Hello Todd:
When did you last speak with Arnie? Many years ago, I was told by a few people that Arnie Doucette had passed on. Last time that I spoke with him way back in the 1980s, he was living in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with some sort of hobby shop operation there. If he's still around, it wouldn't be the first time that somebody considered long dead was instead living on happily in good health.
It seems at this late date that the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn Railroad was actually one of the most photographed short line operations on the planet. Was just going through boxes of stuff this week and realized that there are many more images and photo negatives than originally believed. Rough guess might be about 300 or more "good" B.R.B. & L. picture images on hand. Quite a few of those have not been previously published.
Would appear that Boston's Narrow Gauge operation, at least among rail enthusiasts, was a legend in it's own time with zillions of amateur snapshot photos made. Thing is, most of those pictures are just yard shots of cars or some guy's mother-in-law posed on the end platform.
A former B.R.B. & L employee who was an electrician gave me about 30 negatives he and fellow crew members had made while at work in the late 1930s. There are pictures taken on top of a line car showing the men working on the overhead wire. Some of the views have the guys clowning around just below the 600-volt charged wire. There are all sorts of men at work equipment views too.
When doing the first book back in the late 1970s, the pre-World War One era professionally made photos showing trains in operation were the hard ones to find. Pretty much all of the early B.R.B. & L. pictures were sourced from the Winthrop Public Library collection and our old friend Bernie Baesh. That's about it! Actually have enough photos to probably in hand do a couple of books if desired.
My last contact with Peter McCauley was about ten-years ago when he gave me a copy of "Meet You at the Station". Pete's collection of Revere Beach post cards and other items was huge and filled much of his house. That edition, done in an individual postcard format appears to have been made from images taken by Charlie Duncan, Dick Shaw and other sources including last night newspaper pictures. One of the card pictures shows people on a Ferry boat about to get off at Foster's Wharf in Boston. That one appears to be a close cropped section of an image. Have that original negative around here someplace. Mister McCauley, who passed away just last year was always friendly and helpful to everyone. He was a total gentleman. Pete seemed quite happy when I nicknamed him "the Mayor of Revere Beach". He and his Revere related books will be missed.
