Biddeford Saco Trolley on display at Kennebunkport museum

KENNEBUNKPORT — For decades, the Biddeford and Saco Railroad provided transportation by electric trolley car for people traveling between Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach. The last day of trolley operation was July 5, 1939, but thanks to rail enthusiasts, one of the trolley cars – Biddeford & Saco Car 31- was saved from the scrap heap and is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum.

The Biddeford and Saco Railroad provided frequent and reliable service on a track that ran through the three municipalities, and a 1929 advertisement pictured in O.R. Cummings book “The Biddeford and Saco Railroad” boasted that passengers could expect to find “A car every 15 minutes.”

Ridership peaked in 1921, with more than 1.8 million passengers, according to an article By Phil Morse in “The Dispatch,” a publication of the New England Electric Railway Historical Society. Ridership declined as cars became more popular, and in 1931 the passenger was only slightly more than half the ridership of a decade before, according to Morse.

In 1939, the trolley system was discontinued and replaced with motorized buses.

Shortly before the service was discontinued, a group of rail enthusiasts went on a fan trip in June of 1939 on the Biddeford and Saco line and rode on Car 31, a 12 bench, 60 passenger car called a “breezer,” because of its open sides. The car was built in 1900 by the J. G. Brill Company in Philadelphia.  After laying eyes on Car 31, the group of rail fans decided that they couldn’t let it go to the junk yard, or get repurposed as a chicken coop or an ice cream stand.

“They just fell in love with it,” said Seashore Trolley Museum Executive Director Katie Orlando.

The group negotiated a deal with the President of the rail company and purchased Biddeford and Saco Car 31 for $150 on July 5, 1939, and the trolley was moved to farmland in Kennebunkport, where the Seashore Trolley Museum sits today. It became the first car saved from demolition to become part of the museum’s collection.

Car 31 was one of only five or six cars still serviceable on that last day of operation in 1939, according to information at the museum.

Today, the museum has more than 250 former mass-transit vehicles and is the largest electric railway museum in the world.

And the car that started it all, Car 31, is still in the museum, gleaming red, with plush seats and mahogany benches. It was restored in the 1970s at the museum with funding from Maine State Commission of Arts and Humanities and private donation. Car 31 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum team goes “above and beyond” in in their restoration efforts, researching materials and specific paint colors, said Orlando.

“These things are art. To scrap them would be a shame,” she said.

The Seashore Trolley Museum is located at 195 Log Cabin Road. For more information, museum hours and COVID-19 policies, go to https://trolleymuseum.org/ .

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.