Re: Ed West on the SR&RL

Stewart Rhine Wrote:
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> Ed West and Dana Aldrich are the two best known
> Sandy River men.
>

There are many colorful Ed West-Dana Aldrich stories, but this is one of my favorites, borrowed from [[url=http://srrl-rr.org/memories.htm]http://srrl-rr.org/memories.htm[/url]]:

"This tale was recounted to John Barrington many years ago by Virgil Starbird (pronounced 'Stahbid') of Strong Maine.

Back while the Sandy River and Rangley Lakes (SR&RL) two-foot gauge railroad of Maine was still a 'system', Ed West was the engineer on the Kingfield to Phillips passenger run, and Dana Aldrich was an engineer on the Phillips to Farmington run. When the Kingfield runs were suspended, Ed West had seniority, so he bumped Dana down to fireman position and took the right-hand side on the run from Phillips to Farmington.

Dana was familiar with the Farmington station platform, with its platform on the fireman's side of the cab. Dana had his spots picked out on the ground on the engineer's side so that when he stopped the engine just so, the coach would be exactly at the platform. But with West driving, Aldrich had to tell West when the coach was lined up.

On day, on arriving at Farmington and stopping, West asked Aldrich how they were. 'Three feet more,' said Aldrich. West moved forward. 'How are we now?' 'About six inches past,' said Aldrich. West moved the train backward six inches, and asked, 'Now how are we side-to-side?'"

-Philip Marshall