PHILLIPS – Now that trains are running every weekend through Labor Day, the Sandy River and Rangely Lakes Railroad is staging several special events. One, a reprise of the railroad’s popular Wild West Weekend, is set for Saturday and Sunday, July 20-21.
On that weekend, the Wild West, guns a-blazing, returns once more to the SR&RLRR in Phillips. On that Saturday and Sunday, train passengers on the narrow-gauge will experience the thrill of the West as a gang of desperadoes attempt to rob the train.
Some of the gang creating the gun smoke are part of Old Wild West Back East, a group of reenactors who come together occasionally to recreate history. And not just Western history; some of those who dress in the garb of the Wild West do other reenactments as well. Norm Harbinson, for instance, one of the organizers of the SR&RLRR Wild West event, reenacts several time periods and personas, and earlier this year, on Saturday, June 8, he and some of his group did a dramatic reenactment of the 101st Airborne’s participation in the Normandy Invasion in 1944 – the 75th anniversary of that world-changing event.
So what should train riders in Phillips expect on the SR&RLRR Western weekend? An attempt to rob the train, certainly, though whether the Marshal and his posse will arrive in time to thwart the attempt is less certain. Bur be assured that gunplay is inevitable and that weapons – loaded with blanks, of course – will be fired.
And why the Wild West in Phillips, Maine? As the group says, “We don’t believe that, just because you live in the eastern United States, you can’t recreate the life of the pre-1900 American West. Through reenacting and living history, we experience some of the lifestyles of the men and women who became immortalized in fact, fiction and lore.” As for why at the SR&RLRR in Maine, well, that’s where history also resides.
So if you’re looking for some excitement and a taste of another region’s narrow gauge history, come to the Sanders Station on Bridge Street in Phillips on Saturday and Sunday, July 20-21. Trains run on the hour on Saturday from 11 to 4 and on Sunday from 11 to 3. Fares are $6 for age 13 and up, $2 for under 13, and children 5 or younger ride for free. And if you care to, feel free to wear your Stetson and spurs.
Old Home Days Events
During August’s Old Home Days in Phillips, three special events will occur: Ice Cream Trains are set to run on Saturday and Sunday, August 10 and 11 (with free ice cream for all passengers); during the evenings on Friday and Saturday August 16 and 17, the nostalgic, lantern-lighted trains will make their nighttime runs; and a Civil War Reenactment will take place during the daytime runs on Saturday August 17. Fares for all rides remain the same.
For more information about operating schedule, including special events, visit the railroad’s web site at http://www.srrl-rr.org/.
