Trains no longer puff smoke nor go, "choo choo," with their whistles. But they are perhaps even more fun to ride now.

To sample the fun, "The night train from Albany rattled along through the darkened countryside. Dimmed lanterns swayed overhead, lighting the passenger coach....."

Oh wait, wrong "fun." The partial paragraph above was written by Matt Braun and is the beginning of Dakota, Braun's really interesting book about the life of Teddy Roosevelt.

The fun of which I was thinking is either Amtrak's "Downeaster" from Portland to Boston, which will now be expanded north past L.L. Bean's in Freeport to Brunswick due to part of President Obama's stimulus plan coming our way. Later, according to an MDOT official on the TV news last night, "they" will be able to reestablish passenger service from Brunswick to Augusta.

Which is the fun to which I was referring. It's been a long time since I've ridden Amtrak. One Christmas we took our four breadsnappers on Amtrak from Portland to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where we became the Christmas surprise for my parents at my sister and her husband's house in New Holland.

Settling into our coach seats was not only exciting but offered a serene sense of security from the outside world. The train began to move slowly, but before long we were winging right along. The ride was quiet with no idiots pulling right out in front of us in their SUVs and then going 40 miles per hour. We had a great view of the ocean from New Haven into New York.

As we entered New York, we warned the four breadsnappers that hordes of commuters would clamber aboard at that Big Apple station, so the kids should not get up or they'd probably lose their seats. One, of course, did get up and did, of course, lose his seat. He stood by our seat and told us in astonishment that a strange man was sitting in his seat. We replied that the man didn't look all that strange to us.

Eventually, the breadsnapper found another seat after a bunch of commuters got off at the next station.

The trip was peaceful, and relaxing. And at the end, "they" even thanked us for riding.

"Thank you for riding Amtrak," called out the trainman at the head of our coach.

I keep thinking I should thank our Island Explorer summer tourist passengers, as they get off the bus at the Bar Harbor Village Green for riding our buses. But usually they're too busy thanking me for entertaining them with all that partly-true Maine history. (Maine history retains its freshness if changed a bit during various tellings. No doubt they thank me for keeping it fresh.)

When I was a kid during my first trip to Maine with my railroader father and the rest of our brood to vacation on Great Aunt Amy's farm in Belgrade, it wasn't Amtrak. It was the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central (if my memory serves correctly -- unless it was the Boston and Maine), and finally the Maine Central. The Maine Central part from Portland north to Augusta -- where history may repeat itself via Brunswick in the not-too-distant future -- was a tiny two-car train pulled by an I-think-I-can diesel switcher. One car was a freight car of some type. Our car was a combination baggage car and coach. The baggage car was the front half, and we passengers got the coach in the rear. All that probably reversed itself on the return trip.

My great aunt met us in Augusta with her then-antique Model A Ford, which she drove down the sort-of paved road keeping the exposed-above-the-hood radiator cap on the center line as a guide to keep the old Ford on the road.

It did. Somehow.

On the return trip, we climbed aboard a sleek, streamlined train in Augusta.

Dolores and I hope this summer to try the "fun" for the 21st century, the refurbished Belfast and Moosehead from Belfast to somewhere out in the great wilderness of Waldo County, perhaps Brooks, I don't recall the plan. But it will be on those old-fashioned coaches from long ago -- from about when I was a kid and young adult.

Should be fun.

According to Wikipedia, "The Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad ran from Burnham Junction in on the Maine Central Railroad to the small seaport of Belfast. It was originally leased by the Maine Central as the Belfast Branch. When the MEC terminated the lease, ownership was acquired by the city of Belfast. At one time, outbound freight included a large amount of processed fish from Belfast's processing plants. In the 1950s and 1960s much of the freight was chicken feed for the area's considerable chicken-growing operations. With the serious decline of freight movements, a tourist operation was started. In late 2005 or early 2006, operations in the Belfast area ceased. The train ran from a new station in Unity to Burnham Junction for a couple more years, and there were occasional unscheduled runs to Belfast, mostly ceremonial or for special events. On February 5, 2008, the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad permanently ceased all operations."

Except it wasn't permanent, it turns out. A group of local historians is planning to start that train up again -- the train we hope to ride as tourists from 35 miles away from Belfast. I know that country down there well, but it should be fun seeing it from an old passenger coach instead of a new Toyota Yaris.

That train ride will happen because, still according to Wikipedia, "A railroad to Belfast was proposed, and even chartered, multiple times before 1867, but funding was insufficient. On February 28, 1867, the Belfast and Moosehead Lake was chartered. On July 3, the new corporation was chartered, and construction began at Belfast on August 4, 1868. The majority of the stock was owned by the city of Belfast. As the name of the railroad suggests, the original intent was to build to Moosehead Lake, but the Maine Central Railroad signed a lease of the B&ML in 1870 and arranged for it to connect at Burnham Junction."

Not quite Moosehead Lake, but far enough to do a little railroading.

Next summer's ride will be considerably shorter than the 50 or 60 miles from Belfast to the original railroad connection with the Maine Central at Burnham Junction, but it should be a fascinating 15 miles or so over the river and past the woods and fields to Brooks.

Not quite like my 500 miles to Maine, nor my 300 miles on the old Pennsylvania to Buffalo, New York, where after rocking and rolling along -- literally -- the train had to back into the Buffalo terminal. Not quite like Dolores' trips along the Hudson River aboard the New York Central, when she was a bit younger.

But fun, just the same, complete with the clickety clack and the blaring horn of the diesel switcher -- at a much slower pace than those train trips of yesteryear.

An old - now antique - snowplow railroad car in Thorndike. The back half of the plow served as an office for the crew

Old tracks, cars, and station at Thorndike. Not long ago the Belfast and Moorhead Railroad, a tourist line from Burnham Junction to Unity, was closed. But negotiations are being conducted to reopen the line that was begun by the Maine Central in the second half of the 1860s, this time from Belfast possibly to Brooks. Milt Gross photo.

Milt Gross can be reached for corrections, harassment, or other purposes at lesstraveledway@midmaine.com.
Milton M. Gross Copyright 2010

Milt Gross' Down the Road Column