Dairy Car 65 at the Amherst Railway Society Show

Wiscasset, Waterville &
Farmington
Railway Museum
SHEEPSCOT STATION, PO BOX 242, ALNA, ME 04535-0242
March / April 2014
Car 65 amidst the crowd in one of the buildings at the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show
Photo by Brendan Barry
Dairy Car 65 at the Amherst Railway Society Show
From postings at forum.wwfry.org
At the 2012 Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby
Show, Show Director John Sacerdote asked whether it was
possible for the WW&F to provide a real piece of Maine twofoot rolling stock for visitors to tour and enjoy. He promised a
suitable display area and a percentage of the transportation costs
between Alna, Maine, and West Springfield, Massachusetts.
In June 2012, Museum members installed the Turner Centre
Dairying car (65) at its historic display location, the Wiscasset
Creamery pier. Part of the plan for displaying this car was to
return it to Alna during the off season.
A search began for a suitable trailer to display the dairy
car at the Amherst Show and to move the car between Alna
and Wiscasset. In January 2013, Brendan Barry found a good
candidate, and the Museum purchased it.
The trailer that he found was 30 feet long, had a 5-foot
beaver tail, rested on twelve wheels, and was rated for 20 tons.
This rating was more than enough for the 6.5-ton dairy car.
While the trailer was in generally good structural condition,
Mike Fox spent a good part of 2013 working on the springs,
brakes, tires, and wiring. He also added additional cross
members, low-profile box-beam rails, and a detachable track
panel to assist in loading the car.
There were over 20 members involved in getting things
ready for car 65 to travel. And as noted, the preparations went
back over a year. There were many people to thank; Mike
Fox spent hours modifying the trailer to hold narrow gauge
rolling stock. Brendan Barry worked many nights on a number
of parts of the trailer, purchased and installed a new winch,
provided his own truck, and drove most of the night to get the
car to and from West Springfield. Without the dedication of
Visit our web page at: http://www.wwfry.org
these two volunteers, the milk car would not have gone to the
show. Steve Zuppa built a nice set of steps with a landing that
was perfect for visitors to safely enter and exit the car. Stephen
Hussar designed and installed a beautiful lighting system that
highlighted the car’s interior and displays.
There were many additional hard-working people involved
in loading, securing, unloading, building the display track,
and staffing the display and WW&F table. These included
Stewart and Cindy Rhine, Joe and Dawn Fox, Bill Reidy,
Dwight Winkley, Marcel Levesque, John McNamara, and
John Robertson. Many of these folks brought work clothes
and street clothes for all the jobs they would face. Between
travel time and show hours, several volunteers spent over 50
hours over a five day period.
Thursday and Friday were vendor/exhibitor set-up days,
and the car was open 5 hours on Thursday and 10 hours on
Friday. Saturday and Sunday were the public days and the car
was open over 10 hours on Saturday and 9 hours on Sunday.
Counting the set-up days and the public days, the car was on
exhibit for 34 hours.
Stewart Rhine, who served as car host for most of that
time, reported that it was a bit tough to count the foot traffic
since it was very heavy most of the time. Taking an average
half hour period of steady visitors on Saturday, and factoring
that number into the hours for the four days, the numbers were
over 1,600.
Stewart reported that it was quite an experience with
comments running the spectrum from funny to technical. One
dealer came in and said, "Gee, I brought over a hundred box
cars and you guys only brought one?” Many visitors asked
questions about the car’s construction and use. Often, people
would come inside and review the displays, then go out and
look under the car. At times there were so many people in the
car that those outside would look in through the open doors
and then walk around taking photos of the car’s exterior. Some
took detailed views of the trucks and truss rods.
There were many children, and the word most often heard
when visitors entered was “Wow!” Many asked about twofoot gauge railroads, box car construction, dairy operations,
and the tasks of railroad and creamery workers. A good many
asked about the Museum, and the car crew gave out nearly a
case of WW&F brochures. The favorite question posed was,
“How did you get this car in here?” Brendan had his laptop
set up with photos of the car being unloaded, which helped
answer that question. Young and old enjoyed the displays, and
conversations with our docents ranged from a minute or two
to nearly 15 minutes. Quite a number said they would visit
Sheepscot this year.
The days at the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby
Show were what the WW&F is all about, working together for
the good of the Museum and presenting narrow gauge history
to hundreds of people. One visitor put it best when she said,
“This is a beautiful portable museum.”
Amherst Railway Society
Heritage Award
Near the end of the Railroad Hobby Show, the Amherst
Railway Society’s president, Sudro Brown, presented a
Heritage Award check to the WW&F Railway Museum. Zack
Wyllie was our official representative receiving the $2600
award, which was designated for renovations to the Percival
House as outlined in the 2012 Long Range Plan.
Brendan Barry drove his 4 mpg Yeti with trailer in the dark at 45 mph over 250 miles each way.
Photo by Brendan Barry
Operating Budget for 2014, With Comparison to 2013
This is the Museum’s Operating Budget for 2014, with the budget and operating results for 2013 rounded to the nearest dollar.
These numbers do not include capital funds, as those are raised during our Annual Capital Fund Drive. Gift shop sales are also
excluded, but the portion of sales that we transfer to the general fund is included.
Income
General Donations
Dues
Ticket Sales
From Museum Store
All Other Income
Expenses
Administrative
Building Maintenance
Insurance
Leases, Rents and Tax
Miscellaneous
Mortgages
Publications/Communication
Publicity
Rail Equip Maint
Special Events
Tools & Machinery
Track Maintenance
Utilities
2013 Budget
2013 Results
2014 Budget
Total Income
$17,800
16,260
18,750
10,000
3,100
$65,910
$26,942
17,005
19,465
7,800
3,011
$74,223
$20,950
15,840
19,400
10,000
2,670
$68,860
Total Expenses
$2,400
350
14,367
3776
2,840
9,066
8,592
7,980
765
2,950
1,260
1,600
9,945
$65,894
$4,032
836
16,671
3,777
1,451
9,066
7,861
6,696
3,122
3,675
1,936
453
19,121
$78,697
$2,400
750
16,476
3,790
2,965
9,066
7,997
8,980
1,965
3,100
1,410
1,500
7,935
$68,334
As shown above, 2013 was a much better year than anticipated. Ticket sales were way up over 2012 and were the highest since
2009. If Locomotive 9 becomes available in late 2014, ticket sales will exceed budget.
Last year’s Utilities were higher because of a purchase of coal and a pre-purchase of heating oil. Rail Equipment Maintenance
was much higher than budgeted, not because of railroad equipment, but because of rubber-tired vehicle maintenance. Rubber-tired
vehicles include a Model AA truck, a Kubota backhoe, Mitsubishi and John Deere tractors, and the trailer shown on page 2.
James Patten
In-Kind Donations July – December 2013
The Museum received the following in-kind donations between July 1 and December 31, 2013:
David Buczkowski – Cookbooks and books on CD for the yard sale; Dean Copeland – Towmotor forklift; Paul Crabb – Sears
shop vacuum; Ken Fleming – an air compressor; David Follansbee – railroad coins, cufflinks, pins, and a mug; Cynthia Hamburger
– five railroad lanterns; Bill Horton – a grader blade for the John Deere tractor; Jim Hueber – two antique riveters and an antique
plate roller; Susan Longo – Annual Picnic supplies, barrel cooler, and other supplies for Victorian Christmas; Ken Maguire – book
“In the Age of Steam;” Phyllis Patten – items for the yard sale; Cindy Rhine – Annual Picnic supplies, shades for the freight shed, a
grill, bookmarks and magnets for sale in the gift shop; Stewart Rhine – the building permit for the garage, registration for the trailer;
George Pithcard – archival items; Bennett Rockney – Tracker IV Metal Detector; Glenn Schwass – a track cart; Craig Simoneau
– a large open-ended wrench; Jonathan St. Mary – socket drivers, diesel fuel, and jerry cans; Dwight Winkley – 10x10 tarp.
National Train Day
National Train Day, (www.nationaltrainday.com), a celebration of professional railroading and the hobby, occurs in Maine
Saturday, May 10 in three locations: the Brunswick Amtrak station, at the Airport Mall in Bangor, and at the Maine Narrow Gauge
Railroad in Portland. Events continue from 10:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M.
Annual Meeting Set for May 3, 2014
The 25th annual meeting of the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum will be held at 2 P.M. on Saturday, May
3, 2014 at the Alna Meeting House, which is on Route 218 two miles north of Cross Road and Sheepscot Station. The Nominating
Committee has prepared the following slate of director candidates for the three openings for election to three-year terms from
2014 to 2017:
Gordon Davis is a retired electronics engineer who now
lives full time in Alna, where he and his family have owned
land for over 130 years. Part of that land is now leased to the
Museum for a portion of our right-of-way. He recently served
on the Alna Board of Selectmen and has been a member of
our Board since 1996.
Zack Wyllie operates A.E. Wyllie Plumbing in Warren, ME.
He has been superintendent for the past sixteen years. He
has worked on restoring the flatcar and boxcar, constructing
the caboose, extending the station platform, constructing
the machine shop, water tower, and garage, and clearing the
roadbed. He has been a member of our Board since 1994.
Steve Zuppa operates his own building and remodeling
business. In addition to his role as president for the past six
years, he serves as section foreman, tracklayer, brakeman,
fireman, engineer, water tower carpenter, garage carpenter,
and in his words, “in any capacity where I can be of use.” He
has been a member of our Board since 2002.
While the present election provides only three candidates (plus write-ins) for the three director positions, the Museum’s
bylaws provide that the number of candidates may exceed the number of positions. If any members would like to be considered
as candidates for the May 2015 election of directors, they should write to the Board of Directors Nominating Committee, WW&F
Railway Museum, Sheepscot Station, Alna, ME 04535-0242.
Transitions in the “Back Office”
Mike Fox has taken on the role of Membership Secretary again, after his brief stint a few years ago. He has taken over from
Frances Hernandez, who did an excellent job in her years as Membership Secretary. I had noticed Frances seemed to be getting
busier over the course of last year (she’s an accountant), which she confirmed was the case, so we agreed to take the membership
role off her plate. Thanks for all your hard work, Frances! Mike’s wife Jodi will help Mike out from time-to-time, and their daughter
Courtney may even assist too.
Gordon and Elizabeth Davis have acquired many jobs in the last five or so years, and they have started asking for relief from
some of their tasks. They pick up and sort the mail, deposit checks, negotiate insurance, work on publicity, and many other things
that help to keep the Museum running. Steve Zuppa has agreed to pick up the publicity tasks immediately. Other tasks will be
parceled out as time goes on. Gordon and Elizabeth aren’t retiring yet, but they are working toward it.
James Patten
2-Foot Musing No. 71
Being an old man is no bowl of cherries, but it does have its
compensations. For example, when I get on a crowded subway
car, pretty young girls jump up and offer me their seats, but the
best of the compensations are memories. I have witnessed or
participated in events that are no longer possible. I have ridden
Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington train 11 from Wiscasset
to Coopers Mills. Part of the WW&F has been resurrected
to be sure, but it is not the same as the railroad that was the
connection to the outside world for several small towns. I
have also ridden the former Sandy River railcar on its regular
run from Bridgton to Bridgton Junction on the Bridgton and
Harrison.
In addition to my narrow gauge memories are memories
of trolley cars running in most cities, although they were
disappearing fast. Amazingly, trolleys are making a comeback
in several cities and more are planned. They seem to be popular
with a generation of commuters who only remember smelly
gas or diesel buses in their streets. During WWII, I had a
chance to ride the Illinois Terminal interurban from St. Louis
to Springfield, Illinois, and had dinner in their parlor-dining
car. Closer to home, there were still trolleys in Lewiston and
Portland. These were close enough to my home in Augusta
that I got a chance to ride them often.
My most impressive memories are of trains headed up
by puffing and snorting steam locomotives. One memory
in particular occurred within sight of my backyard. Our
house overlooked the Kennebec River bridge. The afternoon
westbound freight often stopped in Augusta to take water. So
as to not block a bunch of crossings, they would stop at the
east end of the bridge, cut off and run light to the standpipe
in town. The big show started when they came back, coupled
on, and started up with the full train of 80+ cars on a slight
upgrade. First the engineer would back up to take up the slack.
You could hear the clunk, clunk, clunk as the slack ran in.
Then he would reverse and start out with mighty blasts from
the stack. It was real tricky to get the train moving without
slipping the drivers. Sometimes, depending on the weight of
the train and the skill of the engineer, he would have to back
up and try again several times before he got it rolling. It was
even more impressive when the train was double-headed.
I can’t begin to describe the stack talk of both locomotives
working under full load.
With all the restoration work that is being done, it is easy
to get some feel for what life was like back then, but without
being there “it just ain’t the same.”
Ellis Walker
Mandatory Operating
Rules Reviews This Spring
It’s never too early to start planning for the next
operating season. To prepare train crews for train
operations this year, we have set the dates for the rules
review sessions. They are April 19 at 8:30 AM, April
26 at 3 PM, and May 24 at 1 PM. It is mandatory that
all train crew members attend at least one of these
reviews.
As usual, those who do not or cannot attend one of
these sessions must make alternate arrangements with
either Bob Longo or Jason Lamontagne before the final
scheduled session, or have their train qualifications
suspended until they do attend. We will not hunt you
down—it is your responsibility to stay qualified.
2013 Annual Capital Campaign
Concludes at $56,178.79!
With a total of 340 donations, the 2013 Annual Capital
Campaign finished at $56,178.79. This is an outstanding
achievement of which all of our members and friends can be
extremely proud.
Donors since January 11th include:
Stephen Burns
Tom Casper
Gordon Cochrane Jr.
Kennedy Crane III
Alan Downey
Mike Fox
GE Foundation
Frederick L Kuhns
Kenneth Maguire
Yard Sale for Number 9
In Memoriam
It is with great sadness that we report news
of the following death:
Charles Jakobsen
During the Annual Picnic on August 16th and 17th, the
Museum will be holding a yard sale for the benefit of the
Number 9 restoration project. Please bring standard yard
sale items, but please do not bring appliances, computers, or
televisions; clothing should be clean and without stains or
tears. Storage space is available at the Museum if you wish to
bring items over beforehand. Please call the Museum at 207882-4193 or Linda Zollers at 207-841-9015
Number 9 Progress Report
We have been toiling away regularly on Locomotive 9,
with work days at least twice per week. Since finishing the
quartering project and moving the engine to bay 4, we have
been focused on a short series of “main projects” as well as a
larger smattering of side projects. This approach makes more
efficient use of available labor.
Main projects have included rebuilding the rear truck
swing mechanism, completion of the linkages and attachments
under the rear deck in preparation for deck installation, design
and initial manufacture of vacuum brake diaphragms (now a
side project), and fitting the side rods and bearings to the remachined crank pins.
When we lowered the locomotive onto the rear truck in
bay 1, we found the swing links were of incorrect length
and decided to correct this after moving the engine to bay 4.
There, we designed and made new swing links, rebuilding the
remaining gear as we went.
There were numerous rear frame attachments, most of
which were related to the rear truck brakes and new grate
shaker apparatus. This included a lot of blacksmith work,
mostly completed by Eric Schade with assistance from
Jonathan St. Mary and myself. Since he had gotten so good
at it, we had Eric continue forging parts to anchor the boiler
jacket standoffs, and then attach a few components to the
rear-most standoff.
Leon Weeks is nearly finished making those standoffs,
and Wes Carpenter has spent a substantial quantity of time
producing a meticulous fitted boiler jacket template of plastic.
These two fine efforts are well worthy of commemorating with
a reproduction Russia Iron boiler jacket.
Jonathan has pushed the brake diaphragm project along,
spending many hours researching manufacturing methods and
chasing down leads. In the end, we are preparing to produce
the parts ourselves with assistance from Ron Ginger and
Eric Schade. Like the originals, they will be made of molded
rubberized cotton canvas.
Number 9 has replacement rod brasses that were installed
in Connecticut, as the original brasses were “repatriated” when
the engine sat derelict in Wiscasset in the 1930s. They have
sufficient material that we can re-machine the bearing surfaces
for our new crank pins. There will still be many years of service
on them, and we saved the time and expense of machining
entirely new brasses.
Other efforts have included Stephen Piwowarski working
on smokebox attachments, JB Smith working on miscellaneous
linkages, Bill Fortier working on fire door fittings (along with
more of Eric’s forge work), rear truck painting and assembly,
and general assistance from a number of folks including
Brendan Barry, Gordon Cook, Hansel Fardon, Ed Gilhooley,
Galo Hernandez, Greg Klein, John McNamara, Bruce
Mowbrey, James Patten, Stewart Rhine, and Zach Wyllie.
In addition, Rick Sisson has measured all of our valve gear
components and calculated our initial valve settings.
As always, I didn’t mean to leave anyone out. Please tell
me if I did so!
Jason Lamontagne
Grate shaker, water glass and try cocks, jacket template and standoffs, and hand-forged ashpan door handle
Photos by Brendan Barry
WW&F Railway Museum Spring 2014 Calendar
April 25 – 27: Spring Work Weekend at Sheepscot Station
May 3: Annual Meeting at Alna Meetinghouse 2 PM
2013 Volunteer Hours
The following is the list of everyone who volunteered their time on behalf of the WW&F in 2013. Most hours were on the
premises, but this also includes those that worked off-premises, usually behind the scenes.
Jada Bailey, Jamie Bailey, Jasmine Bailey, Jenna Bailey, Sharon Barber, Brendan Barry, Bill Baskerville, Randy Beach, Dennis
Bergstrom, Erik Bergstrom, Brent Bette, Norman Blake, Virginia Blake, David Bolduc, Brian Bollinger, Jill Bollinger, Josh Botting,
Walter Skip Breyfogle, David Buczkowski, Duncan Burns, Mike Capawana, Wes Carpenter, Bob Cavanagh, Jon Chase, Phil
Christopher, Fred Clark, Robert Coates, Steve Cobb, Dennis Collins, Alden Cook, Gordon Cook, Paul Crabb, David Crow, Bob
Curran, Elizabeth Davis, Gordon Davis, Dana Deering, Chuck Denlinger, Dan Ditullio, Jon Doody, Alan Downey, Harold Downey,
Hunt Dowse, Martha Duncan, Richard Edling, Hansel Fardon, Karl Fehlberg, Ralph Fehlberg, Russ Fellows, Allan Fisher, Ellen
Fisher, Ken Fleming, Bill Fortier, Courtney Fox, Dawn Fox, Jodi Fox, Joe Fox, Mike Fox, Joan Geisler, Brigid Gibson-Griffin, Ed
Gilhooley, John Goff, Alyson Graham, Celeste Graham, John Graham, Susan Hackett, Bob Haines, Ralph Hall, Ross Hall, Stan
Hall, Mark Hendrickson, Frances Hernandez, Galo Hernandez, Bill Horton, Stephen Hussar, Caitlan Johnson, Dave Johnson, Dick
Johnson, Lauren Johnson, Wendy Keene, Bearl Keith, Greg Klein, Frank Knight, Don Konen, Wayne Laepple, Dylan Lambert,
Jason Lamontagne, Ed Lecuyer, Marcel Levesque, Robert Longo, Susan Longo, David MacDonald, Barbara Mackiewicz, Duncan
Mackiewicz, Beth Maxwell, John McNamara, Monroe Mechling, Colby Miles, Kevin Moran, Fred Morse, Sharron Morse, Brian
Nichols, Cliff Olson, Bob Ortiz, Patty Osmer, Fred Otto, James Patten, Dennis Patterson, Kathy Pendleton, Bernie Perch, Charlie
Pidacks, John Piwowarski, Stephen Piwowarski, Alex Ray-Weber, Joshua Recave, Isaiah Reid, Michael Reid, Bill Reidy, Brian
Reidy, Cindy Rhine, Stewart Rhine, Jane Robertson, John Robertson, Ben Rockney, Morgan Ross, Bill Sample, Donald Sanger,
Jeannie Sanger, Ben Schade, Eric Schade, Thomas Schminke, Ira Schreiber, Jeff Schumaker, Glenn Schwass, Vernon Shaw, Richard
Sisson, Skip Small, J B Smith, Julianne Smith, Steve Smith, Allan Socea, Jonathan St. Mary, John Stone Jr, John Stone Sr, John
Strano, Rider Strano, Ginny Taylor, Keith Taylor, Don Thomas, Jan Thomas, Mike Trask’s family, Nicole Triolo, Ellis Walker,
Marcel Warmbold, Matthias Warmbold, Dieter Weber, Bryce Weeks, Leon Weeks, Nancy Weeks, Roger Whitney, Edmund Tripp
Williams, Jennifer Williams, Dwight Winkley, Zack Wyllie, Linda Zollers, Steve Zuppa, and a signature that I could not read.
Total hours given were 13,810.13 from 168 volunteers. Many thanks to everyone for their hard work!
James Patten
To join the W.W.&F. Ry. Museum or to send a contribution (tax deductible) please use the form below.
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Sheepscot Station, PO Box 242, Alna, Maine 04535-0242
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Railway Museum
Sheepscot Station
PO Box 242
Alna, ME 04535-0242
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During this winter, work has been proceeding on both Number 10 (background) and Number 9 (foreground).
Photo by Brendan Barry