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Stewart Rhine wrote:John, I bet I met you that weekend too!
Joe, Here's a bit more from ten years ago. In 1997 the track crew went over East to Mr. Samis place in Hancock to lift more rail for the museum. It was stacked on a three foot gauge push car and taken up to a pile along the road for truck loading and transport to Sheepscot. Another accomplishment was to rebuild a portion of the Monson mainline in front of the station for Monson #3 to use for the town's anniversary.
Anyway, back to the original point - the 1997 Columbus Day weekend was basically the first organized track weekend and was a big success. We completed our first curve and crossing. Jason wrote an article in the March/April 1998 issue of the newsletter stating that ;
"We are hoping in the future to plan track laying days so as to get a larger crew on a single weekend. We've found that track laying in mass is more efficient, and with enough crew I'd like to be able to lay 500 feet of track in a day."
Jason didn't have to wait long as we held another track weekend in September of 1998 and spiked down 540 feet of new track to reach the 1/2 mile marker. The thing with the WW&F is when there is a specific goal our volunteers step forward to get the job done.
As Gordon said ... we sure have a bunch of tallented people. I look forward to seeing the latest progress at the railroad in a couple of weeks.
James Patten replied:More memories from the Way-Back Machine....
June of 1997 was a busy month. We laid some track up at Monson, then went up on a Saturday to help celebrate Monson's 175 anniversary. Monson #3 was there steamed up, and gave rides over the small amount of track. The following day, Sunday, several of us went down to Edaville where there was a surprise 80th (or was it 70th?) birthday celebration for Fred Richardson. B&HR #7 was steamed up and gave rides around the bogs several times.
I think Marcel and Zack were working on the boxcar at that time. By the annual picnic there was a race between them and the track crew to see who would finish first - whether we could connect Bay 1 to the rest of the railroad before they could finish. I think we won but not by much. We had a brand new boxcar for the picnic. With #9 operating on compressed air, we had our own freight train.
James Patten replied:Rather than hijack the track weekend thread with memories of track weekends gone by, we'll put them here.
Bruce Wilson replied:June of 1997 was a busy month. We laid some track up at Monson, then went up on a Saturday to help celebrate Monson's 175 anniversary. Monson #3 was there steamed up, and gave rides over the small amount of track. The following day, Sunday, several of us went down to Edaville where there was a surprise 80th (or was it 70th?) birthday celebration for Fred Richardson.
It was Fred's 80th birthday James and a day that ultimately led to an intense effort by an all volunteer group known as South Carver Rail to get Edaville Railroad operating again.
As you know, many W.W. & F. Ry. Museum volunteers helped individually and as a group at times to see South Carver Rail succeed. Most impressive was when W.W. & F. volunteers rebuilt the two lead tracks into the former Edaville machine shop. This group effort allowed no. 7 to be removed from the building and ultimately be brought up to Portland.
Another memorable day was when the W.W. & F. crew worked to load engine no. 5 for trucking to Sheepscot.
The last ten years have sure been busy, and they seemingly have flown by...
Stewart Rhine replied:Bruce, Thanks for the Edaville info. I've never been there so it's good to hear what the WW&F crew did back then.
We've been talking about about 1997 and the events of 10 years ago. That was a great year for the WW&F. Of course I think every year has been great since a few people helped Harry build the first bay of our car shop.
You mentioned engine 5 coming to Sheepscot - it reminds me of another outstanding year, 1999. That's when the Vulcan came to it's new home and became our #10. It's also the year that Coach 3 came back. The Lincoln County News photographer was there when the car was unloaded. He took a shot of the car rolling off the truck and the photo made it to the front page, above the fold! Remember the picnic that year? It was great loading passengers into the coach and telling them it is an original car that just came back to home rails after being gone for over 90 years. That was the last year Monson 3 ran the WW&F and she sounded so good pulling coach 3. That weekend we had three steam locomotives on the property for the first time since the 1930's. What a wonderful site. Roger W. shot some great video of the action during the picnic.
I've had some good times and seen some great things on the WW&F. I know that the best is yet to come ...
Joe Fox replied:Just imagine Stewart, in the fututre, we will be able to have two steam engines under steam at the same time for a special event. Won't that be a sight.
Joe