The "470" Railroad Club was established in 1954 to commemorate the last run of a steam locomotive, No. 470, in passenger service on the Maine Central Railroad. Based in the Portland Maine area, it is incorporated in the State of Maine as a not-for-profit historical and educational association, and is certified as such by the United States Internal Revenue Service.
The "470" Railroad Club owns and maintains a collection of historic locomotives and cars which are displayed at the Conway Scenic Railroad in North Conway, New Hampshire. The club has an extensive collection of photo negatives and color transparencies covering Northern New England railroads, past and present.
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Beautiful print of a painting done by Bob MacDonald of Union Station in Portland Maine as it might have looked 60 years ago. This lovely 8 ½" x 11" print is suitable for framing and can be ordered directly from the 470 Railroad Club for only $5.00 (Order Form). Click on the image to the right for a larger view of the print, use your browser's BACK button to return here.
We are offering a new DVD entitled "Maine Central 1974-1984". This DVD has been compiled from standard 8 color movie film with simultaneously recorded audio, and from super 8 sound movies. The scenes were photographed by Neils and Ron Johnson during the pre-Guilford years of the Maine Central Railroad, and cover all classes of diesel locomotives. Virtually the entire system has been included; main line freight trains, Portland Terminal ALCOs along Commercial Street, and branch lines from Beecher Falls to Bingham to Bucksport. See and hear double-headed RS2s and RS3s in full throttle on the Calais line, a 44-tonner making its way to Eastport, and U18Bs as they struggle up through Crawford Notch! To order, send a check for $25.00 plus $5.00 postage and handling to Ron Johnson, 662 Highland Avenue, South Portland ME 04106. Maine residents please add 5% sales tax!
March 2008: We are currently temporarily unable to fill orders for Prints from our Negative Collection. Please watch this space for an announcement when we are able to resume taking orders. In the meantime, lists of negatives in the collection are still available as described below. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we hope to be able soon to again offer these fine prints for sale.
The 470 Railroad Club has a collection of over 10,000 negatives of railroad subjects. They are primarily pictures of New England States railroads, and a small number from other parts of the U.S. and Canada. The time frame covered by the collection ranges from the 1890s right through the 1960s with a few in the 70s and 80s. All the pictures have been listed in a computer database, with a description identifying the subject and the date and location of the photographs where it is known.
The collection has been divided into
four
basic categories: Steam Locomotives, Diesel Locomotives, Structures and
Equipment. Structures includes stations, bridges, towers, etc. while
Equipment refers
to passenger and freight cars and work equipment. Within these categories,
the negatives have been listed by railroad. See following inventory of
lists.
If you would be interested in purchasing prints of any of these negatives,
you may request a detailed printout from our database of the negatives
available for the specific railroads and categories, for example, Bangor
and Aroostook
Railroad Steam Locomotives. The printout will list the negatives available,
with all the information we know about them, and will show the negative
number we have assigned to each one. You may then request one of more
prints by
negative number.
To cover postage and printing please remit:
- Railroads with 300 or more negatives -$2.00 per railroad negative list.
- Railroads with under 300 negatives, you may combine up to 20 railroad negative lists for $2.00
If you desire a complete inventory of all railroad negative lists, please remit $15.00.
- Black and white prints of negatives in the collection will be available as follows:
5 x 7- $6.00 each; 8 x 10- $13.00 each; plus postage and handling of $3.00 per order.
To request a printout of the negatives available by category, write to:
470 Railroad Club Negatives, P. 0. Box 2468, South Portland, ME 04116.
Click on the Photo Negatives link for a listing.
Our February membership meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 7:30 P.M. at the Prides Corner Corner Congregational Church located at 235 Pride Street, Westbrook ME. The program will be the one originally scheduled for the January meeting, which we had to cancel because of snow! It WILL be worth the wait!! We expect the program for this meeting to be of special interest to all our Maine friends! It will feature a DVD video entitled "Today's Maine Railroads". What makes this video of special interest is that "today" is 1991. Virtually everything running on rails in Maine in that year is included in the program. We will see lots of action on the Guilford Rail System lines and the Bangor and Aroostook, and in addition to these main lines, the film includes scenes on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake, the Saint Lawrence and Atlantic, Maine Coast Railroad, Canadian Pacific and even the elusive Aroostook Valley Railroad. Many of the locomotives featured are no longer running, and the scenes in which they are seen have unfortunately passed into the pages of history. The DVD has been loaned to us from the Beauchemin Collection of the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts.
Guests are always welcome at the 470 Railroad Club meetings. Make yourself known, and you will find us to be a friendly and welcoming group of persons sharing a common interest in railroads.
Directions to our Meeting Place
From Interstate 95 (the Maine Turnpike): Take Exit 48. As soon as you go through the toll booth, turn right at the traffic light, onto Riverside Street. Follow this street to the third traffic light. Turn left onto Route 302. Follow Route 302 to the second traffic light. Turn left onto Pride Street. The Prides Corner Congregational Church is about a half mile on the left.
From downtown Portland: Go out Forest Avenue, which is Route 302, past Morrill's Corner. After you go under the Turnpike bridges, continue to the third traffic light. Turn left onto Pride Street. The Prides Corner Congregational Church is about a half mile on the left.
CRAWFORD NOTCH EXCURSION SCHEDULED
Our annual rail excursion through Crawford Notch will take place on Saturday, October 17, 2009. This special excursion train will travel the entire length of the Conway Scenic Railroad's Crawford Notch line. We will depart from Conway Scenic Railroad's North Conway station at 9:30 A.M. for a scenic ride to Fabyans and return. Photo stops and runbys will be made as conditions allow. Stops are planned at the White Mountain Cider Company in Glen and at the AMC's Highland Center at the site of the Crawford House Hotel. We also plan to include a side trip which will travel over the relocated ex-Maine Central Railroad track through the east side of North Conway Village. We expect to return to our starting point about 5:00 P.M., allowing time for our passengers to dine at the restaurant of their choice or to begin their homeward journey.
The coach fare for this special train will be $50.00 per adult or $32.00 for each child 12 years or under. First Class fares good in the "Carroll P. Reed" and "Dorthea Mae" cars are $60.00 per adult and $44.00 per child. A limited number of seats in the dome car are available. If you wish to request one of the dome seats, please so indicate in your order. If space in the dome is available, you would then pay the difference between the fare paid and the dome car fare of $68.00 at the time of boarding the train.
An optional box lunch is available to all passengers at a cost of $10.50 per lunch. If you desire a box lunch, pleae specify either a Ham & Cheese Sandwich, Turkey Sandwich or Veggie Pocket.
The train will run, rain, snow or shine. No returns or refunds after October 9, 2009. Tickets will be mailed and checks deposited on October 9, 2009.
For further information or to order tickets paid for by check or money order, please send a large self-addressed envelope to The 470 Railroad Club, 37 Longwood Drive, Portland ME 04102. Optionally, tickets may be ordered "online" and paid for by credit card by contacting the Conway Scenic Railroad, P.O. Box 1947, North Conway NH 03860; telephone 603-356-5251, fax 603-356-7606, or email to info@Conwayscenic.com.
Meetings: The third Wednesday of each month.
© 1999-2009 The 470 Railroad Club, Inc. all rights reserved.