farmington railway museum
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Wiscasset, Waterville &
Farmington
Railway Museum SHEEPSCOT STATION, ALNA, MAINE 04535-0242
November/December 2002
fa
C onductor Frank Paul, engi neer Steve “uppa, and engine #5
ing a passenger train across Humason Brook. Photo by Bob Cavanagh
First Passenger Trains Cross Humason Brook On the night of Saturday, October 12, 2002, the first
WWA&F passenger train in nearly 70 years crossed over
Humason Brook, An evening train, pulled by steam engine #10, was run as both a special for the Columbus Day work
weekend volunteers and as a night operation refresher course for the operating crew. A passenger with an all-day ticket was aboard.
The work weekend volunteer crowd was smaller than anticipated, probably due to the threat of rain, Nevertheless, the volunteers put nearly all of the track built last fall into service, spiked down the rail on the trestle, and built and ballasted another 303 feet of new track. There was a steady stream of ballast trains all weekend long, using #10 pulling
the caboose and flatcar. On Friday, the first task was to line the curve approaching
the trestle from the south, 1.2. to put the curve in the correct
position (left/right). The next task was to ballast and surface (level) the track between the end of the in-service track and
the trestle, The track on the curve was firmly embedded in ballast up to the top of the rails, so there was some question as
to how we would move it over without several score of
volunteers pushing on bars. Fortunately, Leon Weeks came
through with some heavy-duty come-alongs borrowed from
his employer. These pulled the track over with no effort. This
loosened things up enough that a few people on bars could
fine-tune the curve. Properly positioning the curve was amuch
quicker effort than anticipated, leaving lots of time for ballasting
and lifting the approximately 5(M) feet of track laid last year.
Early on Saturday morning, crews were out spiking the rail to the trestle. Once that was done, Dana Deering led the crew laying new track, and Steve Zuppa led the ballasting crew, Ballast was put out on the remainder of track laid last year. Then, once the proper amount of blocking was in place on the new track, the ballast trains started going oul on the new track,
There were about 40 people present on Saturday. Sunday morning was dry, but rain moved in during the
afternoon, and many of the volunteers that had come long
distances left. Still, it was less wet at the north end than at the
station; there was a steady rain at Sheepscot, but only a drizzle
at the trestle. Crews ballasted nearly to the end of track in the
Visit our web page at: http-/iwww.wwtry.org
morning, then surfaced and tamped from the trestle north 200)
feet.
Monday's crew, again somewhat smaller than the previous day, tamped the curve approaching the trestle. About noon,
the fires on #10 were dropped, and many took a hike north along the right-of-way, up and down “the mountain,” and across
Carleton Brook to where the right-of-way crosses Route 218,
In addition to the improved efficiency provided by the
come-alongs that Leon Weeks supplied, two other things sped our work - an additional loader and excellent grading.
Fred Morse brought his loader to augment the museum's front end loader just in case our loader gave trouble. With both loaders working, Zack Wyllie and Fred could load the flatear with ballast in just 1% minutes.
It would not have been possible to lay so much new track
without the excellent grading job done by Hanley Construction and some museum members that were also employees of Hanley’s. The grading was done from Trask’s road south to where track laying stopped last year. The Hanley crew brought ina roller that compacted the ground and provided us with a smooth, hard, even surface on which to lay track. This was so
helpful that we will be bringing in Hanley Construction to grade the next section of roadbed toward Alna Center.
Nutritional and morale support was given by Clarissa
Percival and John McNamara on Friday, and by Sue and Beth Longo the remainder of the weekend. Sue put ona giant feast for the hungry troops at every meal, with some of the food
donated by the volunteers.
In other news around the museum, the shop building has a
fresh-coat of yellow paint thanks to Boothbay Regional High
School (see page 6), and our Halloween train rides were once again well attended despite a heavy rain (see page 7).
by James Patten
A group of volunteers led Steve Zuppa lines the track immediately north of Humason Brook Trestle
Recent Gifts to the Museum
We are pleased to report that several members and friends have donated railroad artifacts to the museum. Charter Member Jane Tucker gave us six old public timetables from
Midwestern railroads, Life Members donated the following items: Harry Crooker
gave us salvaged 604 and 654 rail with joint bars. Much of this material has since been installed, John Lauer donated a 1930 Maine Atlas map, and Allan Fisher gave the Seth Thomas
Regulator #2 wall clock that now hangs in the Sheepscot
station. Win Nowell gave us 20) Bé:M Railroad manuals from
the 1920 through 1950 period. Malcolm and Mary Hunt donated a number of switch keys, railroad books, and two- font railway timetables,
Annual Members donated the following items: Gary Recave gave us a large number of track tools that were
immediately used during the recent tracklaying weekend, Dave
MacDonald gave two steam gauges and a single-chime steam whistle, while Nat Wilson gave a rare book, “Catechism of
the Locomotive.” Arthur and Dorie French donated an antique
railroad switch lamp. J, Kenneth Lincoln, Sr. gave an old
WW&F oil can, a Turner Dairy cream can, old waybills, and a notebook used by former WW&F president Sam Sewall.
Friends of the museum donated the following items: Steve
Hussar gave a 19° TV/VCR, and David Chase gave WW&F
siding rails, a boxcar center truck pivot, a sheave, and joint bars. We apologize if any of your recent gifts have not been included in the above (October) listing; please remind us and
we will add your gifts to a future list.
fy Allan Fisher
Photo by Bob Cavanaugh
2002 Fund Drive Off to Flying Start
As of November 11th, the Museum's Annual Pund Drive
had reached over $20,000, or better than two-thirds of our goal
of $30,000. Average donations this year have been running
higher than previous years, and this bodes well for achieving our fund-raising goal, ordering Number 9's boiler next spring,
Jason Lamontagne is preparing Number 10 for running gear and cosmetic changes. Zack Wyllie and crew are working hard
to complete the machine shop, and a contractor has been hired to finish erading the nght of way to Alna Center, Your continued generosity will greatly help these and other projects.
and funding additional track work next year.
E. Davies Allan
Dean Allen
Jim Amiate
David Ashenden
James Ashton
James Auman
James Balano
Clarence Ballard
Kent Barker
George Bartlett
Mark Baytala Terry Beal
Fred Bergmann Paul Berry
Jan Bijhouwer James Bocock
John Boardman
Richard Bourdon
John Bradbury Ken Brink
Morrison Brinker
Nick Brown
John Cameron Brown, Jr
Mr & Mrs James H. Brown
RT Brown
Gurden Buck
Robert Buck
Forrest Bunker
George Burdick
Duncan Burns Jr
Martin Butler
William Butler
Benjamin Campbell John Campbell
Sumner Carlson
Richard Carroll
Wilfred Chesebrough Richard Chiodo
Jim Church
R. Richard Conard
Steven Conard
Stephen Corson
O.R. Cummings
David Cummins
Charles Davis
Phillip DeChene Joseph Devonshire
Jack DiSarro
Mernll Donahue
Downeast Railroad Club
Richard Durant
Robert Edgar
Wes Enman
Robert Emerson
Wes Ewell
Gordon Fay
Michael Francoeur
George Freeman Arthur & Dore French
Allen Gagnon (Red's Eats)
Warren Gay Timothy Gilligan
Robert Glinick MD
Charlie Goodwin
Charles Googins
Dorothy Googins Martelle Gordon
Samuel Guild
Karl Gustafson
Pred Haggett
Vie Hamburger
Tony Hannold
John Hansen
Tracy Hastings
Jim Hayes Rebecca Hayes
John Hilton
Thomas Hinkle
F. Berkley Hobart
Robert Hogan
Perry Hood
William Horton
Robert Howard
Paul Hughes Thomas Hughes
Charles Jakobsen
Paul Kehoe
Ben Kittredge
June Koeppe Michael Kohutek
Wayne Langbehn Denneth Lee
Cliff Leighton
Rocco Longo
RE. Lyon & Son David MacDonald
Donors as of November 11 include:
Ken Maguire
John Manley
Donald E. Martin
Andrew Matthews
JR. May
Chris McChesney
Robert McGuire
Steve & Betty Messer
Walter Miete
Harold Mitchell
Robert Moffatt
Channing Morse
Fred Morse
James Morse
Greg Nazarow
David Newman
Winford Nowell
Douglas O'Dell Dean Odiorne
Cliff Olson
Walter Orloff
Francis Parker
James Pasquill I
Phyllis Patten Gerard Paul
Robert Payne
Thatcher Pinkham
Jeffrey Plate
David Porter
Creorge Pouder Steven Provencher
Harold Raymond
Gary Recave William Ree
Joseph Reid
FE. Reeves
Bill Reidy
Frank Rende
Charles Reynolds
Gerald Richards
Warren Ringer
Malcolm Robbins
Edwin Robertson
John Robertson
Avard Rogers
Bill & Sue Sample Wally Schmunk
Morton Schoenberg DDS
William Secor
John Sharood
Robert Shaw
Vernon Shaw
Kenneth Sidelinger
Scott Sidelinger Richard Sisson
Ralph Smart
Lewis Smith
Priscilla & David Smith
Ralph Smith Gary Sodergren
Wayne Sornberger John Spelce
Royal Spencer Russell Steeves
Sharon Stevens
Russell St John
Stanley & Marion Strout Julius Stuck IIT
Jack Sutton
Ralph Sweeney
James Taggart
John Thornton
Christopher Thorp
Henry Tinkham
Frank Trask
Thomas Travis
Paul & Judy Trudeau
Jane Tucker
Everett Turner, Jr
Martin Van Horn
Harry Wagner II
Ellis Walker
Bob & Effie Wallace
F. Van Worner Walsh
Ron Wartinbee
Bill Wheeler
Grant Whipple
James Wiggin
Richard Wittebarg
Leon Wood
Allan Woollett
Charles Young
Mr & Mrs William
Zamagni Heman “apt
2-Foot Musing No. 3 Those of you who read this column more or less regularly
may have noticed that I lean a lot on “speculation” in the
absence of hard facts, and so it is this time as I try to conjure
up a connection between the WW &F and the Monson Railroad.
At first glance it doesn't seem very likely because the closest the two railroads got to each other was about 43 miles as the
crow flies between Albion and Monson Junction, or 38 miles
if you considerthat the WéaeQ reached the outskirts of Burnham. However, a closer examination of the histones of these two
railroads shows the possibility of a connection.
According to Bob Jones in Two Feet to Tidewater, when
the Wiscasset and Quebec reached Burnham, the intent was to
continue on parallel to the Maine Central to Pittsfield. Here they were ta connect with the Sebasticook & Moosehead
Railroad, a struggling eight mile standard gauge short line that
extended from Pittsfield in a westerly direction to the village of Hartland. The $&M was to be narrowed to two feet and the line extended north to a connection with the Canadian Pacific
at Brownville Junction. The promoters of the W&Q seemed to
have the idea that they could siphon off a lot of Canadian export
traffic to the port of Wiscasset. This was really a pipe dream because, as Bob Jones points out, it was very unlikely that the Canadians would bypass the ports of Halifax and St. John for
an American port.
Anyway, this all happened around 1894, and as we all know,
the Wide? never even made it into Burnham, and the $4:M
was taken over by the Maine Central in 1911. So where did the
Monson fit into this, you may ask, To answer that question we drop back a few years to 1886. The Monson Railroad had been
built a few years earlier to carry slate from the quarries around
Monson to the standard gauge Bangor & Piscataquis Railroad at Monson Junction. Like all other railroads in that era, the
Monson got the expansion bug. As Roger Whitney describes
it in The Monson Railroad, the Monson was going to extend
their line north to a connection with the Canadian Pacific at
Greenville, There was also to be an extension south from
Monson Junction to a minuscule village called Wellington.
At the same time, the Sebasticook & Moosehead was to extend their track to connect with the Monson at Wellington,
which would give them u line to Greenville on Moosehead Lake, What kind of traffic was going to flow between Pittsfield
and Greenville has not been recorded, but in those days just
having a railroad was supposed to make everyone's fortune, sort of like the dotcoms of our day.
Now we come to the speculation part. Looking at the map,
it would seem to me that the W&Q would have been better off following the old Monson survey north from Hartland to reach
the Canadian Pacific at Greenville instead of Brownville Junction, In the first place, Greenville was 33 miles closer to
Montreal and the West where all the traffic was to come from. Secondly, the route had been surveyed, and the Monson trackage was already laid, witha few more miles graded south of Monson Junction. Thirdly, some of the Monson’s slate
business could have found its way down to Wiscasset for shipment to the big cities via coastal schooners. Lastly,
Greenville was a much better jumping off spot for Quebec
City than Brownville Junction.
It is hard to believe that the W&Q people didn’t know about
the earlier Monson scheme. So why didn't they take advantage of the Monson route instead of planning to meander through the wilderness to Brownville Junction? [think that by the time
the WéQ had laid track to the outskirts of Burnham, the idea of building through to Quebec had lost a lot of its luster. The fact that the W&Q made only a feeble attempt to cross the
Maine Central at Burnham would tend to support this conjecture. They already had their eye on a connection to the Sandy River, which was a lot closer. [f that were the case,
Brownville Junction was as good a place as any to aim for in
their promotional literature. To wrap this Musing up, | have to say that no matter how
hard I “speculate,” I can’t really make a connection between the WéeQ and the Monson, but it was fun going through the
exercise.
by Ellis Walker
Sebasticook & Moosehead Railroad #2 with a passenger tram
Photegrapher waknewn
Monson #3 with a carload of slate at Monson Junction, Could we have seen cars like this passing over the WW&P to Wiscasset?
Postcard reproduction; photographer unknown
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Students from Boothbay Regional “Project Graduation” paint the engine house,
Phate by Eric Larsen
Student Project Aids Museum
On Sunday, October 20th, students from Boothbay Regional
High School's “Project Graduation,” members of the local
Prudential Financial office, and members of the WW&F Railway Museum teamed up to provide a volunteer workday
at the museum.
Sunday morning there were 20 students and many of their
parents at the station, eager to work. After a brief meeting in
coach 3, the group was given a train ride up north of the trestle.
Upon theirreturn, the participants split into two groups: painters and track crew, Stewart Rhine was the painting foreman, and
Fred Morse led the track crew.
Alter recenving buckets and broushes, the painters went right
to work. While the students painted the lower portion of the engine house, some of their parents set up staging to reach the
top, The group started on the front and west side, and painted around to the back. They worked at a rapid pace until about
noon when the muscum provided a cookout lunch for all of the
workers. After lunch, the painting crew completed the east side and north end. The entire building was painted in just four
anda half hours, which may be a museum record,
While the painters were at work, the track crew laid
approximately 100 feet of crushed stone along the tracks by the machine shop and carried 150 railroad ties to the end of the line where they will be used for future track extension.
The effort was even more successful than the most optimistic projections. Thankfully the weather cooperated, and
a perfectly cool Maine autumn day helped make everything go smoothly. Hopefully the participants enjoyed themselves sufficiently that several will return as museum volunteers.
The project was part of Prudential Financial's “Global
Volunteer Day and Challenge Grant” program, which seeks to offer a helping hand to local non-profit organizations like
Project Graduation, In addition to the museum's receiving the benefit of all of this help, Project Graduation will receive a
$1,000 donation from Prudential Financial for their donation
of time.
Adam Maguire, owner of the local Prudential Financial franchise in Boothbay, sponsored the event. He and his associate Eric Larsen, a museum member, felt that taking
Prudential’s “Global Volunteer” program a step further to
benefit not only one, bul bwo non-profil groups was a great
way to contribute to the local community. Special thanks vo out to all that participated and to those
who helped make this project a success. The students now have an understanding of Maine's unique narrow gauge history, and
the WW&F Railway Muscum now has an engine house that is
well sealed for the winter.
by Eric Larsen and C. Stewart Rhine
In Memoriam
It is with great sadness that we learn of the deaths of Frederick
Bergmann, Lawrence “Brownie” Brown, and Frank C. Menair ['V. Each was a wonderful contributor to the museum's work, and we will miss each of them greatly. Our condolences 2o out those they have left behind.
Last Steam of the Year - Victorian Christmas - December 21! The WW & F Railway Museum will offerits second annual Victorian Christmas celebration on Saturday, December 21. As with the first event last year, steam trains will run all day, Horse-drawn wagon or sleigh rides and a magic candy tree are planned, In the evening, there will be a potluck supper in the freight house, All events will be free, and if last year’s abundance of food is any indication for this year, even those who do not contribute food to the potluck should feel free to purtuke.
On a rainy Saturday evening, October 26th, area residents enjoyed free rides on the WW&F Halloween trains. During 242 hours, there were 267 riders, At the end of the evening, “witch” Brenda Sisson rode back to Sheepscot from Sutter's Crossing, where she had stirred a witch's brew in a large cauldron over an open fire.
Phote by Jolin McNamara
To join the W.W.&F. Ry. Museum or to send a contribution (tax deductible) please use the form below, ———— ee eee
Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum Sheepscot Station, Alna, Maine 04535-0242
Please sign me up as follows:
Life Membership ...........0.00... (1 $200.00 #9 Fund
Annual Membership ............. O $20.00 Additional Contribution
Receipt Requested __
NAME
ADDRESS
ZIP
(Please make checks payable to “W.W.&F. Ry. Museum.”)
|
A week before Columbus Day, a procession of volunteers carries ties to the end of the line, while
almost out of sight on the far right, Dan Newman works to extend the magneto telephone system. Photo by Bob Cavanegh
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