Class 1/H (Locobase 2151)

Data from Catalogue Descriptive of Simple and Compound Locomotives built by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, NY (Buffalo, NY: Matthew-Northrup Company, 1899). (Builder info from B.Rumary, 25 Kingscombe, Gurney Slade, Radstock, BA3 4TH, ENGLAND and Jeremy Lambert as supplied by Allen Stanley in March 2004.) Works numbers were 2948-2950 in April 1898 and 3275 in July 1899.

The Washington County Railroad Company ran in Maine as an independent line until its takeover by the Maine Central in 1911. According to a list compiled by Mr. Bradley L. Peters in 1976 and preserved on [] (visited 5 Aug 2004), it was chartered in 1893 and its major lines opened in 1898. Altogether it operated 115 miles connecting Ellsworth, Machias, and Eastport

The class shown shared the same firebox and had the same number of fire tubes as the fiveTen-Wheelers that went into production just before in Brooks' Dunkirk Works; see Locobase 2983.

Obviously there was little use for a small 4-4-0 in the MEC as each of these locomotives operated for a little over 20 years, after which they were scrapped.

Road # Year Changed to new # MEC Scrapped

1 21 in 1900 117 Sept 1921

2 22 in Nov 1905 118 Feb 1920

3 23 in Jan 1907 119 Sept 1921

4 24 in May 1906 120 June 1916

Class 10/E (Locobase 11434)

Data from "Locomotive Building," The Railroad Gazette, Vol XLI, No 9 (31 August 1906), p. 56. Works numbers were 41438-41439 in October 1997.

This Maine short line connected the town of Oakland on the Maine Central to Moosehead Lake (passing Moxie Pond on the way). The lake was a major attraction for nature-loving excursionists.

According to 8th-grade Morgan Hisler's hist orry of the Somerset (in the Main Memory Network at [], last accessed 10 July 2010), the Somerset cost $30,000 per mile to build. Construction comprised three phases: 1872 to 1876 covered the 25 miles from Oakland to North Anson. Beginning in 1887 through 1890, the next stretch of 16 miles between North Anson to Bingham was completed. Finally, in 1904, 49 1/2 miles of track through the North Woods (no, really, the North Woods) reached Moosehead Lake.

In 1911, the Maine Central bought out the Somerset, which then was known as the Kineo branch. Passenger service ended in 1933, which also saw the uprooting of all track north of Bingham.

Class 7/48 (Locobase 16654)

Data from R F Dole, Sheet #19, Maine Central roster and data completed 1959, supplied in August 2022 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. Works number was 98 in 1867.

Broad-gauge railroads weren't unheard of in North America in the mid-1800s, but by then most lines used the standard 4' 8 1/2" gauge. The "American" wood burning engine named "Lewiston" left the New Hampshire builder on the broad gauge, but was converted to standard gauge by the Portland Locomotive Works in 1871.

On its original railroad, the Lewiston possessed the most cylinder volume of any of the road's eight locomotives.

Coal fuel replaced wood by 1879 (and the firebox was altered to suit.)

Class 9 / H (Locobase 12172)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 20, p. 40. Works number was 144489 in October 1895.

The P&RF was based in Rumford, Maine and grew steadily. Its location and traffic levels led the Maine Central in 1907 to lease it and the Rumford Falls & Rangeley Lakes for 999 years. This Eight-wheeler served both railroads until the MEC scrapped it in December 1911.

Class A (Locobase 16655)

Data from R F Dole, Sheet #19, Maine Central roster and data completed 1959, supplied in August 2022 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. Works number was 305 in 1871.

Similar to the "American" described in Locobase 16653, but built in the Ocean State, the 8 served the MEC for over twenty years. It's likely that its small size led to its sale to the Schenectady Locomotive Works in September 1894. Schenectady delivered a 2-6-0 at the same time.

Class A/D (Locobase 16653)

Data from R F Dole, Sheet #19, Maine Central roster and data completed 1959, supplied in August 2022 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. Works number was 257 in 1873.

Typical "American" eight-wheeled locomotive produced by many North American builders in the the 1870s. Locobase estimates the boiler pressure. Among the various Portland Locomotive Works' 4-4-0s of the time, this engine--named John B Brown-- rolled on the tallest drivers, perhaps because it immediately followed three Canadian Inter-Colonial engines with similar dimensions.

Al Weber's individual roster card records a February 1900 sale to the Somerset Railroad as their #1. It was scrapped within a year.

Class B/E (Locobase 16656)

Data from R F Dole, Sheet #19, Maine Central roster and data completed 1959, supplied in August 2022 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. Works numbers 540-543 in June 1886, 548 in March 1887, 549-550 in April

553 in August, and 555 in September.

Compared to the first 51 shown in Locobase 16655, the second 51 to run over the rails of the MEC showed greater dimensions, larger heating and grate areas, and a bit more cylinder volume. (The class's original numbers repeated earlier engines; they were 8, 13-14, 26, 34-35, 42, 45-46 until renumbered in 1900.)

Rolling on 69" drivers, these were passenger engines. They remained in MEC service for about 20 years before the railroad began scrapping them in 1906. The rest went in one and twos until the last two (550 and 553) in March 1911.

Class D (Locobase 11112)

Data from Schenectady Locomotive Works, Illustrated Catalogue of Simple and Compound Locomotives (Philadelphia: J B Lippincott, 1897), pp. 28-29. Works numbers were 4224-4228 in November 1894.

Schenectady's catalogue says that the engine was "...in service on the fast heavy seaside passenger trains between Portland and Bar Harbor, Me."