Spring Work Weekend 2023

[Joshua Zukerman]

10-4. See you all tomorrow morning.

[Bill Reidy]

Some belated photos from the first day of Spring Work Weekend April 28th

Garden track construction, as seen in the early morning.


Around lunchtime.


On the Mountain, crews cleaned up about 400 feet of track that either had an excess of ballast (to the top of the rails), or needed more stone added to bring the ballast to the top of the ties.  The ties that been buried were wet but quickly dried out.


The morning crew on the Mountain.


The afternoon crew.  Dave B. and James P. were on the crew earlier.


Josh Recave continued work on the wiring for the new Archives room.


Meanwhile, Linda and James were busy in the Archives room upstairs.


The locomotive No. 11 crew was also busy with frame drilling and riveting.






Stewart painting exterior window trim for engine house bay 1.  Bill Sample also painted.


The above was only a fraction of the work underway Friday.  Among the other work was spraying fire retardant inside the engine house, painting prep for caboose 554 and painting open car 130, and the excellent meals provided by Nancy Weeks and crew. 

[Bill Reidy]

Photos from the second day of Spring Work Weekend, April 29th.

Painting crews were busy on caboose 554 and open car 130.


Nancy Weeks and crew have provided excellent meals this weekend.


A large group worked in several groups on tie replacement and tamping between Trask's and Rosewood crossings.  A lead crew pulled expired ties and inserted replacements.  Crews followed spiking the new ties.  Joe Fox followed with the tamper Wilmar tamping the new ties and occasional low joints.  Here a crew spikes some of the first replacement ties just north of Trask's.


A lead crew pulls expired ties and inserts replacements near Alna Center.


Replacement ties inserted (light in color), spiking crews approach Alna Center.


Joe Fox follows up with Wilmar.  Watching the tamper in action is impressive, as in Joe's hands it makes short work of tamping that would have taken much longer by Big Joe.


A train led by No. 9 provided support.  In the late afternoon, volunteers aboard the train collected the expired ties.


The train also towed Wilmar back to Sheepscot at the end of the day.  Here Joe Fox (left) talks with other volunteers during a brief stop at Alna Center on the trip back south.


Dan Malkowski led Friday's garden track construction and today's tie replacement work.  Despite being busy, He did have time for some laughter today with Bryce Weeks.

[Bill Reidy]

A couple of photos from this morning, April 30, the final day of Spring Work Weekend.

After two days of great weather, the expected rain set in overnight, so Sunday work was focused indoors.

The volunteers repainting caboose 554 this weekend worked on the final details today in engine house stall 3.  They have done a terrific job with this car.


First thing this morning, another crew worked on some cleanup in the car barn, including the floors of coaches WW&F No. 8, F&M No. 2, and W&Q No. 3.  This work is in anticipation of public trains next Saturday, May 6th.


I left for the trip home shortly after 9 a.m.  It was great to see so many friends again this weekend and the work they accomplished.

[Dave Buczkowski]

Thank you to all who came and spent your valuable time we us! We would be nothing without our dedicated volunteers. I was especially heartened to see so many young volunteers many of which came for the first time.
Dave

[Mike Fox]

ML&M 556 got some exterior paint..

[James Patten]

So who won the raffle?

[Ed Lecuyer]

So who won the raffle?

CONGRATULATIONS are due to Sarah F. who purchased the winning ticket for her 5 year old son, Finn! Sarah reports that Finn is "bouncing off the wall with excitement". She sends her gratitude: "You have made a little boy’s dream come true!!"

Thanks to everyone who helped raise over $3600 which is earmarked for acquiring artifacts related to the WW&F and placed in our collection of archives.

[Graham Buxton]

For those of you that can't remember (like me ) what was the raffle prize that got Finn F. so excited, here you go . . .

And, this just in...

On Saturday, April 29th, we'll be having the raffle drawing for a complete G-scale WW&F train set!






LGB has donated this train set from their 2022-2023 catalog, showcasing our railroad! Here's your opportunity to own the complete set - including the special LGB Club edition of Boxcar 309 - while supporting the museum.

The retail value of this set is nearly $1500.

Buy your electronic raffle tickets for the drawing to be held on Saturday, April 29, 2023 during Spring Work Weekend.

[Joe Fox]

I just wanted to share this little bit from some folks I talked to, met, and got to know over the work weekend:

First and foremost, thank you to EVERYONE who went above and beyond, like we are so widely known to do, for making everyone, including new volunteers feel welcome, and important. There were a few new volunteers that this was their first time being at the museum. I can not stress enough how great it is that we have and keep such a welcome environment.

Job well done to everyone, and as always, it was great to see everyone, make new friends, and to be a small part of such a tremendous organization. We are continuing to carry on the memory of many dear friends, and passing the memories of them along to future generations as well.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Well said, Joe. 
That was the experience working on the engine house, many volunteers stopped to look at the building and chat or they wanted to know where the other crews were working.  There were so many new faces, the old saying "just be kind to everybody" was the rule.  Working near the rolling stock paint crew was good since we lent them sections of staging and a few other things to help their project.  The results speak for themselves and the SWW pics on the WW&F Facebook page have gotten a few thousand likes. 

Your comment about remembering dear friends is so true.  In the back of my mind I kept expecting Dwight, Don or Paul to walk around the corner of the engine house and say hello.  We sure miss them but they were there in spirit.