Who Am I? or, Let's Introduce Ourselves

[Glenn Byron]

Hello All,  I'm Glenn Byron from up the WW&F line in Smithfield, Maine.  We've been Waitin' for a Train for a long time, say about 110 years. I've been hanging around our Museum and especially the Discussion Forum for several years and think it's time to introduce myself. I'm 68 and semi retired with a little more time to devote to hobby activities.  Antique autos have been my side line for more than half a century.  I've restored several including a National First Place '53 Mercury Convertible, studied the history and production methods of several models, written club publication articles for the many national groups I belong to, and generally made myself into an autoholic, especially anything related to Willys Jeeps.  I am heavily involved in The Stanley Museum, Kingfield, ME., as a Steam Team Volunteer.  We try to keep the steam cars operational for the many activities and functions The Stanley Museum promotes.  This week I went to the Mt. Washington Base Lodge, picked up their 1899 Locomobile and brought it to The Stanley Museum for our Steam Team to prepare for the 150 year celebration this summer of the opening of the Mt. Washington Auto Road. Steam automobiles have always fascinated me and being involved at the museum has kept me from owning one. We tinker alot and ride a little, but moving under the power of steam is a thrill all should enjoy.  A casual coffee shop conversation with an elderly gentleman a few years ago got me into the narrow gauge railroad fold.  " Talked once with a fellow who claimed he worked on the railroad in Smithfield" this old fellow said.  Now, I knew there were plans to extend the WW&F to Farmington, and was familiar with the Muddy Brook Crossing in New Sharon, but had never seen or heard of railroad work in Smithfield.  The quest was on and my postings on the Discussion Forum titled FS&K show the results thus far of my research. I've enjoyed meeting several other WW&F Members and am in awe of our wonderful organization. We are so fortunate to have a site such as this to share. Train due when?

[Peter D. Verheyen]

Hello,
My family and I have been coming to the WW&F for many years now (my wife and I are life members) and really enjoy watching it grow. My wife's parents live in Walpole/Damariscotta so enjoying the WW&F has been very easy. In 2003 I took the steam course at Boothbay and was happy to fire for two days in 2004. I've posted a bunch of videos on my YouTube channel and enjoy reliving those experiences.

I love the opportunities offered by WW&F and Boothbay (Both very different but equal in my heart). That said, I'm a German prototype-based model railroader in H0 and N whose favorite material for structures is card. I've used this very successfully to scratchbuild all the structures on my n-scale modular layout and many on my permanent H0 layout. On the H0 layout I'm slowly in the process of redoing the more urban areas with structures more appropriate to the urban industrialized areas of the Ruhr or East(ern) Germany.

Back to WW&F, a big special thanks goes to the volunteers who with little/no notice switched the caboose into the first train of the morning so that I could ride the train - I need a scooter to get around now and could not have climbed in/out of the other cars safely. Made a fun trip overall perfect.

I look forward to reading here,

Peter

[Terry Church]

Hi All, Terry Church here from southeast North Carolina. I've been hooked on railroads longer than I can remember. Do have a fondness for steam, marvel at the engineering from the 1800's. My dad's family had a camp on Rangeley and remember looking across the town cove to the old Marbles station. Found Linwood Moody's book in the Rangeley library and that was the beginning of a 50 year love affair with narrow gauge. Thought I would pick up modelling again but this time in on30, fingers & eyesight aren't like they used to be, not much going on with that now. Years back I felt that the one line was the SR&RL RR, but now I can't get enough info of any of the Maine two footers. I do wish I lived closer to do "hands on" help, but that's the way it is. Guess I have been in North Carolina for a while, still have "Wilmington & Weldon", the forerunner of the Atlantic Coast Line standard guage, burned in my brain when I see WW & F in print. I plan on visiting the museum this October, looking forward to seeing everything.

[Arttu Manninen]

Hello from Scandinavia! We are almost neighbours, just Russia, Alaska and Canada between us...I've been n.g. enthusiast ever since my brother took me to a walk in peat bog in 1976. We found the remains of a peat-processing plant, and importantly, a forgotten 600mm railroad, dissappering in the vegetation. My life was changed! Even now I have narrow gauge tracks in my yard and our annual supply of firewood is stored in little narrow gauge trucks. I have two small i.c. locomotives, both incomplete basket cases. And the house we live in; it's a State Railway switchman's house from 1899.
One hour's drive away there is the Jokioinen n.g. preserved line with working steam, oldest of the bunch being a 0-6-0 Porter (750mm gauge). A beautiful engine!
I also collect historic bicycles and have two WWII GMC cckw military trucks.

Great to be on a great forum!

[Arttu Manninen]

I almost, and, in fact, totally forgot to mention the country: Finland. I'm located near Tampere, in southern Finland.

Arttu

[Steve Smith]

Welcome to our Forum, Arttu. Perhaps sometime you can post photo(s) of the Jokioinen narrow gauge?

[Arttu Manninen]

I will try to do it! The line in Jokioinen started in1899 with two Porter-built 0-4-4 Forneys (15 ton) 1745 resp. 1746/1897. Sadly, the locos were scrapped in 1952/53, but the memory lives. Maybe someday a replica steams on the old track...

[Brett Goertemoeller]

Hey everyone,
  My name is Brett and I just joined the forum today.  I have always been very interested in the 2' equipment, especially the trench equipment and Combat Railway Operations Battalions (S&DE) from WWI and WWII.  I haven't been up to Alna in quite a few years.  Since I last saw everyone in about 1999 I went to railroad school and have worked at a few different railroads.  I hope to be able to help out in any way that I can, and would be most interested in the steam side of things.  I have machining experiance, and access to a full shop at a railroad I volunteer at now.  Would love to come up and meet everyone sometime, and chat.  Look forward to a lot of good discussions here on the forum.

P.S.  Thanks Ed for giving me the "boost" to join over here. 

See you on the threads!

Brett

[MRFS]

S'pose I'd better introduce myself, as my account has been approved.

First off, I have to say that MRFS is now my full name - I changed it by deed poll more than a decade ago.

I'm currently living in Canterbury, UK in the 'Garden of England' - you'll usually find me active under this moniker on a London Underground forum and a UK-based signalling forum. Occasional chuch bellringer and District Secretary for the Canterbury and Thanet area (the bit of Kent that is further east than nearly all of the UK.

Interests in the narrow gauge are wide and varied, I used to be permanent staff on the Talyllyn Railway www.talyllyn.co.uk, doing many things from guarding/ticket clerk/Control to finishing and striping the engines and carriages. I do pop up on other ng fora, but using a different handle.

I will have a couple of questions in due course, largely about the F&M and the SR&RL.

[Ricky Imparato]

Hello everyone, I'm Ricky from Long Island New York
I'm 17 years old and a senior in high school currently and volunteer at the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum. Check us out http://www.obrm.org/ . We’re currently trying to restore Pennsylvania Railroad built Long Island Railroad class G5 steam locomotive #35.
I've been into trains for as long as I can remember. It all started with Thomas the Tank Engine in the early 1990s and progressed from there. My first glimpse at real steam was at the Strasburg Railroad back in 1998, and ever since then, I have been hooked.
How I became interesting in the Maine 2 foot railroads is a story in itself.
My family owns a very small house up in Wells Maine near moody beach. We come up there in the summer for a week or 2 and sometimes even in the winter and rent the house when we aren’t there. My parents as nice as they are, heard about a place called "The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad" and decided to take me there when I was about 8 or 9. I remember when I first got there, I was excited to see all of the cars and the station. When the small diesel pulled in, I was a tiny bit disappointed it wasn’t a steamer, but not for long because I did enjoy diesels too. What a scenic ride it was. I remember the engineer let me into the cab to look around. We exchanged a few words I'll never forget.
I asked him "How old is this engine?"
He replied "Brand new"
I questioned further by saying "what year was it made?"
His answer was "1949!"
It’s those kinds of things that stick out in my mind and make it a great experience. After the train ride, I don’t remember if it was the same guy or not, but someone there overheard me talking about steam engines and came up to me asking if I wanted to see the engine. I was ecstatic. He took me into a shed big enough to fir 2 locomotives. This was back in 2003 or 2004 so I don’t exactly remember what 2 they were. Either way, it was an amazing experience that always will stick out in my mind.
I've made a few more trips to the Maine narrow gauge railroad over the years as well as a other Maine narrow gauge railroads. I visited the Boothbay harbor railroad 3 years ago and attempted to visit the Wiscasset Waterville and Farmington, but it was closed.
In recent years, I've been reading up a lot on Maine narrow gauge roads, both old and new and realized how interesting the history behind it all is. I also fell in love with WW&F #10 around this time I plan to make the trip up there as soon as I can.

[Bill Sample]

Welcome to the forum!  Due to the hard work of the many volunteers at the WW&F and the other 2-foot operations in Maine you have a lot more going on than I could find when I was your age.  Back in 1967 when I turned 17 I will always remember a Christmas season trip to the old Edaville where all four of their ex Maine narrow gauge locomotives were hard at work but that was about it then.  There may have been a Boothbay then but no WW&F, SR&RL, or Maine Narrow Gauge operations. Back in those days there was little written on the Maine 2-footer history outside of Linwood Moody's classic - now look at the dozens and dozens of books and magazines that cover our favorite topic, not to mention the videos.
So, although virtually all of the former employees of the original 5 Maine 2-footers are gone and the original remnants are over 40 years more decayed and overgrown or obliterated than they were back in '67, I would say that this is the second golden age of the Maine 2-footers and this is a really good time to enjoy it!

[Bruce Mohn]

Hi All:

I'm Bruce.  I've been interested in trains my entire life, both prototype and model.  I discovered narrow gauge in the late seventies thanks to a gift of books from a family friend.  That has been my primary focus, with most of my reading and modeling being in Eastern prototypes and industrial and plantation railroads.  I live in NJ, which really isn't known for its narrow gauge, but there have been a number of industrial, plantation and mining railroads here.  There are still remnants of 60 cm WWI surplus equipment to be found in the cranberry plantations scattered around Ocean and Burlington County.  Farmers at the Double Trouble Bog and Whites Bog used 60 cm panel track and dump cars to build up the dikes around the bogs.  Double Trouble had a small locomotive based on a Model A Ford.

The two footers of Maine and elsewhere have been an interest since the 1970s and the Frary and Hayden series.  I really like the imagery of narrow tracks and small, but massive locomotives wider than the gauge.  I can't say that any one two footer is a favorite, but I have followed the revitalization of the WW&F with great interest.

I have modeled in HOn30 and currently am modeling in O, On3, On30 and Sn2.

[Donovan Gray]

I'm an engineer/conductor and assistant trainmaster on the Maine Narrow Gauge RR.  I moved to Portland summer of 2010 from Washington state, where I was involved in the rehabilitation of the Milwaukee Railroad depot in South Cle Elum http://www.milwelectric.org.

I have a pressing question for the forum: does anyone have interior photographs of Maine narrow gauge yard offices?  We have a yard office display at the Museum in Portland that we would like to tweak to be more authentic.  If anyone has a lead on photographic resources, please let me know at polardog@comcast.net.  Many thanks!

[Eric Schade]

I finally signed up for the Forum...I have looked at it quite a bit for some time.

I was introduced to the WW&F by Jason who was the engineer at Boothbay the day I brought my kids to see it.  Jason suggested I visit the WW&F that saturday, and there he was in the cab of number 10!  Fred Morse was conductor and kept us entertained with stories and told us about the work weekend mentioned something to the effect that perhaps we should come by to help out.  He put the kids in #10's cab for the return trip...we were sold then and their!

I live in Phippsburg, Maine on a road the Fred Morse built.  

I am a garden railroader with live steam.  I have scratch built a working model of #9, my son has a kit bashed version of #10.  My line is the Winnegance and Quebec.  look for it on YouTube.

[R.T. Dowling]

Hi all,

Some of you may recognize my name from NERAIL or various other rail sites on the web; others may remember me from my days as a volunteer at MNGRR in Portland. I'm a lifelong Mainer and a lifelong enthusiast of all things transportation-related. I'm now also a member of the WW&F Railway Museum. Happy to be aboard!