VIDEO: “To the Grand Old Interurban”

I spent a steamy July day at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, learning all about the Portland and Lewiston Interurban electric trolleys that used to zip between Portland and Lewiston. They could go almost 90 mph.

That’s fast.

You could get from Monument Square in Portland, to Union Station in Lewiston with several stops along the way, including Gray. Teddy Roosevelt even rode on it in 1914, coming south from a political rally.

The Portland and Lewiston Interurban number 14 trolley car, known as "Narcissus," is pictured in a magazine at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport on Monday. The museum has the car in its collection. Troy R. Bennett | BDN

The Portland and Lewiston Interurban number 14 trolley car, known as “Narcissus,” is pictured in a magazine at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport on Monday. The museum has the car in its collection. Troy R. Bennett | BDN

The PLI ran from 1914 till 1933. A few years later, in 1939, former employees of the line had a reunion and a poem by Mrs. Margaret Turner was read.

To the Grand Old Interurban

The shining rails are silent,
The sandy roadbed lays
A grim and lone reminder
Of the good old days.

The days when the Interurban
on schedule every time,
Came humming down the railway
Of the Portland-Lewiston Line.

When the sun is slowly sinking
At the close of a busy day,
In fancy, I hear her whistle
In the distance far away.

Even the trees and bushes
That beside the old track grew
Are whispering and sighing
They’re lonely for her too.

Tho she’s gone for ever, her memory
Time never can erase
And the buses that replaced her
Can never take her place.

She served us every hour
Like a true and faithful friend
Wherever we wished to go
On her we could depend.

There’s a haunting sort of silence
Along that deserted line.
That went, a regretful sacrifice
To the progress of “Time.”

She’s gone but not forgotten
We’re proud of the record fine
Of the grand old Interurban
And the Portland-Lewiston Line.

That same week, two fellas pooled their money and bought a trolley car off the Biddeford and Saco Railway and they started what would become the Seashore Trolley Museum.

I think Mrs. Turner probably thought that was a good idea.

The solid, black line on map at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport shows the old Portland and Lewiston Interurban trolley line route which ran from 1914 through 1933. Cars could reach speeds of 85 mph. Troy R. Bennett | BDN

The solid, black line on map at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport shows the old Portland and Lewiston Interurban trolley line route which ran from 1914 through 1933. Cars could reach speeds of 85 mph. Troy R. Bennett | BDN

Troy R. Bennett

About Troy R. Bennett

Troy R. Bennett is a Buxton native and longtime Portland resident whose photojournalism has appeared in media outlets all over the world.