South Strong
Milepost 8.0
O.K., O.K., so there never were any tunnels on the SR&RL (or any of the other Maine two-footers, for that matter). But, this was the only way to get the main line from Farmington (coming out of the tunnel) to Strong (going off to the left) to cross under the line to Kingfield. You can see the Kingfield line just above the tunnel, from Strong (to the right), and heading north to Starbird's (just to the left of the picture):
This is the same general area, in the benchwork stage -- switch at South Strong at the lower right of the photo, Starbird's mill site in the center of the photo, on the upper level.
The same general area, now with scenery -- that's better! South Strong station just visible. Large flat area above will be the site of Starbird's mill. Farmington is across the aisle, with the Farmington depot barely visible in the back left corner of the room.
A train of pulpwood is just to the north of South Strong, headed for Strong village. Yes, that means that the SR&RL is hauling pulpwood north out of Farmington, rather than to Farmington, but I have to re-stage the cars somehow, after each operating session. At the extreme upper left of the photograph, the bottom of a truck is visible. This is from a flatcar spotted on a spur at Starbird's mill, just north of Strong, along the line to Kingfield. This is no more prototypical than the tunnel at South Strong, but it gets the job done.
