“This is a tremendous event for the Maine Highlands and Greenville. The investment they’ve made in Greenville will have benefits many years from now,” John Holden of the Eastern Maine Development Council and the Maine Highlands, said Sunday.

Indeed, the next day cash registers were dinging throughout the community as passengers bought souvenirs and gifts. At the Corner Shop, Cheryl Carpenter spent Monday ringing up purchases of postcards and novelties selected by passengers.

The inaugural trip of the luxury passenger train that features refurbished Victorian-era railroad cars had been expected to arrive at 4 p.m. Sunday in Greenville. The arrival time changed several times because of a combination of events that included a startup delay, an unanticipated delay at customs in Jackman and track conditions that required reduced speeds, according to Bill Braley, vice president of marketing for Acadian Railway.

“It was very successful; we knew we were going to be going slow, but we didn’t anticipate an extra three hours,” Braley said of the inaugural run. He called the delay unfortunate, especially since many local people had turned out for the earlier arrival time. This is the first time since 1994 that a passenger train has traveled the tracks through the Moosehead Lake region. There are always problems encountered on inaugural runs and these will be corrected, he said.

It took much effort over more than three years by John “Randy” Parten, the developer and president of the railway, to iron out the details of the excursion train. Parten told economic development officials at a reception in his honor Monday that the project involved negotiations with three trains, two countries and seven railroads.

“We’ve had a great outpouring of support from Piscataquis County and the state of Maine for starting this project; this is really quite overwhelming,” Parten said, after accepting a proclamation from Greenville officials. “We’re going to give it our best effort.”

Parten plans to operate excursions 14 weeks of the year, from June through September, between Montreal and Saint John, New Brunswick, with a two-day stopover in Greenville twice a week.

Parten’s effort was praised Monday by Department of Transportation Commissioner John Melrose, who participated on the inaugural run and paid for his own expenses, unlike many of the other passengers. About one-half of the passengers were travel writers for large media outlets throughout the country who were invited for a free ride, and the rest were paying customers.

Parten’s rail tours to the Northeast United States and eastern Canada over the summer are a piece of the Explore Maine puzzle, a move to bring large amounts of visitors to the state without the traffic congestion, according to the commissioner. “I think they’re on to something special,” he said.

Melrose, who called the ride smooth and enjoyable, said the beauty of the region was awe-inspiring. “The views were spectacular,” he said, especially from the observation car.

In addition to the end observation car, which is surrounded by windows, the train features a dome diner car, a parlor car, three coaches, and a kitchen car where all the food preparation is conducted by an executive chef and a pastry chef onboard. In addition to the cooks, there are about 18 other employees onboard.

Four other Victorian cars eventually will be added as they are refurbished and rebuilt to meet federal rail standards, Braley said. Everything mechanical will be replaced and any missing or broken features will be hand-milled and re-created. “What you really have is grand classic equipment restored,” he said, noting that the cars were the last in the series built by the Budd Co.

Comfort is key to the train, which has plush seats that offer ample legroom and first-class dining rooms on two levels. Although the train seats 450 people, only up to 220 are taken on a trip to give passengers plenty of room. “It’s a very different concept of using a train in comparison to the traditional mode of packing everyone in seats,” Braley said. It is, he said, a train run like a cruise ship on rail.

“It’s just a great thing for this town,” said Moon Mullins, a visitor to the region from Wilmington, Del., who waited at the station Sunday for the train. Gripping a small American flag in his hands, Mullins said he was willing to share this paradise with others.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Tuesday, June 11, 2002 edition of the Bangor Daily NEWS and is used here with permission."