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Wiscasset, Waterville &Farmington

Railway MuseumSHEEPSCOT STATION, PO BOX 242, ALNA, ME 04535-0242

January / February 20�4

Visit our web page at: http://www.wwfry.org

Fireman Joe Fox and engineer Bob Longo carefully approach the platform at Alna Center.Photo by Kevin Madore

Victorian Christmas 2013From forum.wwfry.org postings

Cold, damp weather and the promise of a forthcoming ice storm dampened attendance, but not enthusiasm, at this year’s Victorian Christmas celebration. As in previous years, we used both the steam and diesel engines, switching between them for each train during the busiest times. This sped unloading and loading the crowd and gave the steam engine crew time to service their engine (oil, coal, and water).

This year’s event took full advantage of two new features: the modern restrooms and the enlarged parking lot. The parking lot made a huge difference, but there were still a great many cars parked along Route 218.

A third new feature at Sheepscot was a large G-gauge model railroad set up in bay 3 of the engine house. Based on a fictional two-footer, it was the creation of Eric Schade, a volunteer from Phippsburg, and included a model live steamer.

Meanwhile, over at the gift shop, the crew was very busy answering phone calls, greeting visitors, making sales, and setting up food. Their efforts were rewarded with lots of smiling faces and donations of over $1,200.

At Alna Center, the most exciting thing was the arrival of each trainload of happy visitors. Some of the kids just couldn’t wait to get to Santa. In addition to Santa, the bonfire, the crafts, and the wagon rides, the new-fallen snow was a perfect consistency for making snowmen (there were at least two of moderate size), throwing snowballs, and (most popular of all) sliding face-first down the snow-covered gravel pile.

While most of the visitors came from Maine or nearby states, one came from Montreal, Quebec. Returning, he made it back home safely, taking 11 hours (leaving around noon) with the last 7 hours in freezing rain and fog.

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

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

Scenes from Victorian Christmas

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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 DonationThe 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 GoalThe 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 BallardBrendan BarrySam & Marie BartlettWilliam BaskervilleOwen BeederTim BlanchardHans BrandesDavid BuczkowskiWilliam H. Butler IIIJ. Otis CarrollRichard CavalloroAlden Cook Peter EastmanMark EdryDavid EskelundKevin FarrellJason FeltnerDavid Follansbee Randolph Hannold

Tracy HastingsRoger HathawayRay HenderMr. & Mrs. John HiltonDon HowardPaul HughesSherrill HunnibellGE Foundation G. F. Hunter, Jr.William JuddJohn KeeneNelson F. KennedyJohn E. KokasRoy LarsenJohn Le PrinceBob & Sue LongoPeter MagounBruce McDowellRobert McGuire

Millipore CorporationKenneth NelsonWinford NowellDouglas O’DellPeter OsborneRembert PatrickGeoffrey QuadlandBill ReidyPeter & Susan RotchIra SchreiberGary SodergrenJack SuttonPaul SweeneyRichard & Caroline TowerJohn Tumolo IIIDieter WeberIrma WilhelmChet Wilkinson

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

2-foot Musing No. 70In the last Musing, I asked what the tiny Kennebec Central

had in common with the mighty Norfolk &Western, and the answer was that they both derived most of their income from hauling coal. This time I have a similar question and it is this, “What did the tiny Billerica and Bedford (America’s first 2- footer) have in common with the mighty Southern Pacific?” The answer is that they both operated steam locomotives cab-forward. The SP’s cab-forwards are well known to the railfan community.

The reason for running the B&B and SP locomotives cab-foremost was the same for both railroads. Matthias Forney, who created the basic design of the B&B locomotive, thought that with the smokestack in the back of the locomotive next to the train, the smoke and gas from the fire was kept out of the cab making it better for the crew and giving them better visibility ahead. The smoke and gases also were thrown up above the train, and therefore did not enter the cars as much as they would if the smokestack was in the front.

Although the conservative operators of the Sandy River and all subsequent 2-footers disregarded Forney’s cab-forward design, about 50 years later the Southern Pacific decided it was a good idea, and outfitted a bunch of articulateds to run cab-forward to protect the engine crew from the smoke and gases. They could do this because the engines burned oil making it easier to get fuel from the tender to the firebox. My guess is that the SP mechanical department figured this out themselves without knowing about Mr. Forney’s design of 50 years earlier.

Another good reason for the cab-forward design on the Forney style locomotive was the four-wheel trailing truck became a four-wheel leading truck, and as such helped guide the locomotive around curves. I may have told you before that a 2-foot 0-4-0 Henschel that I ran briefly years ago tried to straighten every curve it ran into.

Today’s diesel locomotive manufacturers are reducing exhaust emissions to improve the environment, but no matter how hard they try, they can’t make a diesel smell as good as a steam locomotive under load.

Ellis Walker

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

Steam Locomotive QuarteringPart 3

As mentioned in the September/October WW&F Newsletter, Rick Sisson, Jonathan St. Mary, Keith Taylor, Jason Lamontagne, and others designed and built a device to reshape a crank pin to move its center of rotation. A photograph of the

Alignment plate on right side oflocomotive

Alignment plate on left side oflocomotive

Backing plates are bolted tothe alignment plates to

secure them to the wheelsafter levels are used.

Quarteringcutting toolassembly

Drive motor

Drive pin usedas reference

Drive pin to bere-centered

level

90lag

0

Levels used toensure that

alignment plates arein the same relativerotational position

level

L L

level

Locomotive is going away from the viewer

device appeared in that issue. The next step was to properly position the quartering device on each locomotive driver. This was done using levels and alignment plates as shown in the diagram. All four drivers have now been quartered, a process shown in the photo at the bottom of the page, and Number 9 has been moved to the machine shop (bay 4) where work can continue in heated space.

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

The Board of Directors has approved a new process for distributing the WW&F Newsletter. This article explains how the WW&F Newsletter is produced and distributed so that readers can see how the new process fits into the total picture.

Obtaining text and photographs. Sometimes people send articles, but usually I must solicit articles. I get a number of articles and photographs from the WW&F Forum website, http://forum.wwfry.org. If I see a paragraph or photograph that I need, I send an email asking for permission. I try to edit all submissions lightly, primarily to fit the available space. I later send a copy of the edited article to the author for review.

Production. After an issue is ready to go to the printer, I proofread it a couple of times and send an electronic copy to Allan and Ellen Fisher on the West Coast. Allan had a long career as a professional railroader, so he understands all of the material. Being unfamiliar with the material and a trained editor, Ellen does not get absorbed in the stories and is thus especially good at catching spelling and grammatical errors.

After the three of us have proofread the issue, I send a “package” to Lincoln County Publishing in Newcastle, Maine, where Laurie McBurnie shepherds it through the printing process. Laurie is extremely conscientious and has been a great help to me over the past 10 years. The package contains a “mockup” with all pictures and text in their proper places. It is a close replica of the final newsletter appearance, except that the masthead, membership form, and mailing label are a bit crude. (Laurie has clean versions on file.) The package also contains digital photograph files, edited for good contrast and reasonable size, plus files of all articles and captions.

After a few days' delay while Lincoln County publishes the Lincoln County News, Laurie emails a PDF file to Allan, Ellen, and me for final proofreading and approval. If we approve, Allan indicates the number of copies to be made, which is typically 1100 folded and taped for mailing plus a couple hundred for distribution in the gift shop and train shows, plus some for storage in the archives. Laurie then creates a PDF file

for me to send to Ed Lecuyer who posts it in the members-only section of the W&WF Forum. During the printing process, I send an email to Frances Hernandez, our membership chair, alerting her to prepare an updated set of mailing labels for the newsletter.

Distribution - Old Process. When the printed newsletters are ready, Lincoln County calls John Robertson who drives to Newcastle and picks up the newsletters. He applies the mailing labels and stamps before conveying the roughly 1100 finished newsletters to the local post office. The overall process is quite labor-intensive and quite expensive, as the newsletter is presently mailed first class. One need only multiply first-class postage by 1100 members by six issues per year to get an idea of the expense involved.

Distribution – New Process. In the past, we have considered getting a non-profit bulk rate permit. While this would save a lot of money, the distribution work would remain, and a presorting task would be added. Presorting can be done with a computer program, but still entails extra work. A new process is now available wherein Lincoln County Publishing will use a bulk rate permit and Frances’s updated mailing list to print and mail the newsletters for a modest fee that would be equal or less than the difference in postage between first class and bulk rate. While bulk rate mailings involve longer transit times than first class, eliminating the newsletter transport, labeling, stamping, and mailing tasks should save enough time to compensate for much of the longer transit time. The 24 non-US mailings will continue to be done via the “old process” described above. The ability for members to read their newsletters on-line a week or two in advance, via a members-only section of the WW&F Forum will not change. However, only about 40 of our 1100 numbers use this feature.

The Board of Directors has approved the new process, and it will be used starting with the March/April issue. The new process will be subject to periodic review to ensure that it continues to meet reader approval.

John McNamara

Newsletter Distribution Changes

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To join the W.W.&F. Ry. Museum or to send a contribution (tax deductible) please use the form below.

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.

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

Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway MuseumSheepscot Station, PO Box 242, Alna, Maine 04535-0242

Please sign me up as follows: Additional Contributions:

Life Membership .................. $300 #9 Fund _________________________Annual Membership ............. ..$30 #�0 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.

Generous Donor Quadruples EndowmentAs 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

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Wiscasset, Waterville & FarmingtonRailway MuseumSheepscot StationPO Box 242Alna, ME 04535-0242

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

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