Portsmouth, Dover & York St. Ry. 108

Laconia Car Co. built No. 108 for the Portsmouth, Dover & York Street Railway in 1904. (The PD&Y did not give the car a number; about 1909, the Atlantic Shore Line numbered it 108.) No. 108 was a railway post office car similar to those operated on the steam railroads, with additional space provided for baggage and express. As a railway post office car, postal clerks on board the car sorted and cancelled mail while picking up and dropping off mail at points along the way. The PD&Y had been carrying mail between Portsmouth, NH and York Beach, ME since 1898, originally using a smaller car. Mail went by ferry on the Portsmouth, NH – Kittery, ME portion of the route. The mail car was delivered in a red and white paint scheme, but the PD&Y subsequently painted it a dark green. The PD&Y became part of the Atlantic Shore Line system in 1906. The ASL operated a system of trolley lines in southern Maine, including the route now used by Seashore’s demonstration railway. No. 108 regularly operated on the York Beach – Portsmouth RPO route. In 1918, No. 108 derailed on a trestle between Kittery and York and fell on its side in ice. This accident ended the mail contract. In 1919, No. 108 was repaired and converted to a line car for overhead wire maintenance. When ASL abandoned most of its operations in the 1920s, portions continued to operate as York Utilities Co. York Utilities ran a line between Sanford, ME and Kennebunkport until 1927, and the last line between Sanford and Springvale, ME ran until 1949. No. 108 may have originally operated with only hand brakes. York Utilities installed air brakes and also installed larger trucks and knuckle couplers. One job for No. 108 was removing the wire from the line which eventually became Seashore’s operating route. [See also: “Atlantic Shore Line Railway” on museum website.] Seashore acquired No. 108 in 1949 and did repainting and other restoration work on the car in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Seashore used No. 108 as a line car including using it to restore overhead wire to the line where No. 108 had removed it in the 1920s. Seashore did a more complete restoration in 1973-1983, converting it from a line car back to an RPO car. Later, Seashore installed a larger air compressor for the brakes. No. 108, along with Union Street Railway No. 34, ran as an active railway post office on October 8, 1983 for the streetcar postage stamp first day of issue ceremony officiated by then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and Postmaster General William Bolger. In the 2000s, Seashore used the car to carry pumpkins for Pumpkin Patch weekends. No. 108 is one of very few surviving trolley RPO cars. In 1980, the National Park Service has placed No. 108 on the National Register of Historic Place along with nine of the museum’s other Maine cars.