junction in Hancock, ME. She's now the property of the New England Steam Corporation and is undergoing restoration to operational condition. It will be a proud day for me when 470 is operational again because she'll be riding on the Calais Branch and I've spent the past few summers working on the rails as part of the Downeast Scenic Railroad's track maintenance crew.
I come from a RR family. True family story: Grandfather was playing Monolopy with my brother. He landed on the B&O (which took me to school on a spur line). My brother owned the RR and Grandpa said, "I won't pay. I've got a pass." He showed us a l o n g line of passes, found the B&O. He didn't pay. I rode the sleeper twice from Grand Central to Portland as a kid and was met by grandparents in Maine.. Wonderful memories.worked for the B&M for years.
Thank you for sharing this video. I'm from philly, and don't know to much about the Maine central. Growing up in the 70S it was all READING and what was left of the Penn central, here in Philly. Oh, and watching those guy's, walk on top of those box cars, while the train is moving, thats something we won't ever see again.
LOVED IT... thanks !!! I grew up around the Maine Central Railroad, my dream was to be an engineer, never made it as that. Any film of the trains inside the Rumford mill ??? I run there almost every day in a truck
Love this old footage, thanks for sharing! "M-o-o-o-ah Potatoes!" Hopefully this footage can be restored to a sharper image. If so, note to a future editor: the recorded steam locomotive soundtrack running constantly in the background--even when it does not suit the scene--is an unwelcome distraction, and just kind of silly.
I wish I could find more Lawrence Brown New England videos. I once saw a video of his that had a couple shots of Maine Central diesel passenger trains in the old paint scheme and would love to see any of the MEC passenger diesels.
My Pop had a friend last name Eavens, Don't remember his first name, his Dad worked for the MEC, up on "The Notch" and was killed in an accident up there.
The Maine Central may have been small but they were a great RR! The Mountain Division coul have been an independent RR all by itself, then, the network Down East!
yeh, there is tons of interesting loco's in here. Lets hope someday MEC 470 will be able to go down there. State screwed up when they removed the rails for the rail trail from Washington jnt. they had it "Railbanked" So they can be reinstalled without any public intervention. Now to twist NBSR's arm to rebuild the rails! They have big enough coffers!
This video right here proves my point about being born in the wrong generation!!! As a Mainer myself, I would truly love to see this so badly! The closest I can get now is Guilford Rail and Pan Am. At least the 470's coming back into service in a few years!! Very excited to see her in Ellsworth!!
I went to the RR museum in Sacramento CA once and properly identified all the engines by wheel alighnment. I know what a 4-6-2 is. Have you ever seen the one in Philly at the Franklin Institute? I don't know wheels but my father said it was too big to use. Great to climb around as a kid.,
@@Maine_Railfan imagine if there were more preserved, then they would’ve been running excursions like the 4-6-4, 2-8-2, 4-6-0, 0-6-0, 4-4-0 camelbacks/non-camelbacks, 2-6-0, 2-6-6-2 and 2-10-2. But we can build all the extinct Maine central steam locomotives so they can run for the railroad museums, railroad historical societies, tourist railroads and even on the mainline if they’re powerful, like the 2-10-2s, 4-6-4s and 2-8-2s.
@Eric Oxner No 4-8-2 (Mountain) types were ever owned by the MEC. Whether the B&M's huge modern 4-8-2s ever operated on lines of its close ally MEC, I don't know.
I grew up with two parents from Portland, grandparents around the corner from them. I had to walk around for a week saying i-DEE-ah (one syllable for each step) so my little girl would not get teased for saying "idear."
