Just back from a weekend in Maine with grandkids…went to Boothbay Harbor Village narrow guage. I am usually not keen on operations that are invented just for tourism, look more for preservation and conservation of what was a real operation at one time. But these guys have a great operaiton…2 foot guage; 3 Henchels in working order plus a Plymouth! and a few carcasses laying around; an assortment of 2 foot guage coaches, cabooses, etc.; an interesting up hill pull and a down hill coast. The pluses are the other things for the whole family included in the $9 adult ticket: a very interesting and large antique and clasic automobile collection, cars, limos, trucks, et al.; a nice size H O guage model rr in progress 99.9% New England road representaiton circa 1950!;…good picture and model history of WW&F; fire engines, gas/steam stationary engines, toys, furniture, church, general store, Well worth the trip and the admission price.
But priceless: thought I’d do a round about ride over the top from Bath Me to Binghamton NY…by over the top, find Route 2 across NH from Bethel, ME, go west on NH RT116 to Littleton, In the seven years of round tripping this literaly dozens of routes, this is where we saw our first moose, just a few miles east of Whitefield! Better yet, in Whitefield I found the former MEC/B&M diamond intact though far from used, WITH THE BALL SIGNALS INTACT!!! Saw them in use in a driving rain 6/20/67 and stared at the pair lying low in front of the shed in a drizzling rain Mon 10/5/09 with gnarled and frayed cables still threaded up and down and through the pulleys! Conserved, maybe, but not preserved. Is anyone in charge here? Slides taken in 1967 not in computer but prints in '09 will be produced in the near future!
As a railfan, I find the best rail routes to follow and see and do the best I can. Married, have to take other things into consideration including time spent travelling. So…I have traversed so many different and combinations of routes between Binghamton and DownEast/MidCoast Maine. Route 88 between Bingahamton and ALbany usually a must if just for time over nearby and familiar territory; but over the Catskills either via 23 from Oneonta or other “short” cuts out of Bingo. In fact 23 is good all the way to Woronoco MA!, then Westfield and Springfield. More fun Rt 7 out of Troy to North Petersburg then 22 S to road to N. Pownal VT and US7 to Williamstown and 2 east to N. Adams, Hoosic Tunnel, Charlamont and Greenfield conintuing east along the B&M to I495 almost to Lowell. Or hop scotch across VT and NH on dozens of routes and combinations into Maine. If you know history, and especially railroad history, you can always find something…a B&M parlor or business car by the side of the road (Rt11?) east of Claremont, NH; or bridges, trestles, and abutments in towns and across valleys virtually any and everyplace…some roadbeds with more weeds than rail and ties, but full of railroad history. The quest for the highball signal was planned, but so many others are not. You can see active railroading or what is now history…but you never see nothing!
Thanks for the links, Rich…back on and drenching wet June 20, 1967 (you don’t forget your wedding anniversary on days like that) we sat for over an hour awaiting the “action”. I had met legendary B&M dispatcher (and modler) Don Robinson a few nights before and asked about what to see on my up coming trip north from Springfield, MA and he told me to be in Whitefield at 5:45 to 6PM when the MEC through train from St. Johnsbury would trundle past the signals on the way to Portland, ME; next the B&M local from Berlin would arrive to put cars into the interchange as the MEC local from St. J arrived. It happend alright, just about an hour and a half later and in a pouring rain. It was an amazing sight watching the crews pull up the ball signals and down the other as they crossed over the diamond, threw cars down the sidings, and all three dissappeared within 15 minutes. Got the slides somewhere, too. Dark, not grainy–thats rain–and great! Just had to get back to see them again. The balls are there, the shed, and the mast, just the trains aren’t. Oh, it was pouring rain this past Monday as I stepped out of the car to get a closer look!
Based on your description, I wasn’t sure that you might not have wandered across the top of NY and ended up coming down I-81, which would have put you in my neighborhood…