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Ken: My sister introduced me to your web site this Christmas, and also to model railroading. She purchased a Gp-38 Bangor and Aroostook locomotive to start me off on my model railroading adventure. She mentioned your site when I asked her about the A.V.R. our dad, his brothers and his sisters rode on; the electric cars back and forth to school in the 20's, 30's and early 40's. As a kid growing up in the Mapleton, Washburn and Presque Isle area, I have many,many fond memories of the A.V.R. as it passed my grandparents farm on the Parsons Road. I can still remember the freight picking up boxcars of potatoes across the road from the house where there was a large potato house and a siding that belonged to my grandfather, Edward J. Bull, and his sons. In the early 50's, a hurricane washed out the railroad bed where it crossed Bulls' Brook, which ran through the farm. The track and ties were left dangling in the air about 30-40 feet over the bed of the brook. This interupted all traffic from Presque Isle to Washburn for several weeks as gravel was hauled in to replace the washout. I remember the rail crew having to send a "pede car" across the dangling expanse to get some equipment to the other side (about 150 feet), and as a kid that was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. In the summer time, my cousin and I would swim from the trestle where it crossed the "mighty Aroostook" river. I think I knew every workman’s name, whoever rode by the farm on the A.V.R. until we moved away from the "county" to the "big city" of Bangor in 1959. My mother and four of us kids rode to our new (to us) home in Bangor on one of the last passenger cars on the B&A. That happened to be the only train ride that I've ever had. My aunt has a video that was taken back in the thirties from an electric car that shows the farm and some of the scenery of the A.V.R. line.I'm going to contact her and get a copy of it and I will forward it on to you to copy it, also. Well,I've probably bored you to death,but then again, you know "County "people can talk a lot once we get going.Looking forward to more conversations with you, and take care. -- Rob Bull No, Mr. Bull, you haven’t bored me at all. Thanks a lot for sharing your memories the county, and the Aroostook Valley Railroad. -- Ken Anderson |
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