A Grand Reunion of Maine 2 Foot Steam: Wiscasset Waterville and Farmington Railway: 1/17-18-19/2020
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2020
- In the midst of Maine’s harsh but beautiful winter, a celebration of railroading was held, the Maine 2 Foot gauge had spanned across the state in 5 different railroads: the Wiscasset Waterville and Farmington, Bridgton and Saco, Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes, Monson, and the Kennebec Central. Equipment ranging from all 5 of these historic roads were represented in a Grand Reunion, while the Monson and Kennebec Central weren’t given quite the same coverage due to the lack of remaining rolling stock, WWFRY 9 (which was also dressed as SR&RL 6, the locomotives first service life), was originally also KC 4 before being bought by the WWFRY in the 1930s, in both physical presence and spiritual, all 2 Footers were accounted for.
This program details what would’ve been daily sights to the people of rural Maine, an itinerary of the weekend’s happenings shown on video is provided below:
Day 1: Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes #6 - 1/17/2020:
Top of the Mountain: 0:40
Rosewood Crossing: 2:04
Alna Center: 2:42
Humason Trestle: 3:25
Sheepscot Water Tower and Station: 3:37
Day 2: WWFRY Passenger & B&SR Mixed - 1/18/2020
Sheepscot Water Tower and Turntable: 4:33
Top of the Mountain: 5:30
Monson 3 & Bridgton & Saco 7 doublehead the TotM grade: 6:26
Alna Center: 9:20
Humason Brook and Trestle: 12:08
Day 3: B&S 7 and WWFRY 9 lead 13 car mixed - 1/19/2020
Albee's Field: 14:16
Alna Center: 15:39
Milepost 6: 18:14
Humason Trestle: 19:32
Final Scene: all 5 locomotives around the Sheepscot Turntable w/ whistle sound-off from the 3 locomotives in steam: 20:17
About the Maine 2 Footers:
100 years ago, the state of Maine was a different place, the area beyond the seacoast was hardly considered developed, while the coast saw its bounties from maritime commerce and resort locations, outside this bubble of prosperity, only mill towns thrived beyond, with the yearly onslaught of winter leaving farming a harsh occupation. 4 railroads served the state during the 20th century, the Maine Central, Boston and Maine, Bangor and Aroostook, and the Grand Trunk, however despite the amount of road names, various communities were still left with a link to the outside world, citing the difficulties of building railroads in such uneconomical sectors and with the geography of the necessary routes being incredibly difficult to work with for standard gauge. With this, the Maine 2 Footers were born.
Riding on rails 2 feet apart instead of the usual 4 feet and 8 1/2 inches of standard gauge, the 2 footers made a name for themselves, riding RoWs that would have proven too costly to tackle with the larger standard gauge trains. Providing service to those who lived beyond the reach of major economic routes, these trains would never reach true financial success, most being killed off with by the Great Depression. But for those that managed to survive the purge by the scrappers torch that followed their railroad's closure and the onset of World War II, they found refuge in various places. Edaville Railroad is one of the most notable examples, 4 out of the 5 steamers shown here found refuge on the cranberry farm-turned tourist attraction. WWFRY 9 being the only one to not land there, rather a farm in West Thompson after being saved by preservationist in the last 1930s. All Maine 2 foot locomotives was moved back to their home state as well as rolling stock, Bridgton and Saco 7 and 8 as well as Monson 3 and 4 being housed by the Maine Narrow Gauge Museum, WWFRY 9 was returned to home rails on the newly rebuilt RoW over the original roadbed. As of 2020 the MNGM and WWFRY entered into a partnership to share custody of the extensive collection between the 2 locations, most now residing in Alna at the WWF, this partnership made this event possible. Both organizations are non-profit, and rely on donations and ticket sales to continue their incredible work, please consider supporting them if you enjoy their efforts in preserving these unique pieces of Maine history.
Please enjoy the sights and sounds of the 20th century ingenuity that was the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroads! - Авто та транспорт
Superb! Nothing like winter up in Maine. We actually took the 2 footers for granted when they were down in Carver, thinking they would never leave. All I have left now are a few books and my stash of old photos.
Thank you! And there really is nothing more beautiful or cold than Maine’s winters, sometimes I question my sanity for pulling all day shoots out in it when it’s hovering just above 0 like it was when this footage was taken! I wish I could’ve seen them all running at Edaville, but seeing them out now in as original condition as they can get, I can live with missing the old Edaville days. Seeing the pictures really does make me wish I could visit that time though, not like Edaville has a whole lot of steam to offer up these days!
Spectacular! It would have been awesome to be there for this incredible event. The amount of work and dedication to get all this equipment restored and back in operation, and finding such a beautiful place to build a line and the buildings to be able to bring back the past. Just incredible.
Great video ben! This really shows 20th century Maine 2-foot railroading for not only outs, but for future generations to see what was going on. Beautiful scenery
Thank you! Was worth every second in the 0 degree weather!
Wow, a great job on the video! One of your best yet! I was there a couple years ago for the winter special...the coldest I have ever been in my life. You had great conditions, and the crew there is the best! Steve
Thank you Steve! Was certainly a cold one! 0 degrees during the day, but the result was worth it, and like you said, the crew really is the best, incredibly accommodating! Can’t wait for my next photo charter up there!
Great video One of your best yet! I
Thank you! Just got back from the summer edition of this event, “Steaming Together” as well as a charter held the following day ran by myself and Dynamo Productions, plenty to look forward to soon!
Very nice! Two footers are great, regardless from which country they are.
The four locomotives here were all Forneys, would be great to see preserved American built tender and tank engines in the UK and SA see take part in such a gathering, but this will probably never happen because transport costs are prohibitive.
I was there for the February weekend and what a grand time. Nice video and lots of familiar faces.
Thank you!
Hoping they’ll do another running of something similar once the Mountain Extension opens for service, seeing these locomotives fight that 3% grade would be something else!
This is what Heaven looks like for the Two Footers.
-these engines have never been ALL together before, in their original markings, and most of them have rarely been in such great condition!
It was such an honor to be able to attend this event, the WW&F, MNGM, and ML&MW did such a great job at recreating the classic 2-Footer environment and operation! They also just did a summer variation of this event before they send Bridgton & Saco 7 back to Portland, called Steaming Together, it was a one day event featuring the B&SR, Monson, and Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes with WWF 9 being backdated to SR&RL 6. The day after myself and a member of Dynamo Productions hosted a 6 hour day with 7 to get an extended run while it was still around, both captured the 2-Footers well! While it doesn’t have the same winter grandeur of this video, it shows the operations quite nicely!
Fantastic!
Thank you! Couldn’t have done it with the incredible efforts of everyone behind the scenes! Looking forward to my next visit! Which is looking like it’ll be in October, can’t wait!
It's great to a video of east coast narrow gauge. If Ellis D.Attwood never had taken the trains to Carver ma. None of this would be possible.
Interesting enough, 9 was the only 2 foot steamer from the major 5 that never ended up in Edaville, she was kept at the Ramsdell Farm in Connecticut until 1994, while it was attempted to get 9 in service at Edaville, Alice Ramsdell would be incredibly protective over the locomotive and chased anyone trying to get the locomotive away from the farm off the property. It wasn’t until Alice’s death in 1994 that 9 was allowed to leave the Ramsdell Farm for the rebuilt WWF, by then I believe Edaville had already lost all Maine equipment to the nearly formed Maine Narrow Gauge Museum.
Pretty awesome!
Thank you!
Wow ! That´s too much folks.
Everything should have been scrapped in the 40'. Normally. But history deserved them a different path. Mr "Edaville" pick up all it could for its farm. Then preservation organisations were created, and voilà ! January 2020 just before our world collapsed, you did it. A real train. Not a tourist attraction, but a real one with doubleheaders, a long freight carrying real stuff like granit from the
2 × 6, milk cans for the creamery...even hobos.
Those bells, a real concerto lost in the wood. Put that video in black & white with some sepia tint and scratches and it could be from that era.
I´m surprised. Not much snow.
That dynamo whizzed as much as an SD40 turbo.
Coaches were tiny miniature but as luxury and ornate as their big brothers.
Sure you all enjoyed those 3 days.
I did !
Congrats from Quebec's neighbor.
My son is special needs and loves trains 🚆🚊🛤🚞🚝🚉🚈🚇🚅🚄🚃🚋 especially steam locomotives 🚂 like those he thinks they are valuable classic antiques and all should be preserved, restored, and put back into service. He finds this rebuilt narrow gauge railroad in Maine very interesting and hopes the entire line is restored and used again for tourists. But he does not want that to be wishful thinking he wants it to be a reality!
Magic.
This was a cold yet fun weekend!
Definitely, probably my favorite weekend of filming I’ve done yet! I’m just surprised my camera handled the 0 degree weather as well as it did!
I have been waiting for this video for 7 months and it was worth the wait! Great job as always! I love your shots when you would pan the camera to follow the train going away from the camera, that is something that is not often seen in videos of the Maine 2 footers like that!
Thank you! Glad I pushed this ahead of a few things, very happy to hear you enjoyed! Those going away shots are a personal favorite of mine as well, only thing here was since it was all runbys, getting good footage without the train coming to a stop was rather difficult, as was turning the midst of the photo line, but it still worked well! Keep an eye out for another WWFRY video in the near future!
Awesome video!
Thank you!
Terrific job! Fine editing and great scene selection. Hope to make it up there soon, my kind of country! What model camera do you have? I’m camera shopping and especially liked the sound quality of this video.
Thank you! Sorry I didn’t respond sooner, wrote out a response and could’ve sworn I sent it! Anyways though it’s a great railroad to visit, absolutely worth the drive, this being a 3 day photo event, that’s especially true. As for the cameras, I use 2 (well at the time of recording I did), both were Panasonic Camcorders, one HD, and one 4K (both were set for HD capture at 60 FPS), model number for the HD is HC-V770, the 4K is HC-VX981K. I had the HD cam for about 3 years or so, it served incredibly faithfully during that period (including being dropped and damaged on several occasions but still being able to perform, it was finally done in by a heavy snowfall, my guess is moisture got in and killed it from there, but Panasonic’s cams are resilient! I’m amazed it lasted as long as it did with all the drops and extreme conditions I put it through! Anyways though, they’re good cameras through and through, if you’re looking at these, I’d just get the HD cam, I never use the 4K settings, can only record 30 FPS with it. If you have questions about them feel free to ask! Thank you for watching!
You should go to the valley railroad in CT come Christmas time. They have two locos steamed up in the day and three steamed up at night. It’s the New England version of steam fest.
I’m intending on it this year, already went down and got good footage of 40 with the Texas and Pacific 3 Chime, looking forward to some winter footage! If my time at the WWFRY has proven anything, Steam will always be best in winter.
@@merrimacksacoproductions4497 I’ll hopefully be down there this year at the holiday season.
@@merrimacksacoproductions4497 How was the t&p 3 chime? I heard it, it sounded like 844 or 4014 was at the Valley Railroad lol.
Sounded pretty good, very deep and loud though, definitely comparable to a UP whistle, you’ll be hearing her here pretty soon, should be coming out in the next few uploads
@@merrimacksacoproductions4497 ok, i can’t wait to go back down, theres no other steamers running. 7470 is out of service, Portland doesn’t have 7 running, so Essex is my best chance of seeing a steam engine.
Is there a DVD of the entire weekend available for sale?
Everything in this video is what I got from that weekend, while 3 days does seem like a long charter run, many scenes were more photography based, not to mention it was the dead of winter so limited daylight window and with the 2nd and 3rd day, arranging the 2 trains and the “mega train” respectively was rather time consuming. Everything post worthy was included here, if you want to purchase a DVD of this video I can look into options for that, but there’s not going to really be anything new included
What is above number 9's headlight?
I believe it’s a front facing number board, seems like neither the SR&RL, KC, or WWF installed it though, and with the museum trying to recreate the original railroad, I highly doubt we’ll see it ever replaced. This is just my speculation, I’m sure the railroad itself can give you a definite answer.
@@merrimacksacoproductions4497 Gotcha, Thank you for the response. Thank you for posting.