Last week we took to the rails, not easy to do in Maine, but we did it on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake.

I think what struck me the most was the woods, how much woods there is in Maine just off the beaten path -- in this case City Point Road, Oak Hill Road, East Waldo Road, Route 131, Littlefield Road, and Back Center Road. All of which are also off the beaten path, if the beaten path involves fairly heavily traveled roads and highways.

Next I was struck by the "ticket office," a Sante Fe streamlined coach built in 1937 and used on that Western line. I'm sure I remember calendar photos of these Santa Fe trains racing heckbent (keeping it clean, here) through the wide open spaces.

The coach in which we rode, along with about eight other passengers -- mostly local folk instead of the tourist crowd you find in Camden and Bar Harbor -- was built in 1926 and used in some other foreign land called New Jersey. The interior of this coach was made of wood. Id' never seen such an train-coach interior before this venture.

The role of ticket office on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake excursion railroad is played by this Sante Fe streamliner coach built in 1937. Milt Gross photo.

Not only was it fascinating to ride in a coach built before I was but from that strange state, which when I was a Pennsylvania kid served as our "backyard" to the seashore. That with his family rode to Atlantic City in coaches pulled by a Pacific steam locomotive, a four-by-six-by-four (four leading smaller wheels, six drivers, and four trailing small wheels) which huffed and puffed and showered black, gritty cinders through the open windows.

Time passed, and we rode electric-powered coaches to Cape May -- where I was sickened by my only real sunburn in my entire 29.5 years.

The Belfast and Moosehead Lake consisted of a diesel switcher, a caboose in which passengers could ride for a higher fare than we humble coach passengers paid ($11 for senior citizens and $!2 for adults who were not yet senior even though they probably had graduated from somewhere), and our 1926 coach complete with that prickly cloth material on the seats.

That was it, our transit for the ten-mile trip to Brooks. It reminded me of that one-car train our family had ridden from Portland to Augusta way back in the day for our week of vacation on the Belgrade farm. That single car was half baggage and half coach.

The rails on which the B&ML rolls are the "old fashioned" short rails, somewhere over 100 feet in length and connected by metal contraptions called fish plates bolted to the rails. This source of clickety clackety also produced some banging sounds as a flanged steel wheel struck the next rail on a curve...kind of bouncing into the curve.

Ah, the good old days.

Russ Barber of Belfast, one of the volunteers who helps with the weekend 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. trips, pointed out his house on the opposite side of the Passagassawakeag River* where his "railroad widow" was currently awaiting his return from the world of rail.

Barber also told us that this tourist ride is in its first year of operation after the former one closed down due to lack of money -- read "interest," as in not enough people rode it.

A view across the Passagassawakeag River from the Belfast and Moosehead Lake railroad excursion includes the foundations of an old road bridge. Milt Gross photo.

About a mile into the slow trip, caused by the 15 miles-per-hour-rated track, we rounded our first bend and crossed a stream emptying into the river.

Next came a view of the City Point station, which shared space with a siding, a handful of other cars, and another diesel switcher. Another volunteer there told us that the station and all the rolling stock are owned by railroad hobbyists. Other rolling stock housed at Unity, where the train doesn't reach, has been sold and is headed for Tennessee, another one of those probably-not-in-Maine locations that people inhabit for some unknown reason.

That volunteer also told us that the City Point station was brought to Belfast's City Point from Corinna, which in case you're geographically impaired is in Maine.

Taking photos from the rear of the passenger coach required about as much dexterity as this writer had to offer due to the rocking, bouncing ride of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake excursion train. Milt Gross photo.

I accepted an invitation to go to the rear of the 1926 New Jersey coach and take photos out the open rear door -- which on the return run became the front door with the locomotive pushing us.

I once took photos on a fishing vessel out of Southwest Harbor during which the waves were so rough I had to lean against a post with my feet outspread -- a living tripod -- to get those pictures.

The walk to the rear of the coach and my leaning spot to get those shots of rail and woods rolling away from us were about as rough, only in a "banging," lurching way instead of the rolling motion the boat had offered.

The train pictures turned out fine, thanks to Kodak's digital camera that allows us to have those photos on our computer in less than an hour after arriving home. Also thanks to that camera's not needing to be focused carefully, as it shoots all nicely in a very forgiving way for those rocking and rolling while they aim and shoot.

A Downeast Transportation bus passenger once confided in me that she liked train travel because it takes you through people's back yards where you can view their clean laundry on the line. The B&ML took us through the front yards of several houses, above a stream far down an embankment, past fields, and across roads as well as through those woods.

At the road crossings, our conductor -- the guy or gal in charge of ye olde train -- got off after the train stopped and made sure road traffic stopped as we rolled across behind that diesel switcher. The smoke, ah yes, the smoke. From that Pacific steam engine of many years hence, belched black coal smoke. From this diesel switcher came -- not so belchy -- blue diesel smoke, which we could see wafting along above the train from time to time.

The diesel horn sounded from time to time, reminding me of those youthful vacations in Belgrade when at night I could hear the whistles and horns of other trains racing through a mile or so away, bound for distant ports of stop. Being raised in a railroad family in which my father and all three brothers as well as my brother worked in that trade, those Belgrade diesel horns and whistles made me homesick.**

I didn't get homesick the other day. We were only 45 minutes from home, where we were greeted by four kitties and a raccoon when we arrived.

The other day I was homesick for the trains.***

And lots of others are too, maybe including you.

The Belfast and Moosehead Lake excursion train, here resting at its City Point, Belfast, station between runs from Belfast to Brooks, is pulled by a diesel switcher (left and partly obscured), a caboose in which passengers may ride, and a 1926 coach once used in New Jersey. The car to the right, a 1937 Sante Fe streamliner coach, serves as the ticket office. Milt Gross photo.

*According to Wikipedia, the waterway is approximately 11 miles long. From the outlet of Lake Passagassawakeag (44°30"04"N 69°07"59"W) in Brooks, it runs south and east to its estuary in Belfast, Maine. The river empties into Belfast Bay, an inlet of Penobscot Bay, where it passes under US Route 1. The waterway's name is of local Indian origin and is believed to mean "a sturgeon's place" or "a place for spearing sturgeon by torchlight."

**The home of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake is reached from Route 1 in Belfast by heading out High Street, which becomes City Point Road. In a couple of minutes, about when you're saying, where the dickens is this station anyhow, you come to a sign that points down a short hill to a gravel parking lot just above that 1937 Sante Fe ticket office. (From Route 1 heading south, you get off at the Route 137 exit, which deposits you onto High Street at a "stop" sign. Turn left. Approaching Belfast on Route 1 heading north, take the exit onto Route 3, turn right to the city's downtown, and then go left onto High Street.)

***To see more trains of the kind not in vogue these days, take a drive out Route 139 to Thorndike and view the old engine house, snowplow that was pushed by locomotives through very deep snows, and old freight cars. All ready to smile for your camera.

Milt Gross can be reached for corrections, harassment, or other purposes at lesstraveledway@midmaine.com.

Milton M. Gross Copyright 2011