Author Topic: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?  (Read 2034 times)

John McNamara

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #15 on: October 01, 2024, 12:05:53 AM »
.... 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.
A photograph and list of participants in the Great Coal Transfer is available in the March/April 2002 WW&F Newsletter archive. The event involved about 38 tons of coal (regrettably anthracite) and took place on three weekends in March 2002. The "cellar" Dave mentioned was a crudely constructed multi-room underground house / survival shelter.

Dave Buczkowski

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #16 on: October 01, 2024, 01:24:21 PM »
John,
That page isn't available it seems.
Dave

Ed Lecuyer

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #17 on: October 01, 2024, 02:04:14 PM »
Quote
That page isn't available it seems.

Reminder, here is how to access the Newsletter archive:

1. Visit: https://wwfry.org/newsletters/

2. Enter the 4-digit passcode familiar to all WW&F "regulars". Those who are museum members who do not know the passcode can message me (or find it at: https://forum.wwfry.org/index.php/topic,4422.0.html )

3. The entire collection of Newsletters is posted, including the March/April 2002 edition, which does include a nice photo of the coal crew.

I have attached said photo, below.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2024, 02:07:28 PM by Ed Lecuyer »
Ed Lecuyer
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John Kokas

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #18 on: October 01, 2024, 04:53:41 PM »
Gee, who are all those young whippersnappers ???
Moxie Bootlegger

Benjamin Richards

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #19 on: October 04, 2024, 09:20:25 PM »
...the president, Joe Roozicki (phonetic spelling)...

Ruzyckij. (Only because I'm going through back issues of newsletters...)

Richard Cavalloro

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #20 on: October 05, 2024, 07:57:44 AM »
My interest goes back to Edaville Railroad which I visited often as a child.  I had gotten into Colorado Narrow Gauge as an adult and on a narrow gauge webpage there was an article about the big move of Edaville equipment back to Maine and the story of a locomotive "hidden" in a barn in Connecticut.  A chat with a friend got me interested in the WW&F and led to a few visits and one fall work weekend.  I was hooked!!  Interesting tidbit....I attended the screening of the movie about #9 in Ct and dicovered that Dale King, who helped facilitate the transfer of #9 to the museum was my high school chemistry teacher.  I sure wish I knew that back then, I would have bothered him with all sorts of railroad related questions......
  Rick C

Bob Holmes

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #21 on: October 05, 2024, 09:07:39 AM »
Joe Ruzyckij was honored with the Percival Award in 2020.

Ted Miles

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #22 on: October 05, 2024, 12:05:07 PM »
Since Bruce Wilson asked the question; I have to report he helped me get the back issues of the newsletters; so with his help I now have all of them on paper. By the way, the first years were on legal size paper. Computers are fine but i am an old fashioned hands on person. I have reread those pages and it never fails to impress me about the hard work that the early members were able to accomplish. I belong to three narrow gauge museums and the the WW&F Railway Museum is just outstanding! This old guy can not wait to see the #10 back in steam and the #11 finished!  TM WW&F Life Member since 1989 and Build 11 Contributor   

Bruce Wilson

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #23 on: October 05, 2024, 02:33:35 PM »
Ted,

I remember when you joined as an Annual Member in 1996. My membership cards were accurate up until 2001, which at that time, I believe Allan was handling the membership duties. Maybe Mike can weigh in with the date you upgraded to Life.

I also remember your letter of introduction being signed by you, as Ted Miles, "newest member". I got quite a chuckle out of that and have noticed in your forum postings, there is a similar closing with "archives contributor", "build 11 contributor" or "narrow gauge enthusiast". Those also get me to crack a smile.

I'm sure that within the museum's archives are the collection of "Gazette" magazines that you mailed. Several of those have the name of the late Ted Wurm written on the front cover.

The amount of support the museum has enjoyed from members far and wide, has always amazed me.
Wanted: Copies of correspondence and photographs from "first generation narrow gage railfans" such as Linwood Moody, Dick Andrews, Lawrence Brown, Ellis Atwood, H.T. Crittenden and others. Interested in all two foot (U.S.) rail operations, common carrier, industrial/mill and park/museum.

Bruce Wilson

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #24 on: October 05, 2024, 02:56:41 PM »
Bob, Ben and Jeff have all mentioned Joe Ruzcykij in their comments within this thread. As I was washing the siding on my house this afternoon, I thought of Joe and the impact he had on the museum's development.

While Harry Percival brought family, friends, neighbors and even co-workers at his place of employment into the project, Joe took things to a much broader level.

Joe treated each person to his stories of the railroad and to the goals the group envisioned. He took a hands on approach to cultivating those relationships and brought in many narrow gage modelers into the membership. Gary Kohler gave early support to the Sheepscot Valley Railroaders through the pages of his
Maine Two Foot Modeler Magazine. Folks from all over began to call and write for information. I was one of them and pestered Joe to no end with questions and comments.

Often Joe would rearrange his contracting jobs to allow him to be at Sheepscot to meet with someone, open for a tour or even head off on a project, such as digging for old spikes up by the remains of the Head Tide tank.

Members would often be invited to sleep, shower and have a bean at the Ruzcykij home on the weekends. Railroad stories ran late into those evenings!

So many talented people came together to get the job of building the railroad underway. Zack, Jason and Harry always visible in those early days, Joe backing it up with constant support and encouragement and financial donations. The museum's history now long at over 30 years, Joe's time by comparison, relatively short. Not forgotten by me for his important talents and many contributions.
Wanted: Copies of correspondence and photographs from "first generation narrow gage railfans" such as Linwood Moody, Dick Andrews, Lawrence Brown, Ellis Atwood, H.T. Crittenden and others. Interested in all two foot (U.S.) rail operations, common carrier, industrial/mill and park/museum.

Bob Holmes

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #25 on: October 05, 2024, 05:56:50 PM »
Clearly not forgotten by many who nominated him for the Percival Award in 2020. Your memories greatly add to the record we have of Joe, and we will save them.

Thanks again Bruce.  Your involvement in the Forum and the awards committee and more are greatly appreciated as we continue to try to better understand and appreciate the memories of the early years!!

Bob

Gavin Dalessandro

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Re: How did you hear of the W.W. & F. Ry. Museum?
« Reply #26 on: October 07, 2024, 10:19:14 AM »
So I was introduced a lot later than most of us but the first time i heard of the WW&F was is a tourist train guidebook from 2013 that I had gotten for a christmas present, so being the 6 year old I was I begged my parents to take me up so one weekend in 2014 when I was staying with my grandparents in Rockland, they took me down to wiscasset, that was the first and only time i have seen 10 run and made a few small trips every couple of years or so but it wasn't until recently maybe 2-3 years ago that I started to come up on the regular.