BIDDEFORD — During a major snowstorm, the City of Biddeford deploys 13 vehicles that plow every street, according to Public Works Director Guy Casavant, using computerized dispensers that distribute sand and salt as they go. The major roads are cleared to the tar and motorists can be confident that the roads will be passable whenever they need to travel.

It wasn’t always that way.

Regular street clearing only began about 80 years ago. Before the automobile era began, and even for some time afterwards, travelers had to simply adjust to the weather ”“ which often meant staying home.

According to Ethan Yankura of the Owls Head Transportation Museum, mechanized snow removal on the roads became common in the late 1920s, early 1930s. In major cities, a few motorized plows were used in the 1910s.

Prior to that time, rural roads were often “rolled” by a team of horses pulling a heavy cylindrical roller down the streets, said New England historian Steve Hatch. Horse-drawn sleighs could make their way more easily once the roads were packed down. Downtown city streets were often cleared by hand, he said.

Yankura noted that some automobile owners would store their vehicle and “get the horse and sleigh back out for the winter months.”

Not everyone put them away, however. Around 1926, photographs of ice trucks and pleasure cars show them running on white roads, with snow caked in their wheels.

Rolled roads often became icy, said Hatch, so some automobiles were outfitted with skis ”“ one such model is on display at Owls Head ”“ but traction was an issue and converting to tracks instead of wheels was too costly.

In some of the more rural parts of Maine, regular, mechanical street plowing did not go mainstream until the automobile did, in the 1950s, or even the 1960s, said Yankura. It is unclear from the city reports exactly when snowplowing began in Biddeford. After major storms, such as the blizzard of March 1888, Biddeford Journal reports state that there were attempts to clear the streets, but “crews of men with shovels and plows” met with much difficulty and the major roads were blocked until the next day.

In the 1926-27 city report, Mayor George C. Precourt stated that, if finances permitted, he “would favor the purchase of a motorized plow and snow remover.”

Precourt’s request was realized soon thereafter, as the 1933 report states that two vehicles had their plows repaired and painted “to be in condition to plow this winter.”

Plows of the 1920s used a system of pulleys, before hydraulic pistons came into widespread use. The Portland Company, in downtown Portland, began manufacturing these “snow ploughs” in the late 1800s, first steam driven and later using the internal combustion engine.

walking in the snow

Since walking was the main mode of intra-city transportation for most locals, clearing the sidewalks was of foremost importance. Horse-drawn sidewalk plows were used since before the turn of the 20th century and motorized versions were later favored. Twelve sidewalk plows were said to have been rebuilt and painted, according to the 1926 Biddeford report.

The street commissioner requested a sidewalk tractor for snow removal in 1935, which is also when paving of Biddeford streets with tar was first noted.

“The added expense also that has to be incurred each year is that of snow removal but this is a permanent outlay in as much as it allows the free movement of automobiles ”¦” said Mayor Wilfrid Landry in the 1937-38 city report.

By the following year’s report, the street commissioner noted that the streets and sidewalks were quickly cleared after every storm.

The exception came during wartime, as noted in the address of Mayor Louis B. Lausier in the 1946 city report, just after the nation had emerged victorious from World War II:

“The city had the money to buy equipment, but I as mayor of Biddeford would not deprive your boys ”¦ of necessary tools and equipment for the prosecution of the war to its successful conclusion. I felt it was a pleasure to walk in snow and every red blooded citizen with kin in the service was proud to do likewise.”

TROLLEYS

From the turn of the 20th century until the mid-1930s, the trolleys were the main form of inter-city travel for most citizens.

Aside from the sidewalks, “only the trolley lines were cleared” right after a storm, said John L. Middleton, a vice president at The Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport.

When the streets were made of cobblestone and brick a trolley’s plow could rip up the road, so a hard brush of bamboo shoots was configured to sweep the snow off the tracks, said Middleton.

Later, when streets were covered with gravel, plows came into use. The Seashore Trolley Museum still maintains three plow trolleys, one of which is on the track for the winter.

During big storms, sometimes plow trolley cars could make it through snow drifts, pulling back and hitting it three or four times and using the weight of the car to make it through, said Middleton.

The trick was to “not let the snow build up and then try to get rid of it,” he said.

It didn’t always work. In March 1920, trolley car No. 38 was snowed in on Elm Street near Five Points in Biddeford, from March 6-12. A large group of volunteers cleared the tracks so the trolley could be returned to the car barn.

The winter of 1903-04 was so severe that the trolley plow couldn’t clear it in some places, according to local histories. Shovelers were hired by the Portsmouth, Dover & York line to keep the tracks open.

Even with diligence, the winter weather sometimes still got the best of the trolleys. In February 1912, ice and snow on the rails derailed a car in Biddeford, and in 1918, a trolley fell off a trestle of the Atlantic Shoreline in southern York County when the track was thrown out of line by a large piece of ice on the water.

In towns with major trolley systems like Albany, N.Y., the snow pushed from the trolley tracks would block sleighs and later, automobiles, said Hatch, causing tension between those who used the different modes of transportation.

But the disputes were short-lived. By 1939, buses replaced trolley service in the Biddeford-Saco area, and the era of the automobile ”“ and diligent snow plowing ”“ took hold for good.

— City Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 322 or kristenm@journaltribune.com. Additional sources: Images of America series: The Portland Company; York County Trolleys; Saco. Special thanks to Steve Hatch and the librarians of the McArthur Library in Biddeford.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.