The Rail Fest is hosted by the people of Phillips, including the Phillips Area Community Center, The Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad, and the Phillips Historical Society.
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From 1879 through 1935, Phillips, Maine, was the center of a vast narrow gauge railroad empire that was the life blood of Frankin County, Maine.
Starting with the chartering of the Sandy River Railroad in 1879, which connected Phillips to the outside world by linking up with the Maine Central Railroad at Farmington, the "Two Footer" quickly expanded to include five different railroads in a network expanding to over 112 miles of mainline track reaching every corner of Franklin County. During this period, Franklin County had every bit as much the flavor of the western "Boom Town" and playground of the rich of Boston and New York City as Las Vegas is today. The famous "Rangeley Express", boasting the only Two-Foot gauge parlor car in the world ever built, could ensure that celebrities, magnates, and even presidents could make it from Boston in the evening to the famed "Rangeley Lake House" in time for breakfast the next morning. The five separate narrow gauge railroads of Franklin County were amalgamated into one single empire in 1908 under the name, Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad. The bread and butter of the railroad was the vast forests of the county, which fed mills all along the line, producing everything from toothpicks to clothes pins to long lumber to the hungry growing economy of the country beyond. Come celebrate this rich heritage of Phillips and Franklin County during the age of steam with the restored Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad with us, here at the Phillips Rail Fest! |
The Phillips Rail Fest is held at the Phillips Area Community Center, located at the historic SR&RL Railroad Car Shop, Phillips Depot, and the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad just north of town.
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