Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum SHEEPSCOT STATION, PO BOX 242, ALNA, ME 04535-0242

January / February 2014

Fireman Joe Fox and engineer Bob Longo carefully approach the platform at Alna Center. Photo by Kevin Madore Victorian Christmas 2013 From forum.wwfry.org postings Cold, damp weather and the promise of a forthcoming ice Meanwhile, over at the gift shop, the crew was very busy storm dampened attendance, but not enthusiasm, at this year’s answering phone calls, greeting visitors, making sales, and Victorian Christmas celebration. As in previous years, we used setting up food. Their efforts were rewarded with lots of both the steam and diesel engines, switching between them smiling faces and donations of over $1,200. for each train during the busiest times. This sped unloading At Alna Center, the most exciting thing was the arrival of and loading the crowd and gave the steam engine crew time each trainload of happy visitors. Some of the kids just couldn’t to service their engine (oil, coal, and water). wait to get to Santa. In addition to Santa, the bonfire, the This year’s event took full advantage of two new features: crafts, and the wagon rides, the new-fallen snow was a perfect the modern restrooms and the enlarged parking lot. The parking consistency for making snowmen (there were at least two of lot made a huge difference, but there were still a great many moderate size), throwing snowballs, and (most popular of all) cars parked along Route 218. sliding face-first down the snow-covered gravel pile. A third new feature at Sheepscot was a large G-gauge model While most of the visitors came from Maine or nearby railroad set up in bay 3 of the engine house. Based on a fictional states, one came from Montreal, Quebec. Returning, he made two-footer, it was the creation of Eric Schade, a volunteer from it back home safely, taking 11 hours (leaving around noon) Phippsburg, and included a model live steamer. with the last 7 hours in freezing rain and fog.

Visit our web page at: http://www.wwfry.org  Scenes from Victorian Christmas

Number 10 pauses at the Head Tide tank replica during Victorian Christmas. Photo by Stephen Hussar

Number 10 brings a fully-loaded train northward during Victorian Christmas. Photo by Kevin Madore

 The drawing at left is from a circa-1880 magazine. The photo at right was taken in the WW&F shop building by Brendan Barry.

Antique Metal Working Equipment Donation

The WW&F shop became a lot more capable last fall with the receipt of three key pieces of equipment, donated by Jim Hueber of Mack Brothers Boiler Company in Syracuse. The first piece is a plate roller of 1880’s vintage. While in need of restoration work, this will be a natural fit in the blacksmith and period machine shop that we intend to build at some point. Two pieces of riveting equipment came with the roller: a 1925-vintage Hanna Squeeze Riveter, and the 1880-vintage Allen Portable Pneumatic Riveter shown above. Both machines are in good condition and already reside in our shop. It is more than noteworthy that we have already accomplished several jobs for which these two machines would have been ideal and would have saved us substantial effort. The Allen riveter is a deep throat riveter, and would have been ideal for Number 9’s smoke box. We look forward to using it when the Bridgton & Saco River (B&SR) tank restoration begins. The Hanna riveter will handle 90% of our riveting jobs, and as a bonus doubles as a 30-ton press. These machines are great tokens from a bygone Industrial Age. They will serve us well as we restore and replicate equipment that would have been found on the WW&F. Thank you Jim! Jason Lamontagne

2013 Annual Capital Fund Surpasses its Goal

The 2013 Capital Fund Drive’s $55,000 goal was met and surpassed! As of January 11th, our members and friends had given $55,972. The WW&F Railway Museum has had an enviable record in fundraising, and this is the twenty-second straight year that we have exceeded our goal. Donors from November 16th through January 11th are listed below.

Clarence Ballard Tracy Hastings Millipore Corporation Brendan Barry Roger Hathaway Kenneth Nelson Sam & Marie Bartlett Ray Hender Winford Nowell William Baskerville Mr. & Mrs. John Hilton Douglas O’Dell Owen Beeder Don Howard Peter Osborne Tim Blanchard Paul Hughes Rembert Patrick Hans Brandes Sherrill Hunnibell Geoffrey Quadland David Buczkowski GE Foundation Bill Reidy William H. Butler III G. F. Hunter, Jr. Peter & Susan Rotch J. Otis Carroll William Judd Ira Schreiber Richard Cavalloro John Keene Gary Sodergren Alden Cook Nelson F. Kennedy Jack Sutton Peter Eastman John E. Kokas Paul Sweeney Mark Edry Roy Larsen Richard & Caroline Tower David Eskelund John Le Prince John Tumolo III Kevin Farrell Bob & Sue Longo Dieter Weber Jason Feltner Peter Magoun Irma Wilhelm David Follansbee Bruce McDowell Chet Wilkinson Randolph Hannold Robert McGuire

 Although the conservative operators of the Sandy River 2-foot Musing No. 70 and all subsequent 2-footers disregarded Forney’s cab-forward design, about 50 years later the Southern Pacific decided it In the last Musing, I asked what the tiny Kennebec Central was a good idea, and outfitted a bunch of articulateds to run had in common with the mighty Norfolk &Western, and the cab-forward to protect the engine crew from the smoke and answer was that they both derived most of their income from gases. They could do this because the engines burned oil hauling coal. This time I have a similar question and it is this, making it easier to get fuel from the tender to the firebox. My “What did the tiny Billerica and Bedford (America’s first 2- guess is that the SP mechanical department figured this out footer) have in common with the mighty Southern Pacific?” themselves without knowing about Mr. Forney’s design of The answer is that they both operated steam locomotives 50 years earlier. cab-forward. The SP’s cab-forwards are well known to the Another good reason for the cab-forward design on the railfan community. Forney style locomotive was the four-wheel trailing truck The reason for running the B&B and SP locomotives cab- became a four-wheel leading truck, and as such helped guide foremost was the same for both railroads. Matthias Forney, the locomotive around curves. I may have told you before that who created the basic design of the B&B locomotive, thought a 2-foot 0-4-0 Henschel that I ran briefly years ago tried to that with the smokestack in the back of the locomotive next straighten every curve it ran into. to the train, the smoke and gas from the fire was kept out of Today’s diesel locomotive manufacturers are reducing the cab making it better for the crew and giving them better exhaust emissions to improve the environment, but no matter visibility ahead. The smoke and gases also were thrown up how hard they try, they can’t make a diesel smell as good as above the train, and therefore did not enter the cars as much a steam locomotive under load. as they would if the smokestack was in the front. Ellis Walker

Billerica & Bedford Ariel and Southern Pacific #4116 What do these locomotives have in common?

 device appeared in that issue. The next step was to properly Steam Locomotive Quartering position the quartering device on each locomotive driver. This Part 3 was done using levels and alignment plates as shown in the As mentioned in the September/October WW&F diagram. All four drivers have now been quartered, a process Newsletter, Rick Sisson, Jonathan St. Mary, Keith Taylor, Jason shown in the photo at the bottom of the page, and Number 9 Lamontagne, and others designed and built a device to reshape has been moved to the machine shop (bay 4) where work can a crank pin to move its center of rotation. A photograph of the continue in heated space.

Levels used to ensure that 0 90 alignment plates are lag in the same relative rotational position

level level

Alignment plate on left side of Alignment plate on right side of locomotive locomotive

Backing plates are bolted to Quartering the alignment plates to cutting tool secure them to the wheels assembly after levels are used.

Drive motor

Drive pin used Drive pin to be as reference re-centered

L L

Locomotive is going away from the viewer

Jason Lamontagne and Jonathan St. Mary operate the quartering machine. Photo by Brendan Barry

 Newsletter Distribution Changes The Board of Directors has approved a new process for for me to send to Ed Lecuyer who posts it in the members-only distributing the WW&F Newsletter. This article explains section of the W&WF Forum. During the printing process, I how the WW&F Newsletter is produced and distributed so send an email to Frances Hernandez, our membership chair, that readers can see how the new process fits into the total alerting her to prepare an updated set of mailing labels for the picture. newsletter. Obtaining text and photographs. Sometimes people send Distribution - Old Process. When the printed newsletters articles, but usually I must solicit articles. I get a number of are ready, Lincoln County calls John Robertson who drives to articles and photographs from the WW&F Forum website, Newcastle and picks up the newsletters. He applies the mailing http://forum.wwfry.org. If I see a paragraph or photograph that labels and stamps before conveying the roughly 1100 finished I need, I send an email asking for permission. I try to edit all newsletters to the local post office. The overall process is submissions lightly, primarily to fit the available space. I later quite labor-intensive and quite expensive, as the newsletter is send a copy of the edited article to the author for review. presently mailed first class. One need only multiply first-class Production. After an issue is ready to go to the printer, I postage by 1100 members by six issues per year to get an idea proofread it a couple of times and send an electronic copy to of the expense involved. Allan and Ellen Fisher on the West Coast. Allan had a long Distribution – New Process. In the past, we have career as a professional railroader, so he understands all of considered getting a non-profit bulk rate permit. While this the material. Being unfamiliar with the material and a trained would save a lot of money, the distribution work would remain, editor, Ellen does not get absorbed in the stories and is thus and a presorting task would be added. Presorting can be done especially good at catching spelling and grammatical errors. with a computer program, but still entails extra work. A new After the three of us have proofread the issue, I send a process is now available wherein Lincoln County Publishing “package” to Lincoln County Publishing in Newcastle, Maine, will use a bulk rate permit and Frances’s updated mailing list where Laurie McBurnie shepherds it through the printing to print and mail the newsletters for a modest fee that would be process. Laurie is extremely conscientious and has been a equal or less than the difference in postage between first class great help to me over the past 10 years. The package contains and bulk rate. While bulk rate mailings involve longer transit a “mockup” with all pictures and text in their proper places. times than first class, eliminating the newsletter transport, It is a close replica of the final newsletter appearance, except labeling, stamping, and mailing tasks should save enough that the masthead, membership form, and mailing label are a time to compensate for much of the longer transit time. The bit crude. (Laurie has clean versions on file.) The package also 24 non-US mailings will continue to be done via the “old contains digital photograph files, edited for good contrast and process” described above. The ability for members to read their reasonable size, plus files of all articles and captions. newsletters on-line a week or two in advance, via a members- After a few days' delay while Lincoln County publishes the only section of the WW&F Forum will not change. However, Lincoln County News, Laurie emails a PDF file to Allan, Ellen, only about 40 of our 1100 numbers use this feature. and me for final proofreading and approval. If we approve, The Board of Directors has approved the new process, Allan indicates the number of copies to be made, which is and it will be used starting with the March/April issue. The typically 1100 folded and taped for mailing plus a couple new process will be subject to periodic review to ensure that hundred for distribution in the gift shop and train shows, plus it continues to meet reader approval. some for storage in the archives. Laurie then creates a PDF file John McNamara

Where else can a little tike get THIS view? Photo by Kevin Madore

 WW&F Railway Museum Spring 2014 Calendar February 15-17: Winter Work Weekend April 19: Easter Eggspress April 25-27: Spring Work Weekend May 3: Annual Meeting Generous Donor Quadruples Endowment

As reported in the previous newsletter, the Museum invested our Endowment with the Maine Community Foundation to have it professionally managed. The value at the time was just over $28,000. Much to our great surprise and delight, a review of our Endowment’s value at the Foundation’s website in early December indicated that someone had made a substantial donation to it without even going through the Museum. After verification with the donor, I’m pleased to announce that this individual donated over $100,000, thus more than quadrupling the size of our Endowment. A very great “Thank you!” goes out to this member. The donor wanted to donate appreciated stock, and after reading about the investment in the newsletter, decided to send it directly to the Foundation on our behalf. The Foundation took care of the sale of the stock. The donor got the benefit of not having to pay capital gains tax on the sale (getting a charitable deduction instead), and the Museum got the benefit of this substantial contribution. Donors interested in this benefit may contact the Foundation via their website, www.mainecf.org, or via telephone at 877-700-6800. Any donation given in this manner will be considered a donation to the Endowment fund, unless we are told otherwise via written communication. The Museum will not be benefitting from distributions in 2014 (it’s too late for that), but with a maximum four percent distribution in 2015 we would be receiving more than $5000. For those that would like to donate stock or other investments for purposes other than the Endowment, the Museum retains the services of a local broker, Wells Fargo. If you would like contact information, please contact me via email at treasurer@wwfry. org, or by calling the Museum at 207-882-4193 and leaving a message. Thank you! James Patten

The WW&F Newsletter (ISSN 1547-9293) is published bi-monthly by the WW&F Railway Museum. Editor: John McNamara, Publishers: Allan & Ellen Fisher, John & Jane Robertson, Laurie McBurnie. Printed (1500 copies) by Lincoln County Publishing. Please send any correspondence to Newsletter c/o WW&F Railway Museum, PO Box 242, Alna, ME 04535-0242. To join the W.W.&F. Ry. Museum or to send a contribution (tax deductible) please use the form below. Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum Sheepscot Station, PO Box 242, Alna, Maine 04535-0242 Please sign me up as follows: Additional Contributions: Life Membership......  $300 #9 Fund______Annual Membership...... ...$30 #10 Fund______Rail Fund______Endowment______Unrestricted______

NAME______ADDRESS______ZIP/POSTAL CODE______Please make all checks payable to “W.W.&F. Railway Museum.” A receipt will be sent for all contributions received.

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The last train of Victorian Christmas 2013 heads north from Sheepscot Station. Photo by Kevin Madore