W.W.&F. Discussion Forum
WW&F Railway Museum Discussion => Volunteers => Topic started by: Bryce Weeks on January 26, 2026, 10:28:46 AM
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Hey all! if anyone is able to help clear the line on
Friday 1/30 Saturday 1/31/26 any and all help is appreciated!! the plan is to meet up around 9am, we will be bringing along 554 with heaters for creature comforts. a crew of 6-8 is ideal. the current forecast says sunny with a high of 18 and a low of 4. if anyone has any questions reach out!
-Bryce R. Weeks
Roadmaster
email: bryce.weeks@wwfry.org
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I can't make it as early as 9am due to school drop-offs, but I can work on cleaning up Sheepscot when I get there.
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Hello Folks,
Line clearing is now RESCHEDULED to Saturday 1/31/2026. Equipment difficulties due to cold, as well as lack of crew availabillty due to sickness and work have led us to reschedule the clearing of the railroad from SS to ToM to tomorrow. There were all of 3 of us here today. PLEASE help us tomorrow if you can.
We are also firing loco 9 tomorrow to move it to a different stall in the enginehouse. It will be available to double head plow tomorrow- would there be interest in that? A test swipe today shows the snow moves easily with 52, so the double heading likely isn’t necessary.
Please let us know here or directly if you plan to help tomorrow. We'd like to have a feel of what crew we can expect.
Thanks
Jason
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I plan to be there tomorrow. I will have to leave around 2:00. I should be there by 8:00 - 8:30.
Brian W.
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I plan to arrive in Sheepscot sometime between 9 and 10 a.m. to unload the Amherst show items from my minivan.
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Cheer up you guys given the temp.
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At 1.40 p.m. yesterday afternoon, it was 12 degrees Fahrenheit (-13.5 degrees Celsius) outside the Percival House.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tTtJFgZ8/IMG-7352.jpg)
This was an improvement over -14 degrees Fahrenheit Stewart reported at his home just up the street shortly after sunrise.
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Seriously, there needs to be a special Frozen Fingers Award instituted for the crew that turned out on Saturday. Well done.
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As I was enjoying reading all the recent posts and seeing Bill's photo of the thermometer, I thought of the day a crew was getting engine no. 9 ready for trucking off the Ramsdell Farm. I believe the date we moved the locomotive out from the engine house, was February 12, 1995. A bright and sunny day with a light breeze at times. Someone there (it might have been Larson Powell) said that the temperature in the sun was 5 degrees..That is was cold was confirmed by the kitchen crew who were finding the cans of B & M baked beans frozen solid. We had a portable kitchen with a two burner Coleman gas stove, so got the beans thawed and everybody fed.
Got to say though, it's been a cold January here in West Bug Bite, Maine. As I remember the cold days at Sheepscot and think of Bill Reidy driving up in his minivan with all the supplies from the Springfield show, I have yet more memories...
There was a cold morning when Harry Percival knew I had my Sawzall and a metal cutting blade. He chalked a piece of rail that he wanted me to cut. I'd got through the head and halfway down the web, when Harry tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to stand clear. Harry put his boot down on that 30lb. piece and snapped it clean
off, perfect.
Another cold day Frank Paul and I were up at a rail pile cutting old track bolts with a cutting torch and shivering in the wind until I suddenly began to feel warmth where there shouldn't have been such. A piece of slag had gone inside my coat and found all the layers of sweatshirt, work shirt, and tee shirt, conducive to combustion. A handful of snow stuffed inside my jacket quickly ended the warm feeling, with Frank just about falling over into the snow laughing so hard.
So to all of you hardy souls, enjoy these days and remember the fun.
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When we were clearing the fill between the Head Tide Church and Head Tide RD ,the temperature when I left the house was -29. By the time we cleared some brush and got a fire going, it was almost comfortable.
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I remember that Steve. It was cold until we got working. Good times..
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There was more than a few times during winter ROW clearings that Zack and I would let Fred get a head start on getting a fire going before we arrived, especially on really cold days.
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When we were clearing the fill between the Head Tide Church and Head Tide RD ,the temperature when I left the house was -29. By the time we cleared some brush and got a fire going, it was almost comfortable.
I always enjoy seeing that section of the old road bed. Knowing the cold conditions under which it was reclaimed make seeing it even more remarkable.
"Trigger" the railroad dog, never missed a morning walk due to weather. Which means I never missed walking him no matter the conditions. Never felt minus 29 Steve, but one morning in Auburn we set out at minus 12 and by the time we got down by the Androscoggin River, the bank thermometer in town was reading minus 17. Trigger and I walked along Lake Auburn that morning, the cold not phasing him in the slightest. That good boy gone now, never to be forgotten.
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I remember clearing the ROW in Head Tide. Fred put a case of water on the snow and it all froze solid. Good thing we weren’t thirsty that day.
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Never felt minus 29 Steve
Once you get below -10 it is just cold. But when you exhale and it flash freezes you know it's cold..