The Maine Two-Footers: The Story of the Two-Foot Gauge Railroads of Maine

xv, 203, [10] pp. Maps on endpapers. To railway-hungry Maine, George Mansfield brought tales of the Festiniog Railway in Wales, a slate carrier economically built as a two-foot gauge railway. He promoted this narrow gauge idea to those small Maine communities anxious to haul logs and slate, and so began the vigorous steam "Empire of the North Woods", of interest to both railfans and historians. The book "The Maine Two-Footers" opens with the story of the Kennebec Central, the author's boyhood love. Then it goes on to the longer, more lavishly equipped Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway and eventually covers all the lines of the state and their subsequent mergers. These lines include the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad; the Monson Railroad; the Franklin & Megantic Railroad; the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad; and others, plus the Edaville Railroad and Bedford & Billerica Railroad in Massachusetts. The appendices include locomotive rosters and timetables for various of these railroads. Fond recollections spill in great profusion as author Moody recounts is lifetime of close association with Maine's two-foot railroads. This facet of the state's history is full of color and character, and as a sympathetic Maine native, the author captures well the Yankee flavor of these narrow gauge short lines.