Interlocking tower 'AR' Biddieford c1930Another EBay discovery. I generally only collect MeC items, but this picture got my attention. On the back it simply says 'Biddieford'. 6 or 8 emails from observers of these pages quickly pointed out that AR Tower was located at Alfred Road located at MP 89.96 on B&M's Western Route. One writer noted the following:
"AR Tower was indeed in Biddiford Me. The "AR" stood for Alfred Road
and the tower was staffed by a train dispatcher rather then a towerman! The Western Route crossed over the Eastern Route at "AR" and the Eastern roadbed is still visiable. The main line was made CTC and Dover Tower and "AR" were closed before my time, maybe in the late 1950s? This section of the B&M, as you probably know was a race track with double track CTC from DOVER to PT Tower 2 in South Portland. I had the pleasure of dispatching this railroad in the 1970s and 1980s. / Carl"
Thanks for the info Carl, it really helps place the graphic in perspective. I really like these shots. Very neat & orderly appearance of the building & interlocking hardware. So much different from the policy of deferred maintance so typical of many railroads today. /DL
Photographed by Unknown, 1930.
Added to the photo archive by David Larrabee, December 6, 2004.
Railroad: Boston & Maine.