ROW owned by WWF Ry museum

[Eugene Vicknair]

Hi,

Apologies if this has been asked and answered before.  I did not see an answer in my searches.

I have read where the organization owns about 60% of the right of way from Albion to Wiscasset in various "chunks".

Is there a map showing the locations of the museum owned right of way that one can view?  Just curious how much land is contiguous with the current line and projected extensions.

Thank you.

Eugene

[James Patten]

The answer gets a little complicated.

When Harry bought the WW&F assets in 1985, he bought about 60% of the right of way.  Between that time and when he died in 2001, he would occasionally sell off a piece to an abutter, probably with an easement which would allow the railroad to come through.

Before he died, he deeded most of the right of way that he owned to the Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad Company - the same company that built the line in 1894 - which he had resurrected.  Right of way that the Museum was operating on at the time he would deed over to the W&Q as well.  The W&Q is a chartered railroad company, and (theoretically) has powers and rights that the WW&F Railway Museum does not have.

Harry also turned over a mile and a half of right of way to the WW&F Museum, the piece that goes up The Mountain and straddles 218 to behind Head Tide Church.

From what I understand, the W&Q has been researching what it is they actually own over the years.  No map that I know of exists for the entire line.  However, Alna's ownership is well established, and you can view the Alna tax maps which will show you what the W&Q owns.

Whitefield does not show the W&Q on its tax maps.  I believe that Windsor does, but I can't recall if China does or not.  I've not looked beyond that to know.

[Paul Levesque]

The ones for China do show it.

[John Scott]

Excellent information, thank you. It is a straightforward procedure to find and download copies of the relevant tax maps, on line.

[James Patten]

Keep in mind that town tax maps don't always have things correct.  But they will be pretty close. 

[Bill Sample]

The first time I ever met Harry was very early in the current WW&F's history when shop stall #1 wasn't even completed.  I was walking around the property and when he drove in I immediately made contact with him and explained my interest.  He dug out a large roll of blueprinted track maps, and explained that the color codes traced over the track indicated either company owned, held by friendly neighbors, or owned by "folks we'll have to talk with" before any work could be done on those areas by the WW&F.  I'm sure those maps are around somewhere. 

[John Kokas]

I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that there is ROW that is still (owned / easement) that is not on township maps anymore.  It is common practice for township engineers to have discontinued easements removed from maps so they can reduce costs of redrawing and as they like to do in PA, have the property revert to the adjacent landowners so they can TAX THEM!

[James Patten]

I've heard that the Town of Whitefield removed the railroad ROW from the tax maps to avoid the look of a Great Wall or Chinese Wall.  Although roads still are shown...

[Paul Levesque]

On a lot of tax maps when old ROW's were merged into adjoining lots they show up as an easily noticeable boundary between two lots. When the RR(s) were originally surveyed they would divide larger lots. Over time the parent lot would be divided up, often before the RR folded or before the ROW was dissolved. The ROW would then be just merged into one of the two lots.

So you can pick out sections of the ROW by looking at a tax map and looking for curved boundaries, as most property boundaries are surveyed in straight line segments the curves are usually easy to pick out. Take the example of Whitefield TM 21.

The ROW in Coopers Mills Village shows as the boundary between lots 21-10 and 21-11, and again between 21-15 and 22-18. In the former, the ROW was granted to the westerly lot, the later to the easterly lot.