#3 & #4 History?

[Matthew Gustafson]

Any info on both of them?

[Bill Piche]

Other than what has been said before?

#3 is currently at Boothbay undergoing boiler work (new tubes and some crown sheet strengthening I think) for its Form 4 certification.

#4 is resting in the MNGRR engine house. #4 was winterized like it is every January through April.

MNG is actually having their first winter work-session on Saturday to discuss and begin the years work on #4 and #7.

[Pete "Cosmo" Barrington]

Other than what has been said before?

#3 is currently at Boothbay undergoing boiler work (new tubes and some crown sheet strengthening I think) for its Form 4 certification.

Wait,... it IS? Last I heard #3 was still up in Philips on the SR&RL museum having it's flues changed.
#7's BOILER was moved to Alna for work BY Boothbay, but unless Bob Troupe forgot to mention it, #3 remains in Phillips.

[Bill Piche]

Other than what has been said before?

#3 is currently at Boothbay undergoing boiler work (new tubes and some crown sheet strengthening I think) for its Form 4 certification.

Wait,... it IS? Last I heard #3 was still up in Philips on the SR&RL museum having it's flues changed.
#7's BOILER was moved to Alna for work BY Boothbay, but unless Bob Troupe forgot to mention it, #3 remains in Phillips.

Possibly me shooting my mouth off a little fast. I will check with the other MNG guys this weekend. But if I heard correctly, #3 is in Boothbay so that they can do the flue work there instead of dragging up to Phillips to do the work.

[Stephen Hussar]

Monson 3 is definitely at Boothbay, and B&SR 7's boiler is in Alna. Also, the work being done to No 7's boiler is not being done by Boothbay.

[Pete "Cosmo" Barrington]

Ok, guess that's one for my "news" file.

[Steve Klare]

Matt,

Monson #3 and #4 are two of the great Maine Two Foot relics. If you want to understand the whole story you need to find the book "Maine Two Footers" by Lynwood Moody. It is not the most detailed of the books but it is well told by a man who actually saw them all. He also was there when they set up Edaville and lead the hunt for equipment to save.

It was my introduction to the two footers years ago.

[James Patten]

...you need to find the book "Maine Two Footers" by Linwood Moody...

...which we sell in our gift shop, both the original edition and the 1998 reprint edition, edited by veteran two-foot author Bob Jones.

[Steve Klare]

Good Plan!:

Learn the Legend and support the WW&F too!

The Jones edition is nicer as far as photographs and layout, but then again the original Moody edition has Moody's own captions on the photos. There's something just plain traditional about the 1958 Moody book.

The important thing is there is a lot more to these lines than just the trains. There were two foot gauge lines all over the world and a lot of them operated trains a great deal like the Maine roads.  What's special about our Two Footers is a great story of people struggling against the elements and the times they lived in and the hard work and ingenuity they brought to work every day.

Days that I feel like complaining because the coffee is a little cruddy at work I think of those guys out on a plow train for a couple of days at a time trying to push back a blizzard and I gain perspective pretty fast!