One of the hallmarks of theChristmas season is gift giving. On Saturday, the volunteers of the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum gave the community a special one as nearly 1,300 people were treated to a Victorian Christmas celebration.
Saturday’s free ride aboard the vintage steam train was a first for the Seiders family of South Bristol.
“These guys love trains,” Tenley Seiders said of her children, Eddie, 4, and Sabrina, 2.
“I have a mote-trolled one at my house,” Eddie said, all smiles as he and his family enjoyed the sometimes bumpy ride in the open-air coach.
“We lucked out with the weather,” said Jay Verney as the horses pulled a dozen or so riders at a time. “The ground froze back up last night. It had been soft.”
The Verney’s seven horses keep pretty busy, as they are hired for weddings, and work at the Thompson Ice House and in various parades and fairs.
“There are not too many weekends they’re free,” said Verney.
While waiting for the return train, the crowds could choose between crafts, warming around a bonfire, taking photos with Santa or even playing on the pile of crushed rock that will later be used for additional track bed.
“I think it’s been lovely,” said the children’s mom, Mandy Thayer. “Cold, but nice. Part of living in Maine, right?”
Volunteers are the backbone of the WW&F Railway Museum. And they come from all over.
Virgina and Norman Blake live in Florida, but come north each year for Christmas and the Fourth of July. Both visits are centered around WW&F events.
“We come up for the railroad,” said Virginia Blake as she helped some children create Rudolph the Red- Nosed Reindeer crafts from pipe cleaner and clothes pins.
One of the engineers Saturday was Bob Longo of Syracuse, N.Y. His son-inlaw, Josh Recave of Cape Cod, Mass., served as fireman, helping shovel coal to keep the boiler running. He’s been volunteering since 2001.
About every 30 minutes the train returned and unloaded, then reloaded with cold passengers ready to head back for some hot chocolate and cider, and other holiday treats at the Freight House next to Sheepscot Station.
A G-gauge model railroad — Brigadoon Light Railway — was set up next to the shop building, allowing visitors an up close look at the intricate details of the smoke-puffing and whistleblowing replicas.
According to 13-year-old museum docent Rider Strano of Essex, Conn. — a virtual walking encyclopedia of all thing trains who has been giving tours for four years and volunteering for seven — the WW&F Railway is special among the narrow gauges. At 2.5 miles, it is the longest 2-foot narrow gauge railroad in the United States.
“You can go a lot of places to see 3-foot gauge,” Strano said, “but there are only a handful of places to see the narrow 2-foot gauge.”
In that regard, Mainers are fortunate, as there are four places in Maine to see the trains, including Boothbay Railway Village, Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. and Museum in Portland, and the original Maine twofooter, the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad in Phillips.
The 2-foot gauge, which refers to the width between the train wheels, was cheaper to build and could access more remote areas, Strano’s mother, Susan Hackett, explained. By comparison, today’s standard rails are 4- foot-8.5-inches.
Sandy River was the first narrow gauge railroad, opening in 1879. WW&F was the last to operate commercially in Maine. It closed down following a derailment on June 15, 1933.
There are more than 1,000 volunteers in the organization, including some from as far away as Japan, according to Strano, who was eager to share his love of the narrow gauge trains with visitors.
The group has ambitious plans for the Sheepscot Yard. Having recently completed bathroom facilities, it has begun construction of a car shed for its growing roster of equipment and plans a turntable similar in design to ones that existed originally along the line at Wiscasset and Albion.
Unlike some yards, everything in WW&F is either original or a replica, according to photographer Kevin Madore (no relation to reporter) of Haverill, Mass., who travels around the country taking photos of steam engines in operation.
“There are very few places where you can get the authenticity like you can here,” he said, noting that there are no radios in use. “They all communicate with hand signals, whistles and lanterns.”
Each time the steam engine would stop, blasting the whistle and puffing smoke, teems of visitors would be clicking away with their digital cameras.
Unlike most everybody else around him, however, Head Tide photographer Jim Kipfer would have to wait a little longer to see if his pictures come out. His 1977 8×10 Deardorff box camera requires him to duck below a covering before taking his photos that make an image on a film sheet.
“I’m going backward in technology,”’ he joked.
While he describes himself as a hobbyist, he utilizes Civil War albumin technology and 1890s palladium plates for his photos.
But he has his reasons, using the camera mostly to create art “because of the quality.”
And using quality equipment was a good way to cap off a quality day at the railyard for the 1,297 passengers who spent the day enjoying a little bit of history.
dmadore@timesrecord.com
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