KENNEBUNKPORT — One of the twists of history is that while abandoned railroad tracks line the outskirts of many towns, the trolley lines, which were a more everyday form of transit at the turn of the century, are almost completely absent.

According to Herbert Pence, a trustee at the Seashore Trolley Museum, this is because trolley lines ran through urban centers, bringing people to sell livestock and other goods, and were converted into roads as they were superseded by cars.

Pence is behind a new book that affixes the vibrant geography of Maine’s trolley lines. “The Illustrated Atlas of Maine’s Street & Electric Trolleys” includes the meticulous work of two trolley enthusiasts: one, a firefighter who hand-drew maps of the ailing trolley lines, and another, a copy editor at the Manchester Union-Leader who meticulously annotated each of the maps.

This collaboration wasn’t always destined for publication. Amber Tatnall, library director of York County Community College, who edited the book, said that the first time she saw what became the manuscript was in a tattered threering binder. The Seashore Trolley Museum Library Committee regularly met at the YCCC Library to try and archive the thousands of files in their possession, and Tatnall said on one occasion O.R. Cummings, a man who published over 50 books on electric trolleys, placed the binder full of handwritten notes on the table as a reference.

“He said, ‘While you’re doing the trolley cars, this may come in handy.’ It was full of maps and data, so it was obvious to me as a librarian it was a gold mine. … The thing just called out to me. It touched me like, ‘Wow, this is so cool.’ Someone put this work in and nobody had seen it,” she said.

Cummings had spent years constructing a narrative over drawings by Charles Heseltine, who drew the geography of the electric trolley lines over the natural features of Maine in 41 “plates” that covered the vast southern and central trolley networks. Both unfortunately died before they saw the book published.

Tatnall had previously worked with the Library Committee on a shorter book on the phenomenon of trolley recreation parks – end-of-the-line amusements that encouraged people to get out of the city for a day – and quickly realized that the binder should become a book.

She got her staff of work study students to scan and work on the manuscript while she did the formatting and a colleague produced the cover. In all, it took three years to publish the book, which reproduced the original drawings and Cummings’ extensive historical notes on each line, while also including photos and post cards of the region depicted.

“I think there’s enough pictures that we tried to (use) so someone who lived in Auburn or Old Orchard Beach can say, ‘Oh my god,’” Tatnall said. “It’s this cool, kind of time-shift thing that appeals to me.”

For Pence, it was the drastic change that trolleys brought to the everyday lives of Mainers that fascinated him.

“The children could go to a consolidated school and get a better education … and they could get on the streetcar and ride to the hospital. It had a profound impact of the lives of the people of Maine,” he said.

The Library Committee plans to use the proceeds from this book to fund yet another one; while they have not made a decision, they have several ideas including some from Cummings’ archives.

Pence had high praise for the late trolley enthusiast.

“He was a prolific writer. … He had the accountant’s knack for detail. It all came together in that man,” he said.