Twofootartist’s Random Ramblings

Terry Smith asked me to draw up the coal sheds used by the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad to service their locomotives in Bridgton and Harrison, Maine. There was plenty of information available for the Bridgton structure, including overall dimensions from the 1916 ICC report and many photographs. Here’s what I came up with for that shed. Left click on the drawings to enlarge them to full screen. Note that this building appears to be deeper in many of the published photographs. After struggling with this problem for a while, I finally determined that those photos distorted the building. This is a common problem with photos taken with a large glass lens that stretches items located toward the edges of the photos.

The information on Harrison proved much skimpier. It appears, though, that there were two sheds in Harrison: the first one built in 1897 and the second built about 1918. I was able to find only one photo of each, and the photo of the first shed shows only the rear view. Here is the second shed:

Here is Terry’s 1:48 scale model of this shed, which he completed in record time. 

The first shed was about 12′ x 41′ and similar in construction to the second shed. Terry has suggested that the second shed might have been a cut-down version of the first one.

Here is another photo from a postcard that has emerged showing what appears to be an elongated version of the above shed. It could be that this was the first shed, and that Terry’s suggestion that it was later cut back is correct.

Text and drawings on this page Copyright 2010 by Wesley Ewell and may not be used in any form without permission. An exception is granted for modelbuilders who may copy the drawings for personal use, but may not sell, distribute or publish them in any way. Left click on the drawings and photos to enlarge them.