September 2019 Work Reports

[Bill Reidy]

Some photos of Mountain Extension work from yesterday (Saturday, September 14th) can be found here.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for the weekend of Sept 21-22:

* Mountain Extension: safety spiking of any track laid yesterday and today.  Mike will likely be continuing his work as well.
* Car barn extension
* B&SR tank 14
* Trailer: needs to be scraped and painted.

[James Patten]

Anticipated work for Saturday Sept 28: Fall Festival

* Many hands needed for Fall Festival.
* Mountain Extension
* Car barn extension
* B&SR tankcar 14
* Trailer scraping & painting

After a hard day's labor at the WW&F, be sure to enjoy a ham & bean supper at the Alna Fire Department's headquarters 4:30 - 6:00

[James Patten]

Work done on Saturday Sept 28:

* Fall Festival: we had a great turn out - 192 tickets sold.
* Mountain Extension: Mike took the GMC out first thing and came back last thing.
* Car barn extension: Fred supervised the removal of the flange spacers in the concrete, then sealed it.
Other stuff was going on, but I was too busy to see what exactly.

[Fred Morse]

The new parking lot is now completed, all ready for FWW.

[Bill Reidy]

Didn't have much time yesterday to take many photos, so here's the one I took



We had just finished setting up the consists of the first class (mainline) and second class (run-around, left) trains, and I had a few minutes to walk down by the Sheepscot platform.  When I saw the crowd about 10 minutes before train time, I knew we would have a good day.

We had many happy families yesterday.  Bob, Dick and everyone else involved in organizing the activities yesterday did a terrific job.

[Bill Reidy]

The Wiscasset Newspaper has a nice article with many photos of yesterday's Fall Festival.

https://www.wiscassetnewspaper.com/article/ww-f-fall-festival-secrets-apple-bobbing-long-marriage/124939

[Bob Holmes]

BTW, tickets sold does NOT reflect passenger volume.  There are lots of reason why the number of bodies on the trains is way more than the ticket holders:  children, volunteers, musicians, etc., etc.  (Someone else might add to this)

All told it was a very busy day with many full cars on both trains in both directions!

[Bob Holmes]

Re the Wiscasset paper article:  this is really great coverage for us.  It talks about lots of people, all ages, all geographic locations, who enjoyed the day.  It doesn't focus too much on the RR itself, but says why people should come over and over again.

We couldn't ask for better word of mouth and future PR...

[Ed Lecuyer]

FWIW, the Class 1 trains (10:30, 12, 1:30, and 3) transported just over 200 passengers (bodies) from Sheepscot to Alna center. The 10:30 train had 79 passengers, the 3pm had 2.

[Mike Fox]

Susan Johns always does great coverage for the events she reports on.

[Steve Smith]

What a great Fall Festival! Cheers for all who made it happen.

[Bill Reidy]

FWIW, the Class 1 trains (10:30, 12, 1:30, and 3) transported just over 200 passengers (bodies) from Sheepscot to Alna center. The 10:30 train had 79 passengers, the 3pm had 2.

The second class train never gets the love.

We did have a few passengers from Sheepscot.  Can't remember my report in detail, but I want to say 30+ overall on our three trains.  We got busy picking up passengers both northbound and southbound at Alna Center after they enjoyed the activities there.  Everyone I spoke with had a great time.

[Bill Baskerville]

When I was at the WW&F this summer Steve P. asked if I would make two "Little Free Libraries".  He plans on putting one at Sheepscot and one at Alna Center.  As usual, I waited until I was almost out of time and started last week.  I had to finish today as I leave tomorrow for a week in Tennessee and then I only have one day to unpack and repack before starting the trek north to the FWW.

The first picture is on one of the Libraries, of course with assorted train books in it.  The second shows it with the door closed.  The third is the second one upside down to show the mounting box for a 4x4.  If you look closely this one has two doors as opposed to the single door on the first one.

They are finish primed and painted inside and primed on the outside so they can be painted with the WW&F Station colors at Sheepscot.  I had to teach myself sheet metal work to make the roofs.

Now the big question is, can I get them into the car....  I also made an additional 10 TRIG's earlier this fall and will bring them up next week.

[Wayne Laepple]

You have too much time on your hands, Bill. You need to find another hobby.... maybe stamp collecting?