On the weekend of January 16-17, 2021, Lerro Photography of Glenolden, PA held a limited attendance photo charter at the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum in Alna, Maine. Although there have been some photo charters around the US in the last 9 months, they have been few and far between due to major concerns about COVID 19 and some significant travel restrictions as a result. Never the less, with some careful planning, abundant precautions, mandatory testing, a smaller than normal group of photographers....and some significant weather challenges, the WW&F Museum and the Lerro Team were able to pull off a really nice 2-day event in the woods of Maine. The charter featured authentic freight and mixed trains, pulled by WW&F Locomotive #9, and running on most of the museum's in-service track. Day 1 featured some very difficult weather conditions, that included a cold, wind-driven rain pretty much all day. Despite the weather, we managed to get most of the scenes that we planned. Day 2 featured a lot of clouds, but some sun, and much more comfortable conditions for photography. As an added attraction, Monson Locomotive #3 joined in on the show and we had 2 steam trains to work with, both led by historic Maine 2-Footers.
Special thanks are due to Ed Lecuyer and Brendan Barry for their efforts to help coordinate this event, and of course, to the train crews who volunteered to come out and make it all happen, despite the tough conditions on Saturday.
For those who would like to see how it all turned out, I've created a Flickr Photo Album featuring some of my favorite scenes. Check it out when you have a few minutes!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/112261457@N06/albums/72157718127341006Thanks for looking!
/Kevin Madore
