How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?

[Bruce Wilson]

Earlier today, I was browsing an old thread in the forum, "Harry Percival dedicated event" which is now in the "Archives Section".

I wondered about how the museum's earliest members heard of what was beginning on the Crossroad at Sheepscot.

In a membership roll of Charter Members, Alice Ramsdell is listed as Charter Member no. 1. I imagine that membership was given in honorarium.

Charter Member no. 2 is Edgar Meade and I noticed that Peter Barney had the no. 5 spot among the Charter members.

My own membership came from attending the Two Foot Meet held in Whitman, Massachusetts in Nov. of 1992.
Ellis E. Walker represented the museum at that show and he signed me up and gave me a couple of the then Sheepscot Valley Railroaders newsletters.

Almost immediately, I began to correspond with Chan Morse and many years later found out from him, that he used to run small classified ads in railnews publications, promoting the museum.

Chan's own membership dates from April of 1990, when he began as a "member", later going on to a life member.

In those early days, was Harry running print ads? Now, I collect relevant magazine articles, advertisements, etc. I've never seen an ad from the 1988 - 1990 period, promoting the museum. How did the word get out?

Back in those days, there were many folks writing letters. Could word of the project at Sheepscot been passed from one fan to another...word of mouth? Did the officials of the reconstituted Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad Co. have a table or two at various rail shows, with their early newsletters?

I'm just curious how the memberships first came in and if you've read this far, how did your own membership take place?

[Ed Lecuyer]

In the summer of 1995, my wife (who was "with child" - Emily) and I took a vacation to Hermit Island and stopped in Wiscasset for a train ride on the Maine Coast Railroad. At that time, there was a simple flyer promoting the WW&F and "RR Book for Sale" - Big Dreams and Little Wheels. During the trip I picked up the flyer (passed on getting the book) and made the connection between the pilings in Wiscasset and the narrow gauge RR I had some vague knowledge of. After the train trip my wife agreed to try to see the WW&F Museum.

At 97 Cross Road, the track ran about as far as the tank is today, the first 3 stalls of the shop were completed, Sheepscot station was built, and Harry's House was in plain sight. However, there was no one there. Yet, even then, I got the 6th sense that this was something special, and I should keep an eye on it.

I then followed the WW&F website religiously, eventually logging my first volunteer hours several years later (with Emily at my side). Eventually I started moderating this forum and assisting with grant applications (as I was "from away" and could only occasionally make the trek from Groton, Mass to Sheepscot), and the rest is history.

[James Patten]

Bruce, Edgar Meade wrote the first check for the Museum, in April 1989 - I imagine enough to pay the filing fees with the Secretary of State.  He must have written it to Harry.

John and Elaine Christopher represented the early Museum at local train shows.

I originally heard about the Museum via an article in the Lincoln County News in July 1994, promoting an open house.  I was fresh out of college.  My father and I set out to find it.  Not knowing Alna very well, I think I hit every road except Cross Road.  As Dad was about to undergo surgery, and I worked Saturdays, I did not get an opportunity to try looking again until September.  I found it this time, Harry met me and we talked a few minutes, before I left.  There was another article in the LCN a couple of weeks later announcing the beginning of track laying, which I showed up for.  The rest is history.

[Dante Lakin]

I heard about it on my first trip on Maine Narrow Gauge (which sadly I forgot how I heard about them). This was only back in about July 2019 and things were being prepped for the "Steaming Together" charters, so the sense of community was running high. I made my way up to Alna for the first time on October 5th, 2019 and was invited to come back the next weekend for the Fall Work Weekend.

[john d Stone]

I saw a few short notes in Railpace magazine back in the 90's. I have to admit, my initial thoughts were "nice dream, but that ain't gettin far". Obviously I underestimated! As photos started being published of the shop building and car restorations, my spidey senses started tingling. A photo of newly acquired 10 suddenly sent me into "ohmygodwhatacoollittleengineIgottagetupthereandseeitnow!" mode. My younger son, Michael, was looking at colleges. Diana (wife who tolerates) found a school up in Unity which seemed like a good fit for Michael. We made the trip up into the Maine woods. Michael talked to a nice lady at Unity (he didn't go there) and we started back south. Being a clever fellow, I routed our journey down 218. As we neared Cross Road, the sweet smell of soft coal smoke invaded my nostrils. 10 was in steam!!! We rode in the lovely W&Q coach up to Alna Center and back. My face hurt from grinning. Michael and Diana pondered dis-owning me. This was 2006, I believe. A few years later, our oldest, John Jr, was attending graduate school in Massachusetts and I hoodwinked John and Diana into a day trip over to Sheepscot. No other passengers had shown up for the 3pm train and we were forced to ride in 10's cab up the line. James Pattern was running and he very convincingly sold me on the idea of becoming a member. Since then, I've made it to as many work weekends as I can swing and have met an absolutely amazing group of folks!

[Philip Marshall]

I first heard about the museum in the spring of 1990 when I was 14 years old from a Dick Andrews column in Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette which mentioned that someone named Harry Percival had purchased the remaining assets of the WW&F and wanted to rebuild the railroad, and was looking for members for his new organization. I was able to convince my parents to pay for my membership, and then further convinced my dad that we should visit Sheepscot on family vacation to Maine that July. So my dad phoned Harry and got directions, which brought us to what was literally just a clearing in the woods on Cross Road (I don't remember Percival house being there), but which Harry grandly referred to as "Sheepscot Station" - something my dad found amusingly eccentric. We spent a Saturday there with Harry and a couple of other volunteers helping to frame bay 1 of the shop, which was then referred to as "the enginehouse" (with a hopeful eye on No. 9) despite there being no rolling stock on the property yet.

Life intervened after that, I let my membership lapse sometime in the late 1990s when I was in college, and I didn't return to Sheepscot for many years and so obviously missed a lot of significant developments in that time. When I rejoined the museum as a life member in 2014 after I finished graduate school, Mike Fox generously put "Member since 1990" on my membership card which I appreciate.

[Bill Reidy]

Well, Bruce, it's your fault that I am a member.  Back in the late 1990s, we both had tables at the South Shore Model Railroad Club's show at the Weymouth (MA) Middle School.  I was managing the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association's sales tables; you had a pair of tables by the windows promoting the friends group then trying to revive Edaville.  I stopped by to talk with you about Edaville, and saw about 10-12 issues of the WW&F Newsletter.  I took home copies and got hooked reading them.  What a story they told about Harry's dream coming to life!

I became an annual member, and a year later, a life member.  I then attended my first work weekend in April 2001.  As others have said, the rest is history...

[Benjamin Richards]

My first experience with the museum was in fact hearing it. My in-laws live on Golden Ridge Rd, which is just across 218 from the museum. Most days you can hear at least something from the house, and on exceptional days you can hear every whistled crossing. I think we first stopped by at VC 2017, and I joined as a life member shortly thereafter.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

In the 1980's I was a member of the Baltimore Chapter of the NRHS along with Martin Van Horn.  We became friends and he started giving me copies of the WW&F newsletter in 1995 and I joined in 1996.  My first time volunteering was Columbus Day weekend, 1997 which just happened to be the first planned track weekend with a goal of building the first curve and crossing (now Brook Crossing).  It was a great weekend where I met Harry, Fred, Alan, John, Jason, Roger, Marcel, Dana and Zack.  Friendships began that weekend which continue today.       

[John McNamara]

Maine Narrow Gauge held a "Railfair" in 1995. Two people represented the WW&F at one of the tables, Harry Percival and Jason Lamontagne. As the saying goes, "the rest is history." I think my first work was at the same Work Weekend that Stewart cited.

[Allan Fisher]

In 1995, our family rented a house on Damariscotta Lake and while my son and I were exploring we came upon a little railroad station and a funny looking 1/3 portion of a car shop - but what stopped us was the very short stretch of two-foot gauge track outside the station.

Just as we pulled off the road to get a better look, a young fellow came out of the car shop. We approached him and asked - isn't this the original railroad grade that the two-foot steam locomotive stored in a barn in Connecticut came from?  And Jason answers, "yeh, do you want to see it?"

Started volunteering that summer and Bruce Wilson helped "mentor" me into the organization. Been hooked ever since.

[Daniel Moreau]

I've lived in the Hallowell/Augusta/Gardiner area for nearly 3 or so years, and it was very recent that I got back into trains as an interest (as many of us, I was obsessed with trains as a kid, but I "grew out of it", then did a total 360 back into having an interest for trains for a variety of different reasons). A couple of years or so ago, I learned that the Maine two-footers were an actual historical thing and not a one-off of the MNG (which I grew up going to every chance I could get when my family--from Lewiston/Auburn--went down to Portland). After learning about the two-footers I naturally learned about the WW&F, which was only half an hour or so away from me. I emailed Ed and Steve last year to volunteer so I could get out of the house more often. But a couple of weeks after writing that email I ended up buying a house, so my time was pretty much full with projects. It wasn't until April of this year that I decided the house was "good enough" that I didn't need to spend every waking hour fixing things. And I decided that the fall volunteer orientation day would be the perfect time for me to actually start volunteering. And I've been hooked ever since.

[Jeff Schumaker]

I drove up to Maine in 1992 to see the Sandy River operation. There was a train show in Portland, so I stopped in to see what I might find. There was a fellow from the 470 Club with a table. On it were some newsletters from the Sheepscot Valley Railroaders. He gave me a couple and mentioned that the museum had only been around for a few years. I went looking for it, and like James, I must have driven down every road but Cross Rd.

Back home, I wrote to the president, Joe Roozicki (phonetic spelling), and expressed an interest in joining the museum. In the summer of 1993, I met Joe in Gardiner, and he led me to the museum. There I met Bruce, and he and I set the ties in bays 2 and 3 of the old car shop.
With the exception of 2020, I been coming up every year since then

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

In Fall 2017 on the table of the volunteers' refectory of the Tourist railway of Pithiviers- Loiret- France I came across  a magazine called" Voie Etroite",there was a report with great pictures about the WW&F Ry Museum in and I was hooked. In October 2017 I joined the organization and since then I have been following all the stunning achievements the skillful and commited volunteers have done.

[Dave Buczkowski]

It was Labor Day 1996, after a disastrous two weeks' vacation on Cape Cod our family accepted an invitation to stay the weekend with friends in New Harbor. On our way home coming down Route 1 I saw a sign for the Museum. My wife indulged me for the detour though she grew increasingly concerned the farther we traveled inland. What I saw wasn't much - a standard gauge quarry locomotive that was too big to fit on the short section of narrow gauge tracks that were laid and an incomplete car barn. The place was deserted so we left. We stopped in the next year and the tracks ran almost out of site. There was activity that day. A strange man who turned out to be Fred approached our minivan and invited us to take a train ride. Our accommodations were Flatcar 118 with wooden rails and folding chairs for seats pulled by No. 52. We had barely sat down when we reached End of Track.
When the ride was over, Fred wisely told Gail that she should have me come up to volunteer for the upcoming Fall Work Weekend as it would keep me out of other mischief. Thereafter, when Fred needed a volunteer crew he would call Gail to say the "boys" needed me. She was completely unable to refuse his requests, Nor was I, including the day we loaded coal by hand from a cellar into a 10 wheeler in Raymond (Eleven Chimneys). The folks I met that day at Sheepscot were very welcoming and remain good friends to this day.
The rest is history.