Topics

1

Work and Events / Northwest parking lot

« on: April 15, 2023, 02:13:31 PM »

Last year when the town was repaving Cross Rd. the railroad got around 50 truck loads of fill from cleaning out and reshaping the road ditches. An area was cut and stumped to stock pile the fill last year. This winter more of the parking area was cut off by volunteers. Last week our local excavation contractor Jeff Verney came in and cleared the rest of the area and spread out the fill. We used the bulldozer that Chesterfield and Associates loaned us while our dozer is down for repairs to spread fill and push the stumps out to the back of the property. We also cleaned up and moved all the stumps and softwood logs left over from putting in the other parking lots. A gravel surface will be spread over the lot after everything dries and settles sometime later this year.





Supervision is never far away.

















The supervisor traded in his green chair for an orange tractor better to keep an eye on us.

2

Work and Events / Archives Room - Official Work Thread

« on: March 29, 2023, 08:05:55 AM »

A new dedicated archive room is being built in the basement of the Percival house. The new room will be insulated, have a double layer of sheet rock for fire resistance, and seperate climate control.

3

Museum Discussion / Bay 4 closed in shop

« on: March 28, 2023, 11:57:37 AM »

Bay 4 is closed for the painting and varnishing of coach 9. The door lock has been changed and the door into bay 3 locked from the bay 4 side. Wood working tools are out of service until the coach team is done with painting.

For emergency access to bay 4 see Eric Schade, Brendan Barry, or Jason Lamontagne.

4

Work and Events / Model railroad sale during the fall work weekend

« on: September 29, 2022, 11:19:43 AM »

Linda will be selling model railroad items in the Percival House basement during the work weekend. All the proceeds will be going into the archives fund.

5

Work and Events / Engine House - Official Work Thread

« on: March 14, 2021, 04:31:22 PM »

On Saturday the board of director voted to build the roundhouse this year. We made the Sheepscot roundhouse five feet longer than the Wiscasset version and we will have a full 40' x 10' inspection pit in the run through bay. Visible site work should start by the end of April. J

Jay Wiley has been doing all the drawings and renderings of the roundhouse.

6

Work and Events / Rebuilding Fred's tractor

« on: March 07, 2021, 10:31:17 PM »

The fuel injection pump died on Fred's tractor last summer and while the pump was getting rebuilt some of the tractors other mechanical issues were looked into. The end result was the tractor rolled out of the shop last month with a rebuilt engine and new clutch.

Tractor being torn down in bay 1 of the shop. With the two old lathes having been removed from the shop and the new lathe not having arrived yet we had space in bay 1 to do the rebuild. Using the overhead crane made splitting the tractor much easier.





The front end has been removed.





Pulling the motor out. The motor didn't want to come off the transmission input shaft. Turned out the pilot bearing had self destructed and welded itself the the transmission shaft and the clutch disc wouldn't fit over what was left pilot bearing. Once the motor was off the clutch housing had to be taken off the transmission to replace the damaged transmission input shaft.







Phil and I pondering the mess the failed pilot bearing made. Stewart's photo.



Clutch housing being removed.





The engine block sitting on the radial arm drill press table. I had to get the casting numbers off the block and a connecting rod to get the right engine kit.





Engine on the stand being stripped to the bare block.







Crank and camshaft out.



Old cylinder sleeves and rods with old pistons.



Block with new sleeves pressed in and new pistons in. The old sleeves are sitting on the floor to the right.



I didn't take any pictures of the reassembly but I do have a picture of Fred taking off on a test drive last week.

7

Work and Events / New backhoe for the museum.

« on: December 11, 2020, 04:51:45 PM »

Dave Allan of Chesterfield Associates, Inc. arranged the sale and donated the purchase price of a Massey Ferguson HX-50 4x4 backhoe for the museum.   Chesterfield Associates, Inc. is the company that did the pile, sight work, and donated heavy equipment use for the Trout Brook project.  Chesterfield also moved bridge from the parking lot to Trout Brook.

Maine Locomotive and Machine hauled the backhoe to the railroad yesterday afternoon.

8

Work and Events / Electric Building - Official Work Thread

« on: October 29, 2020, 01:11:56 PM »

Progress on electric building.

9

Museum Discussion / B&SR no. 8 arrives at Sheepscot

« on: December 12, 2019, 06:40:33 PM »

B&SR no. 8 arrived at Sheepscot this afternoon from the Maine Narrow Gauge Museum in Portland. No. 8 will be put on outside display on one the future roundhouse tracks off of the turntable. The locomotive needs a new boiler and MNGRR has no current plans to restore the locomotive to operating condition.

No. 8 being loaded up in Portland. The stack is off for vertical clearance. Wes Heinz photos.







Arriving at Sheepscot and being unloaded on the ramp track.

















Parked inside bay 3 of the shop. A crew from MNGRR is cleaning the engine and touching up the paint before the locomotive goes outside on display tomorrow.

10

Work and Events / New west parking lot

« on: August 31, 2019, 08:57:02 PM »

Last year the museum made a commitment to the town to expand our parking lot. Last fall during the work weekend we had the use of an excavator from Chesterfield Associates and Dean with his Bobcat to clear the parking lot area.  Last week our local contractor Jeff Verney put in some drainage ditches and started hauling in tailings for the base of the parking lot. Jeff will cover the tailings with  crushed bank gravel for the lot surface.

Clearing during the fall 2018 work weekend.























Jeff working on the parking lot last week. When I left Thursday afternoon Jeff had the base layer of the parking lot almost done out to the existing lot.

11

Work and Events / Moving passenger cars from MNGRR to WWFRY

« on: July 18, 2019, 12:21:02 AM »

As part of the Narrow Gauge Railway Collection four passenger cars were moved from the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad in Portland to the WW&FRy in Alna. Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes combine 14, coach 19, parlor car Rangeley, and Bridgeton and Saco River coach 16 arrived at the WW&FRy over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday. Maine Locomotive and Machine moved the cars with help from the MNGRR and WW&FRy crews.

The first move was SR&RL coach 19 Tuesday morning. Coach 19 is in need of some restoration work and is being stored at the WW&FRy for the time being.

Loading coach 19 from MNGRR's ramp track.





Coach 19 loaded up and leaving the Portland Company property.





The next move was the Rangeley Tuesday afternoon.

Moving the Rangeley on panel track from the car's display location inside the MNGRR museum to the garage door at the back of the museum building.





The ML&M truck has arrived back from Alna and the Rangeley is winched outside and up onto the trailer. The truck has to park inside the building across the alley way to make the loading angle on the trailer deck work.



























The Rangeley out in the parking lot at the Portland Company.





The Rangeley arrived at the WW&FRy in Alna around 9 pm and was unloaded onto the new ramp track.









Marker lights were hung and everbody present rode the Rangeley from the end of the ramp track down through the north yard, out to the main, and back to bay 1 of the shop building. No. 9 was used to move the Rangeley over to the shop.





Unloading the passengers and shoving the Rangeley into bay 1 of the shop building.







Wednesday morning saw the move of SR&RL combine 14.

Combine 14 being moved out of the museum building and onto the trailer.













Wednesday afternoon B&SR coach 16 was moved out of the museum and onto the trailer. To move 16 out of the museum we had to move the model T inspection car and Monson locomotive no. 4 out of the way.



































Turning off of Commercial St. and heading up Franklin St. in Portland.







Eric Schade's pictures of the Rangeley, combine 14 and WW&F  9 / SR&RL 6 together in the Sheepscot yard Wednesday afternoon.

12

Work and Events / Car Barn Extension - Official Work Thread

« on: July 11, 2019, 03:48:24 PM »

Car barn extension progress. All the excavation for the new drainage and the building pad is done. The back wall is removed from the building and track panels for the extension were built this week. The next step is setting the track panels in place and finishing up the gravel pad.

13

Museum Discussion / New front end loader for the railway.

« on: June 13, 2019, 04:15:17 PM »

The museum has purchased a Case loader to take some of the burden off of Fred's tractor. The new to us loader has a quick coupler set up with a bucket and forks. Yes it came with the cab enclosure.

Loaded up on the truck for the trip to Maine.



Parked in the parking lot after being unloaded.







The same machine at the railroad about 8 years ago.

14

Work and Events / New ramp track

« on: June 13, 2019, 03:57:21 PM »

The railway is building a new ramp track next to the garage to replace the ramp at the end of the Woods track. The new ramp track is being built with 33 lb rail versus the 25 lb that was used on the Woods track. The heavier rail and better roadbed will make bringing in heavier equipment safer. The Woods track will be lowered back down to parking lot level and become a team track.

Work started with replacing the existing culvert under the woods track with a longer culvert to accommodate the switch. The culvert diameter was also increased and the culvert lowered to accomodate the new drainage in the parking lot and the bigger ditch next to the carbarn.



Start of the ditching next to the carbarn and building up the roadbed for the siding.





The new parking lot catch basin in the foreground and the trench for the pipe leading out  to the ditch next to carbarn.



The pipe and catch basin in. The orange cone with the grade stake is the center line of the new siding.



Working on the siding roadbed.



The new stub switch for the ramp track being cut into the Woods track.





Looking from the corner of the garage down to the switch.



The bulkhead for the end of the track in the parking lot. The wall is parallel with the front of the bathroom.



We started laying stone down  on the roadbed today until the rain started.

15

Work and Events / Maine Two-footer Winter Photo Specials 2020

« on: May 30, 2019, 09:12:08 AM »

Maine Two-footer Winter Photo Specials Set in 2020

ALNA, Maine -- The Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway, Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company, Boothbay Railway Village and Maine Locomotive and Machine Works are proud to offer a major photographic event: Maine Two-Foot Winter 2020. It will be The Grand Reunion of equipment, much of which hasn't been together in nearly a century.

The gathering will take place at the Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington Railway at Sheepscot Station, Alna, Maine. The event will take place on January 18-19 and February 6-7, 2020. Four steam locomotives will be featured, as well as a special collection of passenger equipment, including the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad parlor car "Rangeley."

The recent collaboration of the Maine Narrow Gauge and WW&F Railway which brings several gems of two-footer preservation to the WW&F's Sheepscot campus, in addition to the relative ease with which the smaller and lighter locomotives and cars can be moved, makes this event possible, along with the cooperation of Maine Locomotive & Machine and Boothbay Railway Village.

The steam locomotives scheduled are Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington No. 9, Bridgton & Saco River Railroad No. 7, Monson Railroad No. 3, and S.D. Warren Co. No. 2. No. 7 is the one of the largest surviving Maine two-footer locomotives, while No. 2 is the smallest.

Passenger equipment, in addition to "Rangeley," will include Franklin & Megantic coach No. 2, B&SR coach No. 16 "Mount Pleasant," Wiscasset & Quebec coach No. 3, and SR&RL combine No. 14. Freight equipment from the Sandy River, B&SR and WW&F will also be featured.

Each of the 3 original railroads represented by this equipment will be highlighted for historically-based photographic opportunities all weekend. Ticketholders will have full two-day access, which commences with firing up the steam locomotives at 6:00 AM Saturday. The operating program will be divided into morning and afternoon segments for each day, each segment highlighting different original Maine two-foot railroads including the B&SR, Monson, and WW&F railroads.

In addition to all the WW&F's hot photographic locations, we will have some limited and special opportunities to explore the WW&F's new "Mountain Extension," a prime and beautiful example of narrow gauge engineering from the 1890s. Attendance is limited to 25 each weekend, with the two-day pass price of $400. Tickets are available through wwfrytickets.simpletix.com

Two special add-ons are also available. The first add-on is the "SR&RL" Friday, for $150, where WW&F 9 will be backdated to represent its days as SR&RL No. 6. The SR&RL Parlor Car Rangeley will be taken out, along with F&M coach 2, SR&RL combine 14 and other equipment to round out scenes reminiscent of the largest of Maine's t two-foot gauge railways. The second opportunity is the Saturday Evening Photo Session, directed by Stephen Hussar, for $100. A spectacular Hussar session as usual, our cinematographer extraordinaire will have a lot more to work with, given the influx of equipment as a result of our current partnerships.