Re: SR&RL Film

Thanks for the link. The video is an excerpt from a well-known film made by Newell Martin in the 1930s, just before the end. It's an amazing record of SR&RL operations, and it's great to see familiar locations, equipment, and people come to life. (For example, that's Ed West trimming the coal on No. 9 at 8:12, followed by Dana Aldrich climbing into the cab at 8:15; Dana had seniority, so Ed sometimes found himself firing for Dana in the final years of the railroad.) The railbus ride on the old P&R past the Sanders tank and then Perham Junction (after stopping to fill the radiator at the Perham Stream bridge), and continuing partway up Sluice Hill beginning at 10:49 is amazing -- I've hiked that section of ROW a couple of times and with Saddleback Mountain looming in the distance in a few shots it's eerily recognizable.

For those in an acquisitive mood, a DVD version of the this film, with a full 50 minutes of footage from both Newell Martin and Thomas Taber, is available from the SR&RL group in Phillips: "Sandy River Line" DVD

-Philip Marshall