W.W.&F. Discussion Forum
General Topics => Archives (General) => Topic started by: Ed Lecuyer on January 21, 2009, 10:24:42 PM
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jockellis wrote:
An elderly man in our church died and had his funeral Saturday a week ago. I read in the local paper that he was from Maine so I asked his widow today before church and told her I was a member of the museum.
Another woman standing around said, "I've been to that museum. It's so neat!"
Boy, was I glad to find another person with some knowledge of the WW&F Ry.
Jock Ellis
Bruce Wilson replied:
Jock,
I did work at a hotel in Hyannis (Cape Cod) Massachusetts a week ago. The hotel's chief engineer was formerly employed as an electrical parts salesman and he told me that at one time in the late 1980's, he called on all of New England. I asked if he had ever called on Central Maine Power and he said yes, he did. He said that he had called regularly on a gentleman who was rebuilding a railroad in his spare time.
The chief went on to say that the C.M.P. mans name was "Harry" and that a few other C.M.P. co-workers were helping him with the railroad project.
I then told the fellow that his former customer was Harry Percival and that his co-workers (Rick, Elaine and John) went on to help establish a volunteer organization then known as the Sheepscot Valley Railroaders, later to become the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum. I told him that Rick served as Treasurer of the group for 13 years and that Elaine and John went on to serve in the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad as officers and directors.
It then became my pleasure to tell of the remarkable progress made at Sheepscot since those early days, and after a time, my sad duty to tell of the passing of both Harry and his wife, Clarrisa.
As you Jock, I was glad to find another who knew of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum, especially one who knew Harry during his years of employment at C.M.P.
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Wanted: Photographs by Linwood Moody, Phil Bonnet, Lawrence Brown and other first generation narrow gage rail enthusiasts. Also seeking collectibles, ephemera and correspondence offered by and exchanged between narrow gage enthusiasts.
jockellis replied:
Hi, Bruce. Isn't it always nice to find someone who has a connection that gives you something to talk about.
When I was a newspaper editor, my favorite columns were those about people I met in out of the way places who knew of where I lived or the people there that I knew. Got me out of a ticket in central Florida when I realized the cop who had his blue light on had spent his teenaged summers picking tobacco in the county where I lived in south Georgia. Whipped out my Radio Shack Model 100 laptop and got all the information on him for a column and he ended up giving me a warning.
I guess I need to buy a WW&F Ry denim shirt so that if people see it they can tell me about their experience at the museum. But right now, all my available funds are going toward track. I've donated the equivalent of 16 feet of rail over the past 16 weeks and I've found it hasn't hurt me at all. Sure, there's less money for my wife to go to Starbucks with her friends, but as I say, it hasn't hurt me personally. At least not until she realizes why she can't go to Starbucks as much.
Jock Ellis