Topics

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Museum Discussion / NRHS Bulletin Vol. 87 No. 4

« on: November 26, 2024, 06:15:58 PM »

The latest issue of the National Railway Historical Society's Bulletin (Vol. 87 No.4) features the conclusion of Oren Helbok's article "A Railroad is Made of Stories: The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington."  Like the first part, the conclusion features our volunteers, spanning 43 pages of the 48-page issue, including both covers.  Images from the NRHS Facebook page:





Thanks, Oren and NRHS.  Nicely done.

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Museum Discussion / NRHS Bulletin Vol. 87 No. 3

« on: October 17, 2024, 03:31:18 PM »

The latest issue of the National Railway Historical Society's Bulletin (Vol. 87 No.3) features the article "A Railroad is Made of Stories: The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington" by Oren Helbok.  The article, featuring some of our volunteers, spans 44 pages of the 48-page issue, including both covers.  The article will conclude in Vol. 87 No. 4.  Thanks to Oren for sharing the stories of the present day WW&F.

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Other Narrow Gauge / Rhätische Bahn live stream

« on: July 28, 2024, 05:28:22 PM »

A few weeks ago I ran across the live stream presented by the Swiss Rhaetian Railway (RhB — Rhätische Bahn).  As I guess most of you know, the RhB operates an extensive, electrified meter-gauge railway system through the Alps in southeastern Switzerland, with one route (the Bernina line) extending to Tirano in Italy.

Michelle and I visited the region in 1995 and rode the Glacier Express over the RhB between St. Moritz and Disentis, and beyond over today’s connecting meter-gauge Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn.

The RhB live stream changes location every few minutes, showing railway activity from various cameras set up along its route.  Today, whenever I am working in my home office, I have the live stream up in a browser on one of my monitors.

The URL:  https://www.rhb.ch/en/interactive/rhb-livestream

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Museum Discussion / Wiscasset Newspaper May 20th article: WW&F hosts Wiscasset students

« on: May 20, 2024, 04:00:22 PM »

"On April 30, Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum in Alna hosted Wiscasset Middle High School history students learning about the rapid economic and technological transformation of the Maine midcoastal region...

"Steve Piwowarski, WW&F visitor interaction coordinator, gave an informative overview of the railroad history and the economic importance to rural communities in Alna, Whitefield, Coopers Mills and Albion in the late 19th century and early 20th century..."

Read the full article here.

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Whimsical Weirdness and Foolery / TCDA dairy car #65 -- located at #65 Main Street in Wiscasset?

« on: February 28, 2024, 10:29:57 AM »

Well, I just had my chuckle of the day.  After reading the Wiscasset Newspaper article about plans for the Wiscasset Schoonerfest at the town's recreation pier September 21st, I turned to Google Maps to see where the pier is located (1 Water Street).  Scrolling north to the creamery pier, I was surprised to see our dairy car marked with a "65."



That's odd.  Normally Google maps uses numbers like this to mark street addresses.  So I then opened a new browser window, went to maps.google.com, and searched for "65 Main Street Wiscasset ME".  Here's the result:



Yup, Google maps thinks our TCDA car #65 is located at 65 Main Street in Wiscasset.  No, it's not.  Apparently somewhere along the line the car number was interpreted as the car's street address.

There is a 65 Main Street in Wiscasset.  It is located on the southbound side of U.S. Route 1, between Water and Middle streets.

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General Discussion / NRHS article on the Conway Scenic Railroad

« on: September 23, 2023, 06:45:59 PM »

The latest NRHS Bulletin (Volume 86, No. 2) has a well-written and illustrated 24-page article by Brian Solomon on the Conway Scenic Railroad, focused on the people and departments who make the railroad run.  Of particular interest is the sidebar article "Bridge Inspections," featuring Wayne Duffett.  Wayne connected us with the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, which led to a restored B&M Berlin (NH) branch pony truss bridge becoming our Trout Brook bridge on the Mountain extension.

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Museum Discussion / R&LHS Fall 2023 Quarterly Newsletter article on the WW&F

« on: August 27, 2023, 09:47:04 PM »

As a member of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, I receive their PDF Quarterly Newsletter.  Earlier tonight I received the Fall 2023 issue and was pleasantly surprised to see a feature article on our Railway, written by Oren B. Helbok. A very nice surprise.  Glad to have met Oren at the WW&F a few years back now.

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Massachusetts' Two Footers / Edaville and ML&M's display at the 2023 Amherst Railway Society's 2023 show

« on: January 28, 2023, 08:36:57 PM »

Edaville and Maine Locomotive & Machine Works' have a terrific display outdoors at the Amherst Railway Society's West Springfield, MA show this weekend.  A few photos...

Edaville No. 11 was under steam, blowing the whistle from Maine Central's No. 470 now under restoration.


Planned 2023 Edaville events.


The outdoor tent's booths for Edaville and ML&M.


A sign displaying ML&M's abilities and achievements, not a surprise to us.

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Massachusetts' Two Footers / Carver's Edaville Looks to go Christmas-only, Add 40-B Housing

« on: January 13, 2023, 06:30:37 PM »

"On January 3, the owner of Carver’s Edaville theme park went before the town’s Board of Selectmen to propose developing a portion of the park’s property into housing units, including affordable housing, while making the park itself a seasonal attraction only during the Christmas season.

"'We stepped back and said look, we have to think about reinventing Edaville,' owner Jon Delli Priscoli told selectmen. 'How do we go forward and how do we make Edaville permanent? How do we make sense out of this property, and also figure a way to manage the open space and potentially do some housing, and do it all at one time?'"

Detailed story with video is posted here.

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Museum Discussion / Trains News Wire Year in review: Preservation stories from coast to coast

« on: December 24, 2022, 01:17:27 PM »

The WW&F leads Trains magazine's list of railroad preservation achievements in 2022.

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/year-in-review-preservation-stories-from-coast-to-coast/

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General Discussion / Alna Store’s New Owners Ready for Grand Opening

« on: December 23, 2022, 08:03:29 AM »

"Concluding seven months of renovations, the new owners of The Alna Store are ready for the three-day grand opening weekend, running from Thursday, Dec. 22 through Saturday, Dec. 24..."

https://lcnme.com/business/alna-stores-new-owners-ready-for-grand-opening/

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Whimsical Weirdness and Foolery / When we reach Wiscasset...

« on: December 12, 2022, 01:23:17 PM »

...I understand we will be adopting the new technology described in this article so Amtrak's Downeaster can depart the Rockland branch at Wiscasset and terminate at Sheepscot Station.

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Museum Discussion / Czech Czooch

« on: December 11, 2022, 06:51:24 AM »

And Czech out the visitor that is passing through on it's way to Brians....

Good to see the Czech engine light is off in these photos.

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Work and Events / Sheepscot Passenger Platform Reconstruction - Official Work Thread

« on: November 23, 2022, 10:15:53 PM »

Alluded to elsewhere, a project is now underway to provide a firmer foundation for the Sheepscot Station buildings and rearrange platforms for better guest flow during popular events.  A few Tuesday photos.

A temporary giftshop for winter events is being set up in Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes combine No. 14.  A view from the partially disassembled station platform looking into No. 14.


Inside No. 14 Tuesday morning.


A view inside the gift shop building, with Cindy Rhine and Randy Beach discussing the project. 


The largely disassembled platform.  A temporary platform ramp has been set up on the turntable lead track in the lower yard for our winter event passengers.

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Work and Events / J&S Truck Build/Rebuild - Official Work Thread

« on: October 22, 2022, 08:34:04 PM »

Jerry and Carlos Steinke have spent countless hours preparing the passenger truck frames for coach No. 9.  Checking shop bay 2 today, I found the passenger truck parts had recently been painted and set out to dry.