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Wiscasset, Waterville &
aly e
coll (ER Farmington ware — ‘
. Railway Museum , SHEEPSCOT STATION, ALNA, MAINE 04535-0242
November/December 2001
Fe; oe A
December 1, 2001: WWi& FRy. volunteers roofing new machine shop, On the roof, left to right, are Zack Wyllie, Marce!
Levesque, Leon Weeks, Duncan Burns, James Patten, Gary Recave and Fred Morse. Photo by Bob Cavanagh.
Fund Drive Off to Strong Start by Larson. M. Powell, Preswient
As of November 17", just two weeks after the first reply was received from our annual fund-raising appeal, the total
amount donated by our members and friends had climbed to
$18,000), or 72% of our goal of $25,000). By December 1", the
total had reached 419,454. This is a very strong start to our
fund drive and represents the gilts of some 187 members,
whose names are listed on pages 2 and 3.
We are hoping that our final total will approach or surpass
last year's figure of roughly $29,000 and, if it does, we will have a mice “nest ee” toward the restoration of locomotive No.9. As mentioned in my letter to you all, we will earmark
anything over $20,000) toward the No. 9 fund, which we plan to keep as a separate account until the restoration work on this
historic engine bepins.
Meanwhile, work is progressing al a ferocious pace on the new machine shop, spearheaded by Zack Wyllie, Marcel
Levesque and Gary Recave, a new volunteer from Cape
Cod who has been driving up every weekend for the past
several weeks in his new camper and living in it at the
Museum at night alter working full time on the machine
shop part of Friday and all day Saturday, Those who have also helped include Bob Cavanagh, James Patten, Fred Morse, Rick Sisson, Leon Weeks, Dwight Winkley and other
member's.
The new shop is now completely ftfamed and by the
weekend of December 1", all of the roof rafters were up
and about three-quarters of the roof had been boarded in
preparation for shingling. You may remember that lhe “pit™
for servicing locomotives and olher equipment was
completed earlier this past summer and then when the
Marine Corps was at the Museum in August, they poured the conerete floor.
We are putting a substantial amount of money into
materials for this major mew structure and are hoping that it
Visit our web page at: https! Awweewwiry.ore
can be completely closed in before the first big snowfall, Our
plan is to store the boxcar in the shop this winter and eventually, install a heating plant in the building so that repair and constraction
work can proceed indoors in a warm place all year round. ‘To get the boxcar or any other equipment into the new
shop will, of course, require rails leading inte the building
plus a switch in the yard to conmect them to the main line, Por this project, Jason Lamontagne has been hard at work
building and installing a three-way “stub switch”, similar to those used on the Monson Railroad and other Maine two- footers, so that our visitors and volunteers will be able to sec what one of these unique pieces of hardware looks like.
Installation of this switch, plus laying of the short stretch of
track from itto the machine shop, will hopefully be completed
by early December.
While all of this work at Sheepscot station is underway, our track crew has also been laboring away at ballasting and
aligning the new main line rail that was pul down earlier this
summer and fall, "Thishas required a huge amount of stone ballast
for the arca just before Hall's Crossing. The weather in November has been unusually mild for Maine and if this trend continues, so will the work ofthe track crew but, of course, this could all change
by the time you receive this newsletter.
The plan al present, as James Patten mentioned im our last issue, is to have a big “ballast spreading and tamping
weekend” next April instead of our usual spring tracklaying weekend, with the goal of getting as much as possible of the
1,350 feet or so of new rail laid in October to the Humason
Brook trestle in service for the summer Make your plans now to be on hand for this event!
We are also beginning preliminary work on plans for
the construction of a new fatwar that will enable us double the
amount of ballast hauled at present by Hatcar 118. This will be the second piece of rolling stock constructed entirely from scratch
in our jvm shops (the caboose was the first} and the initial cosis
of material for this project will be-covered by the $2,000 crant we received tn June ftom the Amberst Railway Society,
Many of you have included some very kind notes of encouragement with your gifts to our annual appeal, all of which
are tread and greatly appreciated. | would just like to quote from
one such letter | received from Mr, Stephen King (not the author) of Rocky Mount, Virginia, who wrote as follows:
“T wanted to note that the latest newsletler
(September/October 2001) is one of the best yet, and
really illustrates how much care and effort the volunteers
and olbers are contributing to the ongoing WW. & F
projects. [| am simply amazed at the resourcefulness and dedication of the group,
“Lam sure that | speak for many, who like myself
have not been able to visit the site, and lift a single tie or
shovel a single sooop of ballast, that we deeply apprecale the effors of all of the volunteers. One day when I get the opportunity to visit ihe railway, 0 can look forward
to enjoying the sights and sounds of extreme narrow
gauge as it may have existed 100 years ago.
“In the US., I consider the W.W.e F. the “Ffestiniog” of railroad restorations judging by the attention to detail and accuracy of the repairs to #10's boiler, or Marcel’s pilot and car building
carpentry... Keep up the great work!! Weare all looking forward to the day that #9) wall steam again under her
own power with a new boiler’
Our sincere thanks to Mr. King, who incidentally, is the General Manager of the Phillips & Rangeley Railway,
a 7/8" scale Maine two-foot narrow gauge. We'll try to
keep earning his support and that of our other members
for many, Many years to come.
Donors to Our 2001 Annual Appeal Listed below are the names of all of the donors to our annual appeal, as of Saturday, December 1". We thank each
and every one of you for your most generous response to our appeal and will include the names of other donors following this date in our next issue, We need everyone's help to reach our goal!'!
David D. Ashenden
James E, Auman
George B. Bartlett
Mark Baytala
Fred Bergmann
Paul A. Berry Robert D. Bissell
James B. Bocock
Richard V. Bourdon
James O, Brace
Morrison W. Brinker
Nick Brown
Ben Brown
John Cameron Brown, Jr. George Burdick
Jim Amato Martin J. Butler
Jack & Sara Angel William H. Butler
John P, Ascher John Campbell Sumner T. Carlson
Richard L. Carroll
Wilfred C. Chesebrough
Richard A. Chiodo
Jim Church
Steven J. Conard
R, Richard Conard
Gilbert F. Corey George C. Corey
Donald Cornell
Stephen J. Corson Jeff Costello
Allan B. Cox
Christopher A. Coyle William Croco
0O.R. Cummings
David M. Cummins
Wayne Daniels
Charles A. Davis
Philip DeChene
Descano Alpine & Pacific Ry Bran Dodge
Thomas Donahue
Merrill L. Donahue
Richard W. Drury Robert H. Edgar
Marvin $. Edgerton Robert D, Eggleston Warren L, Eldridge Robert W. Emerson
George H. Emmons Wes Enman
David 5. Eskeland
Wesley J. Ewell
Pat Fahey
Gordon H. Fay
Leslie Fossel George H. Freeman Arthur & Dorie French
Warren R. Gay
Chester G. Genman Charlie Goodwin
Samuel E. Guild Tony Hannold John D, Hansen
Tracy K. Hastings Stephen F. Healy Jerome M. Hebda
John J. Hilton
Robert L. Hogan Dick Houser
Robert F. Howard
Thomas H. Hughes
Malcolm & Mary Hunt Charles Jakebsen
George N. Johnson
Rey. Ernest B. Johnson
Robert C. Jones
Paul E. Kehoe
Timothy A. Kelly Nelson F. Kennedy
Stephen D, King
Ben Kittredge
June E, Koeppe Jane & John Kofler
David E, Lamson
John Lauer
Cliff Leighton R.E. Lyon & Son David C. MacDonald
Duncan Mackiewicz
John Manley Christopher McChesney Robert J. McGuire
Bill McLin
John E. McNamara
Walter G. Miete
Robern W. Moffatt
Fred 5. Morse
C.H. Morse
Weldon & Naomi Nelson
William H. Norton
Winford T. Nowell
Douglas V. O'Dell Walter Orloff
Robert 5, Paine
Gregory B. Pani John F. Paolin
Francis H. Parker
Robert M. Parker, Jr,
Phyllis H. Patten
Gerard T. Paul
Bob Perry
Mason M. Phelps
Thatcher B. Pinkham, Jr.
Jeffrey M. Plate
David N. Porter
George Pounder
Sam Powers
Douglas H. Pratt
Steven H. Provencher
William L, Quance
Harold Raymond
Joshua Recave
William E. Reed
PE. Reeves
Joseph Reid
Bill Reidy
D.W. Reynolds C. Stewart Rhine
Clifford Richardson
John Robinson
Avard Rogers
Alan P. Russell
Bill & Sue Sample Richard Sawtelle
Morton R. Schoenberg, DDS
Jeff Schumaker
William C. Secor
Mrs, John Serafin
John N. Sharood
Robert B. Shaw
Clifton L. Shuttle
Kenneth Sidclinger Richard K. Sisson
Ralph Smith
Lewis Smith Gary A. Sodergren John L. Spelce Royal H. Spencer, Jr.
Russell G. St. John
Robert A. Stantan
Stanley P & Marion Strout | Julius J. Stuck [I
| Ralph E. Sweeney
Keith Taylor Donaid Tibbetts Richard & Jeane Tilley Henry §. Tinkham John & Sandra Toohey
In Memory of T, Torgerson
Michael W. Torreson
Martin K. Wan Horn Charlie Vasiliades Harry J. Wagner III
Bob & Effie Wallace F VanWormer Walsh Neville Wardle Ron Wartinbee
William Weidner
Bill Wheeler
Grant D, Whipple James R. Wiggin
Chet Wilkinson
Robert C. Williams
Inna J, Wilnelm
M, Dwight Winkley Richard L, Witteborg
Leon Wood
Virginia Ballard Wojno Charles Young Herman R, Zapf
Steve Zuppa
December 1, 2001: New, three-way stub switch fabricated by Jason Lamontagne has been installed
in Sheepscot yard and will connect main line to new machine shop. Photo by Bob Cavanagh.
W.W. & FE. Musing No. 64 Oy Ellis Walker
First of all, | have a couple of items concerning the location of freight doors in W.W.d F. stations that I discussed
in Musing No. 62 (July/August 2001), [raised the question of why most of the freight doors were on the south end of
the building regardless of which side of the track the station
was on. [received a nice letter from member Henry Tinkham who wrote as follows; “T have lived through 80 winters in
Maine and as you know our winter storms come from the Northeast, so it makes good sense to put the freight doors
on the south end which would be the warmest point on the building.” As a person who grew up in the State of Maine I am ashamed that I didn't think of that myself,
The other item concemed the location of the freight
door at North Whitefield. I wondered why il was the only station with its door on the north side, While reading through
Bob Jones’ Two Feet To Tidewater looking for something else I came across a paragraph on page 110 which said that
in 1907 the North Whitefield station was moved across to
the west side of the track. The move involved turning the
station around so that the front would still face the tracks,
which means that the station as originally built had its freight door on the south side. The builders of the W.W.& F. displayed more consistency than I gave them credit for,
Now for the main subject of this Musing. Every student
of the W.W.d F knows that the railroad’s fortunes took a turn for the better after Carson Peck took over in 1907_-An analysis of annual reports shows how this was done, In the
accompanying chart | have tabulated figures for 3 years prior
to 1907 and three years after (the years 1909 and 1911 are
inissing from my library so I have used 1912), The year 1907 includes six months of the old regime and six months
of Mr.Peck’s management. First of all, Mr. Peck spent a ton
ofmoney fixing up the roadbed and buying new equipment
including locomotives 6 and 7 which is not shown in the tabulation, Also, revenues, which had hovered around
$42,000 in the three previous years, started to rise reaching
over $77,000 four years later, Net operating income which
had been losses from 1904 to 1906 changed over to profits for the four years starting in 1907.
At first glance it looked like Mr, Peck had been able to drum up some more business, but a look at the ton-mile
figures show that this wasn't so. Ton-miles are arrived at by multiplying total tons of revenue freight carried by the miles
each ton moved over the railroad. Total ton-miles actually dropped 5 to 10 percent after 1907, se how did he do it?
A look at the ton-mile revenue gives the clue. Ton-
mile revenue is the average cost for hauling one ton of freight for une tile, Prior to the Peck regime ton-mile revenue had been around $.035, In the first full year of Pecks operation the revenue had jumped to $.053, a 50% increase, and
increased further to $.098 by 1912. Either a series of rate increases was instituted or the traffic changed from low rated commodities like pulpwood to higher rated goods such as fresh vegetables. Probably it was a combination of both
since we know that the potato business, for example, became
a big item at about that time,
Regardless of how it was accomplished, the W.W.c& F.
was pul on ad solid footing which allowed it to operate as long as it did. There is no doubt in my mind that, if Carson
Peck had not stepped in, the W.W.d& F would have expired by the time of World War I.
On another subject, does anyone have any information
about Ford’s Mill in Whitefield? It seems like it could have
been a good source of business for the W.W.dé F. However,
[heard a-story when I was very young that the mill when
built contained the very latest in milling equipment, but that when it was completed it never ran as a mill. T haven't any
idea if this is true or, if so, why the mill never operated. Can
someone help me?
Don't forget the Amherst Railway Society show in Springfield on February 2 and 3, 2002. We will be there.
W.W.L& EF, Ry,
Selected Statistics
Operating
Year Income
Operating
Expense
1904 $41,929 $50,435 1905 41 Pru 41,095
1906 42,650 51,418 197 43,962 43.631
1908 55,045 52,122 1910 56,580 50,722 1912 TT A18 75,989
Ref: Maine Railroad Commissioners’ Reports,
Operating Freight
Profil/(Loss)
(38,506) ( 9/325)
{ 8,768) Ton-Mile
Ton-Miles Income
713,030 $.035
763,746 085
699,836 38
331 670.404 139
2 tes 46,250) 53
5.958 694.326 065
[429 672,543 098
P21
August 11, 2001: Annual Picnic weekend finds a variety of equipment at Sheepscot station. On left is Model! T “station hack” from Boothbay Railway Museum. In rear by enginehouse are former Monson RR Model T railcar from Boothbay
and ex-Sandy River Model T crew car from Owl's Head Transportation Museum. In right foreground is Model T “station hack” owned by Arthur French, behind which is WW.d& F. engine No. 10. Photo by Arthur French.
October 27, 2001: Gary Recave, lefi, and his son, Joshua, hand up Halloween Jack O'Laniers to
Fred Morse in the caboose, Photo by Bob Cavanagh,
W.W.& F. Sheepscot Section Crew by James Patten
The track crew this year has tamed to an idea as old as railroads:
that of the section. Jason Lamontagne, at the beginning of the year,
noted that at one time he knew every stone on the mulroad and every
problem area, but is now unable to turn that same attention to it because of working on ]Qand because the railroad is longer, Several
of the long-time volunteers worked oul a method of splitting the railroad into sections, with track crews going oul roughly cach week
toa different section.
Section 1 is my section, and includes the yard al Sheepscot and the main line rails to the MP 5.0 milepost. Section 2 is Jason’s, and runs from MP 5.0 to the south end of Cock-Eye Curve. Section 3 is Dana Deering’s, and his includes all ofCock-
Eye Curve. Section 4 starts at the north end of the curve, and
nuns to the trestle. It belongs to Steve Zuppa, Each section is roughly a quarter mile long,
Since early October each section has been hit at least once,
with a significant amount of work on Section 4 south of Hall's Crossing in mid-November. A number of surface alignment and level problems have been addressed in that time on all sections, The
work on Section 4 brought up the track to a steady 1% prade up to
the crossing. This area had to be lifted over a foot in some areas.
Part of a tack crew's work that has been neglected in recent
years is that of keeping the growth on the night-ol-way beside the
track under control. Many of us would like to do it but usually there justisn'Ltime. We're very fortunate that Allan Fisher has stepped in
to help us with this. Allan, a recently retired executive from Conrail
RE ¥
and Norfolk Southern now living full time in nearby Nobleboro, has come over nearly every day since mid-August to spend a couple
hours behind the brush cutters. Since our right-ol-way is usually
cut sixty-six feet wide, with many places not having been cut for
several years, it's taking him quite a while to cut the whole line.
Theresult is abeantifully clear right-of-way cleared of packerbrush
and baby trees. Thank you Allan’ With work on the machine shop swillly progressing, effors
have tumed to building a switch for track to be built int this bay. After much discussion it was decided to build a three-way stub
switch, located where the current switch is onto the team track.
We have wanted to build a stub switch for a long time, in order to demonstrate such switches to our visitors. The three-way switch
worked! operationally torus, in onder to eliminate some awkward clearances, There's a very clear view of such a switch on page 81 of the reprint of Moody's The Maine Two-Footers. This switch
was used by the Sandy River RR around 1905 in their Phillips yard. ILalso has aunwque switchstand which we will try to emulate.
The yard layout will also be altered a bit. The Bay 3 lead track. the switch for which is currently located on the Bay 2 track
immediately afier the team track switch, will be relocated to be on
the Bay 4 lead track, An additional track will be built on the west
side of the shop, requiring another switch, The new layout will
provide us with substantially more storage space, We'll have a total of seven tracks in the yard. In the next newsletter Pll detail the assernbly of the new switch,
November 3, 2001; Annual “Albion Days” found our track crew hard at work laying
another stretch of rail in Albion yard. Photo by Bob Cavanagh.
October 27, 2001; Rick Sixson hands up Jack O' Lanterns to ins wife, Brenda,
as preparations are made for Halloween train. Photo by Bob Cavanagh.
To join the W.W.& F. Ry. Museum or to send a contribution (tax deductible) please use the form below,
a ee ee ee — — ———EE——_—————
ZIP
(Please make checks payable to “W.W.& F. Ry. Museum.”)
| Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum I Sheepscot Station, Alna, Maine 04535-0242
i Please sign me up as follows: |
Life membership ....cccccccsssessescsece (LJ $200.00 Additional Contribution a r-
! Annual membership w...10...+0c0.0 [] 420.00 Receipt Requested
; NAME
I ADDRESS. I I I I I 1 i Lk all
October 27, 2001: Locomotive No, 10 and the caboose enter Sheepscot yard after a trial run for the Halloween train,
Diesel No. 32 on main line on right. Phote by Bob Cavanagh.
Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington
Railway Museum
Sheepscot Station Alna, ME 04535-0242