INSPECTION, PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. Section 114, chapter 51, of the Revised Statutes, directs that the Board, "annually, between the first of April and October, and at any other time on application or whenever they think necessary, shall carefully examine the tracks, rolling stock, bridges, viaducts and culverts of all railroads." Having made the necessary examinations, the Board find, as will be seen more fully by the following statements of the condition of each railroad, that all are safe for their traffic, and that very general improvements have been made. STANDARD GAUGE STEAM RAILROADS. THE BANGOR AND AROOSTOOK RAILROAD. The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad extends from Old Town to Limestone with branches from their main line, from Milo Junction to Greenville; Aroostook Junction to Katahdin Iron Works; Ashland Junction to Ashland and Fort Fairfield Junction to Fort Fairfield. Their trains are now running under an arrangement with the Maine Central Railroad between Old Town and Bangor into the Maine Central stations at Bangor. The road-bed from Aroostook Junction to Caribou has now become well settled, and as it has been well cared for, the track is in good line and surface, well ballasted and rides well. The trains are enabled to make as fast time over it as over any other track in the State. The Ashland branch is in excellent condition and doing a heavy freight business with quite as large passenger business, as was anticipated by the promoters of the line. On this branch a lighter rail was used than that on the main line, but it is kept well ballasted and in good alignment and surface. The Fort Fairfield branch is in like good condition. The bridges on this part of the line are comparatively new and were built by some of the best builders in the country and have been well maintained; a very large proportion of them being steel structures. On the line from Old Town to Greenville, which is the old Bangor and Piscataquis line, great improvements have been made in road-bed and track, especially above Blanchard. New seventy pound steel, in quantity about twelve hundred tons and about thirty thousand ties, with twenty-five thousand yards of ballast have been re-laid during the year. It is now in good line and surface and rides well. Bridges have been renewed in such numbers as to make their enumeration in this report out of the question. Something of an idea of the change that has been going on is demonstrated by the photographs re-produced in this report. In every instance where improvements in bridges has been undertaken it has been carried out in a very substantial manner. Four stone arches from eight to twelve foot span have replaced as many bridges that were not of the very best. A large quantity of steel pipe has been used in replacing culverts, something over twenty in number. The wooden bridges all along the line have been repaired more or less, and in some cases quite extensively; so that to-day they are very substantial structures and fully equal to carrying any of the traffic over these lines. On the whole Bangor and Aroostook system the station buildings, taken as a whole, are modern structures and well maintained in all respects. On the Bangor and Piscataquis division, nearly all the stations have been put in thorough repair and are now as good as those of any road. The rolling stock of the Bangor and Aroostook Road is firstclass in all respects and is well maintained. The company purchased their freight equipment within a few years and took the precaution to have it equipped with the automatic coupler, as. required by the United States law, and most of it with the air brakes. So that out of twelve hundred and eighty-one freight cars operated by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, twelve hundred and ten have automatic couplers and six hundred and |