Messages

1

Museum Discussion / Re: WW&F Sheepscot Shop

« on: January 30, 2026, 01:04:07 AM »

All of this shop equipment at each of the Maine Two- Footers should be found in the ICC Valuation papers submitted in 1917-1920 which I copied at the National Archives and gave to the archives twenty years ago

2

Volunteers / Re: LAST CALL for 2025 Volunteer Hours!

« on: January 06, 2026, 09:52:22 PM »

Ellen Fisher & Allan Fisher put in five hours each proofreading the bimonthly newsletter - so 30 hours each for 2025.

3

Massachusetts' Two Footers / Re: Whitin Machine Works

« on: November 16, 2025, 09:25:18 PM »

I misspoke - Retired SR&RL Conductor Sonny Fairbanks lived in Philips on the Bypass. He had about 300 feet of track next to his driveway, and had many   handcars and etc on this track.

Just down the street SR&RL engineer Dana Al drich lived with his daughter. I visited Dana and was invited into the kitchen where he went through photograph albums that had been given to him. Tears came to his eye when he recalled his happy days working on the railroad.

I tried to visit with Sonny Fairbanks at his home but he shooed me off.

4

Massachusetts' Two Footers / Re: Whitin Machine Works

« on: November 16, 2025, 03:13:58 PM »

Bob Beal and I laid the track on Sonny Fairbanks property - so it was the same railroad 

All three locomotives were at the Machine works when we were there.

The Whitin locomotive that had been destroyed in an accident was still at the very back of the Maine Narrow Gauge yard at Portland when they were cleaning up and consolidating their freight equipment on two tracks. I was told it would be scrapped at Portland  as everything usable had been stripped over the years.

I don't believe it ever went back to Edaville.

5

Massachusetts' Two Footers / Re: Whitin Machine Works

« on: November 16, 2025, 12:14:57 AM »

In October of 1965, I got permission from Virgil Starbird to go to Boston with his truck delivering finished lumber milled at Starbird Lumber to customers in Boston. Virgil's long time driver, Everett, did not talk much but we had a pleasant trip down from Strong Maine and delivered the finished lumber to two customers, and then went to Whitinsville, MA to let me dicker for two-foot gauge trucks from the recently abandoned two-foot gauge railroad at the Whitin Machine Works. I was also offered the three two-foot gauge locomotives at $1000 each. With money from Virgil and my own stash, I was able to buy 6 sets of trucks and bring two of them to Strong for one of the six (6) Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes box cars in Starbird's lumber company yard. These cars  were used to store lumber and saw mill parts. In that yard there was also a standard gauge Rail Bus that the SR&RL shops had built for the MEC Oquossoc Branch. He used the bus to move lumber on a few hundred feet of standard gauge track within the mill area. 

The other four sets of trucks where offloaded in Avon Maine on original SR&RL Right-of-Way in a field just south of Phillips where Bob Beal and I had built two or three hundred feet of track for some of the freight equipment from Phillips to be displayed. We had cut the ties from a wood lot Bob owned just north of Phillips, and two-sided these after hours at the lumber mill just outside of Phillips on the bypass. This was the beginning of Sandy River Railroad Museum.

6

General Discussion / Re: MEC Outside Frame Boxcar 35039

« on: October 08, 2025, 08:41:17 PM »

Procurement of this car is called "mission creep", and many museums are now trying to address acceptance of these "gifts" as to whether it was a big mistake or not.

7

General Discussion / Re: MEC Outside Frame Boxcar 35039

« on: October 04, 2025, 08:30:23 PM »

Unless these boxcars are maintained at a very high level to be waterproof and look good to the public, you are endangering the Alna Station site of becoming a trash dump like many other museums I have seen..

8

Bridgton & Saco River Railway / Re: Barnard's station

« on: September 27, 2025, 11:32:17 PM »

I copied all of the Maine Two-Footer ICC Val sheets at the National Archives about 15 to 20 years ago and gave scans of them to the WW&F Archives.

9

Bridgton & Saco River Railway / Re: A 101 year old rubber band...

« on: July 03, 2025, 11:27:27 PM »

The Western Railway Museum Archives uses extra large polyester plastic protective sheets available thru PrintFile or other companies shown oin Amazon. They come in 14X14, 20x 20 etc.

10

Volunteers / Re: June 2025 Work Reports

« on: June 26, 2025, 11:11:13 PM »

Based on our use of goats in the retirement community where I live to eat vegetation on both sides of a protected creek, it will take 30 goats about 2-3 weeks to do both sides of the right of way for one-half mile. They are very thorough. Goat herder provides fencing to focus their eating location.

11

Monson Railroad / Re: Monson Maps

« on: May 01, 2025, 04:47:07 PM »

Ask Linda at our Archives first - and then check the Monson Historical Society in Monson. There are ICC valuation maps (with all landowners shown) in the National Archives on the beltway in Washington (New Archives Building). I had copies of these made for the WW&F Archives years ago.

12

Bridgton & Saco River Railway / Re: B&SR RR slide show in Waterford, Maine on April 24, 2025

« on: April 28, 2025, 02:25:21 PM »

Based on the Bob Hungerford collection of the Monson Business files from the Monson Station Superintendent's file (which were given to the WW&F Archives but later transferred to the Monson Historical Society) I believe the Monson kept its Common Carrier status until 1942 - and during the last year only handled three of four trips for the Slate Company by non-common carrier rules.

13

Museum Discussion / Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?

« on: September 25, 2024, 05:47:42 PM »

In 1995, our family rented a house on Damariscotta Lake and while my son and I were exploring we came upon a little railroad station and a funny looking 1/3 portion of a car shop - but what stopped us was the very short stretch of two-foot gauge track outside the station.

Just as we pulled off the road to get a better look, a young fellow came out of the car shop. We approached him and asked - isn't this the original railroad grade that the two-foot steam locomotive stored in a barn in Connecticut came from?  And Jason answers, "yeh, do you want to see it?"

Started volunteering that summer and Bruce Wilson helped "mentor" me into the organization. Been hooked ever since.

14

General Discussion / Re: Keith Pratt

« on: July 24, 2024, 03:52:45 PM »

Nothing new on #18's bell that I know of since your last visit to N.S.

15

General Discussion / Re: Linwood W. Moody

« on: July 14, 2024, 12:26:02 PM »

The gift of the book , "The Two Footers" in 1959 . started my lifelong love of the two-footers. I did write to Mr. Moody in the next year asking about his Moody Magazine - and he sent me a complimentary copy of an issue with a nice note encouraging my young interest in the subject.

In 1960, during my recovery from Typhoid Fever, my parents took me to Maine for a week in our woodie Mercury station wagon. We went to Rangeley to see the stone station, to Philips where I met Joe Boston (SR&RL mechanical department) and Dana Aldrich. Joe gave me a blueprint map of the SR&RL, and I sat in Dana's kitchen looking thru photo albums he had been given of the railroad. With tears in his eyes, he described his fond memories. He was quite deaf, and conversation with him was very hard. We visited a retired conductor's home on the Phillips bypass road where there was some two foot gauge track, and a number of small track carts and pump cars, but Clarence refused to come out and talk to me.

We went to Kingfield and Strong, but retired railroaders there were not at home.

Next was Monson Jct, and finally on our way home, we passed the Wiscasset shops of the WW&F in a driving rain storm.

We also had gone to the B&ML Brooks Station, but Mr. Moody was off that day - but did see the mixed train stop while we were there.