WW&F Passenger Cars

[John Kokas]

Does anyone know if original drawings and details still exist for the passenger cars that ran on the WW&F?  Would we be able to re-create them? (In the future)

[Phil McCall]

Some of the original railroad's cars, including combination #7, were Jackson & Sharp cars, and blueprints may exist for them at the Hagley Museum in Wilmington DE, where Jackson & Sharp was based. There is a nice drawing of #7 on page 252 of Two Feet To Tidewater.

[Mike Arnold]

I remember reading on the forum that there is a steel frame of one of the coaches abandoned? Does anyone have pictures?
Mike

[Philip Marshall]

Hi Mike, The steel frame you mention would be from combine/RPO No. 2 (originally No. 7) which Phil McCall mentions above, built by Jackson & Sharp in 1902. I believe it was the only car on the Two-Footers to have a steel frame, as well as being the widest car on any of the Two-Footers at 7'5" across. I've never seen the frame myself but it's supposed to be along the ROW in Head Tide.

[Ira Schreiber]

#7 appears to be originally an open bench streetcar. It was probably standard gauge.

[Mike Arnold]

Very cool looks like it would be a cool project someday.
Mike

[Philip Marshall]

Which naturally leads to two questions:

1. Is it on a section of ROW we own?
2. Is there enough metal left on the frame that it would be feasible to rebuild the car on it?

[Mike Fox]

The answer to #2 would be no. Unless the frame was put up someplace, kept undercover and dry, any metal that had been left out to the elements that long would have deteriorated to the point that it would not be usable

[Phil McCall]

Ex #6 Taconnet was also a Jackson & Sharp car, seen on page 251 of TFTT, and is actually a really neat car with both a baggage door and an RPO area. I believe someone lost their life on #7 when it was originally an open bench excursion car as Philip Marshall mentions and that is why it was rebuilt.

[Bill Sample]

Seems to me I saw some photos of the car in a derelict state at Head Tide, think it may have been on its side.  Possibly the body was removed from the frame for access to the frame for scrapping - I believe this sort of thing happened in the Wiscasset yard after the abandonment.  I'm sure others here know more about this than I do.

[Marcel Levesque]

If memory serves Hagley has 9 drawings of various Maine narrow gauge passenger equipment in their collection.   If you scan their website I am sure you can find them.  That's what I did.  Two are for the parlor car and some were from the WW&F. 

[Dave Crow]

I'm in my office so I can't quickly look at the mailing tubes at home, but...

Hagley Museum in Delaware has some of the WW&F (and W&Q) framing drawings for the passenger cars; I think I have the framing drawings for baggage car #1 and combine #6, at a minimum.

The Delaware State Archives also have the J&S/ACF builder's photos for some of the cars as well; I think I purchased an exterior photo of baggage car #1, coach #2, coach #5, combine #6, and open car #7.  There was also an interior photo of #2 that I bought as well.

Dave Crow

[Philip Marshall]

I believe someone lost their life on #7 when it was originally an open bench excursion car as Philip Marshall mentions and that is why it was rebuilt.

The victim was none other than the Cooper's Mills station agent, Fred Allen, and it was the WW&F's last fatal accident. For details see Two Feet to Tidewater, p. 99.

[Marcel Levesque]

Very little remains of the rolling stock that was left behind at the Headtide location.  There is still a section of the frame belonging to the last RPO car.  I am not sure how much left there is because a portion of it is buried in the ground.  It is easily identifiable by the steel bolted to the outer side of the remaining sill.  There is a lot of thick brush nearby and there are a few trees growing through what is left of the frame.  There are a few scattered pieces of lumber and metals rods but from what they came from is anybody's guess.  Since the story goes that all of the equipment that was there was bulldozed over to salvage the metal is true as there is photographic evidence to support that.  My first trip to find the remains was in the early 1990's.  There is even less there now.  Mother Nature has taken its toll.  I believe the real culprits were the two huge floods in 1936 and 1987.  That entire area is a flood plain for the Sheepscot River and I am sure that all that was there was was scattered about not once but twice.  This area in not owned by the museum.