A day after the passage of Hurricane Carol in 1954, the late Jasper Whitman of Mechanic Falls was walking the Branch’s abandoned roadbed observing the after-effects of the storm and spotted a portion of the engine in the creek bed, apparently uncovered by the rapid rise of storm-driven waters.
Within a matter of hours the engine had again sunk out of sight in the quicksand. In the late 1970s, a group led by the late Richard Bedford of Hebron attempted to obtain permits to excavate and recover the engine for preservation, but it is said that the Army Corps of Engineers denied the application on the basis that the digging would disturb and harm the ecological environment, and no further attempts have been forthcoming to recover the engine.
As for a train going into a bog at North Norway on the interurban electric line, the project to extend the Norway-Paris Street Railway to Harrison, never got further than some grading of roadbed out as far as Little Norway Lake. The old-timer Doug R. spoke with undoubtedly was relating an earlier account of the February 1885 accident on the Grand Trunk Railway’s Norway Branch line from South Paris, when the steam engine of the train departing Norway station derailed on the Bog Brook trestle (on Beal Street opposite today’s Norway Fire Station) and turned onto its side on the embankment.
Old engine No. 114 was uprighted, taken to the shop for repairs, and worked the Branch for another 10 years before being retired. Unfortunately, this accident claimed the life of one of two young girls being treated to a cab ride by Engineer Shaw. She was pinned in the cab with life-threatening injuries and succumbed the following day. Both members of the engine crew subsequently lost their jobs with the company for violation of the rules. Sincerely, John R. Davis, Grand Trunk Railway historian, semi-retired.
DEAR SUN SPOTS: I wonder over this. When you have a good product for sale, why not keep it, instead of doing something else? I have a Polaroid camera which takes the 600 film cassettes. I used to be able to buy them at Walmart, but now no more, they are obsolete. I thought perhaps the company had closed its factory like so many here in the U.S., but now I see an ad from Polaroid for a different project, some strange item for out of space. Could you find out about the films? I used it to record what I have been making over the years, when I restore old furniture, make dolls, bears, hooked rugs and now quilts. Thank you very much. — Heidi in Dryden.
ANSWER: The Polaroid film is still available online. Sun Spots visited www.polaroid.com and searched for the 600 film which brought me to a “shop now” button which brought me to www.amazon.com. It is also still listed on Walmart’s website.
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