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.

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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