GRAY – After more than a year contemplating a move out of downtown Portland, the board of directors for the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad voted Tuesday night to relocate its museum and historic train service, and a Gray landowner said it is headed to the Lakes Region.

“It’s a go,” Dan Craffey, owner of Gray Plaza, confirmed Wednesday. Craffey owns an empty lot next to the plaza where he said the railroad will be located. “We’ve got a lot left to work on but we’re excited and it’s going to work out unbelievable for everyone.”

The railroad group, however, is not ready to reveal the winning site. Brian Durham, vice president of the board, said the final decision has been made but he’s not willing to go public quite yet, saying he needed time to inform the towns that failed to lure the railroad.

“We decided we’re going to move forward with one community exclusively,” Durham said Wednesday, “and we have picked that community.”

However, in an interview before the decision Tuesday night, Durham said, “It looks like Gray is going to be the best fit.”

While Durham was mum as to the final decision, saying an official announcement would probably come next week, Craffey said the group has been in negotiations with him for the empty lot he owns on Route 100 between the Gray Plaza and a nearby golf driving range.

Gray officials have been trying to lure the railroad to town for about a year now after the company put out a call for interested partner-communities in October 2010. Other towns to seek out the railroad included Bridgton and Monson. Gray has been considered a leading candidate for the railroad’s relocation since it offers a site that already includes a rail line, which would need rehabilitation, and is centrally located beside the Maine Turnpike, with easy access to Portland, Freeport and Lewiston.

According to George Thebarge, an economic development consultant for Gray whom Craffey credits with successfully luring the railroad to town, the railroad represents a “tremendous opportunity” for the town and would stimulate tourism.

Thebarge said the town performed a feasibility study and identified Route 100 below the village as an ideal location for the railroad’s operations, which would likely include a museum, gift shop, administration office, presentation space and a rail yard where storing and renovation of engines and cars could take place.

Thebarge also said the town’s taxpayers would not be on the hook for any of the relocation expenses.

“The company is very sound financially, and there has been no request or expectation that the town will pay for it,” he said.

Craffey, who owns Moose Landing Marina in Naples and bought Gray Plaza earlier this year, said there are several hoops still to navigate, including negotiating with Central Maine Power, which controls the existing rail line behind the Gray Plaza. The line, part of the Interurban Rail Line that ran from Portland to Lewiston up until the 1930s, is used as an ATV and snowmobile trail, so negotiations will need to take place with the local clubs as well, Craffey said.

Craffey said the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad is set to lease space in empty units at Gray Plaza that will provide a “temporary home” as the company erects several buildings in the area between the Plaza and Tee ‘Em Up driving range.

“This is going to be a big tourism draw. It’s going to bring a lot of people into Gray,” Craffey said.

Thebarge said the railroad, with its rides and museum, would couple well with the family-friendly Maine Wildlife Park, which is also located in Gray and already brings in thousands of annual visitors.

“There’s a logical connection between the two, and this could really help both organizations,” Thebarge said.

Thebarge also said the location of the railroad in the Gray Plaza “certainly would be a huge stimulus for the shopping center,” which in recent years has lost tenants.

But most importantly, he said Gray, which is known as the “Crossroads of Maine” with routes 26, 115, 100 and the turnpike crisscrossing through Gray Center, would benefit from the railroad since it would get people to come to town, not just pass through.

“Getting a destination right in Gray Village will have a ripple effect,” Thebarge said. “But it’s going to be a long process, and this is only the first step.”

The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad, now based in Portland, has been
looking for a potential new home for more than a year. The board of
directors voted to pursue one location on Tuesday. Though the group
is now revealing the winner yet, the owner of the Gray Plaza said
the first choice is a lot next to the Route 100 shopping center.
(File photo)