Customer Reviews

The Old Somerset Railroad

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Begun in 1872, the Somerset Railroad linked the Maine coast with Canadian businesses. For fifty-six years it carried people and goods from the north woods around Moosehead Lake to Southern Maine and New England. A legend in the annals of northeastern railroading, Walter Macdoughall's illuminative history, The Old Somerset Railroad: A Lifeline For Northern Mainers, employs and easy-reading anecdotal style as he surveys the railroad's construction, rolling stock, employees, and the ways in which the lives of the people living along the tracks became interwoven with this remarkable railroad. The Old Somerset Railroad is a superbly written and presented contribution to any personal, academic, or community library collection railroading histories.

I have an interest in Somerset County history, and especially in the route of the rail line since I travel it a good bit. (I have a camp on Lake Moxie, and the road in is the old Somerset Railroad rail bed.) Being familiar with many of the areas the writer talks about is what makes the book fun for me, but I'm not fond of his writing style. It's rather dry and jumps about---I'm often confused by his changing subjects when I think he's continuing a story. He just doesn't transition well from one point to another; he doesn't seem to know how to wrap up a subject or tale.

I recommend the book because of its historical value, and if you happen to drive the Old Canada Road (Rt. 201) between Fairfield, Maine, and The Forks, or know Deadwater Road between Bingham and Moxie and on up to Indian Pond or Rockwood on Moosehead, then this is fascinating stuff.

I read this book after my father, who lived in Somerset during his childhood, gave me the book as a gift and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My dad rode the Old Somerset Railroad regularly as a boy and Mr. Macdougall's anecdotes and stories, documenting the history of the railroad in northern Maine, put into perspective for me what it must have been like for my father to grow up in those times. Thank you Mr. Macdougall - I found your work both fascinating and informative.

The Old Somerset Railroad, A Lifeline For Northern Mainers, Walter MacDougall; Down East Books (2000)


A writer with a sense of humor once miraculously got past the sententious sentinels of seriousness at the New York Times to say - in that very newspaper, no less! - that reviews are ruined by the indiscriminate use of the words "poignant, compelling, intriguing, [to] eschew, [to] craft, [the] Muse, & lyrical."

We'll honor none of them by usage, today, on this page, I promise.

And my hunch is that Bob Harris - resplendent in his deserved "Seven Deadly Words" fame (such as it is) - would really love "The Old Somerset Railroad."

The occasions when books get a five-star salute should occur almost as seldomly as the moments when Bernie Madoff told the truth to his investors.

But immediately, there was NO doubt about the outcome of this ranking.

Walt Macdougall's story of a ninety mile-long railroad - arduously built & maintained largely by Maine's tough Kennebec Valley citizens - receives, gratefully, the equivalent of the Army rank awarded to Omar Bradley in 1950 (alas, by then, the Somerset was gone, ruined largely by the Great Depression of the 1930s).

Bradley, a remarkably down-to-earth & practical person, also would have enjoyed the Book of Somerset's dignity, its warmth of touch & tone -

"While [William] Atkinson went about his calling as a railroad prophet, his neighbors in [the town of] Embden were about to get themselves into real trouble."

It's compassion for citizens who in 1868 approved railroad bond issues - without realizing that their possible bankruptcy could later inherit the wind created by the Maine Central private cars traveling through North Anson & Bingham, in which the new executive owners of the line would ride in disdainful, insulting isolation from their customers & employees.

Macdougall has a golden feel for railroad logistics & poetic license - for the straight shooters on the Somerset payroll & likewise, for the convincing job applicants in an era when "an investment of a few dollars bought you an impressive pile of fake passes & phony recommendations."

Whatever mistakes & shortcomings Somerset has are erased by a book featuring a chapter ending as thus:

"...The romance that lingers in the memories...you seem to hear - & then are certain of - the rumble of the train easing down the grade from Deadwater...there come the sounds of the whistle at Mayfield Crossing. A few minutes more & there is light moving in the branches of the trees, & then suddenly the circle of a headlamp brighter than the full moon. The polished rails run silver."

I was reminded of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Mr. Mac has much to be proud of.