Mystery Photo for October 25, 2015

Dozens of people submitted that they were sure the photo was of the railroad bumping post at Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston, or across the walking bridge in Auburn’s Bonney Park. While they were correct in identifying a bumping post, they were about a mile off. The actual location is on West Bates Street in Lewiston by the corner of Spring Street, between warehouses currently owned by Redlon & Johnson/A. Ferguson Enterprise. The now-abandoned tracks were part of a siding behind the freight and passenger terminal of the Maine Central Railroad, presently Ironhorse Court. Boxcars would be backed off the main railroad line and pushed up to the bumping post and unloaded into the warehouse that was once operated by Roy Brothers Transportation. When the warehouse was sold to Hall & Knight Hardware, Fred Hall Sr. bought a rail car to use as storage for many years before it was eventually removed. In a random drawing, Larry Morin of Lewiston was chosen as the winner of a $10 Subway gift card. When contacted, Morin said he was working for Hall & Knight back in 1972 when he was accepted into the fire academy. “Later on, when I was working at the fire department, I would have to test the fire alarm boxes around the city and there was one right next to this, so I was very familiar with it.” said Morin.

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