All Aboard

WRITTEN BY ANNE GABBIANELLI

Dating back to the late 1800s, “big dreams and little wheels” was the theme behind Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway (WW&F). The two-foot narrow gauge railroad was originally constructed by the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad to stretch north from Wiscasset’s coastline. While the railway never reached Canada, it did stretch 58 miles inland to a junction in Weeks Mills with two branches to Albion and Winslow.   

Today, three and a half miles of that same route, along with two-foot gauge steam and diesel locomotives, are a part of the WW&F Railway Museum in Alna, offering passenger excursion trains while preserving and rebuilding history. 

Ed Lecuyer has 22 years of pitching in at the all-volunteer museum. 

“If one were to look through an encyclopedia of railways in the United States, Maine’s narrow gauge ‘two footers’ would barely get a mention,” Lecuyer said. “They were unique, special, but underappreciated by railway historians.”

Lecuyer, who discovered the now 36-year-old museum while vacationing in Maine, actually moved to the area so that he could give 20-plus hours a week to the museum. 

“I liken the railway to a large community service project,” Lecuyer said. “We have a remarkably diverse group of volunteers of different backgrounds, skill sets, beliefs, and abilities. Yet we all somehow share this common goal to rebuild a railroad that was lost to obsolescence nearly a century ago.”

“The opportunity to celebrate and understand their impact through hands-on participation in reconstruction of one of these historic railways was too good of an opportunity to pass up,” said 20-year volunteer Stephen Piwowarski. 

His fascination, like many, is the two-foot gauge mode of transportation. 

“Railway promoters were looking at locations with suitable resources on the fringes of the existing transportation network. Building standard gauge railroads into these more remote locations would’ve been costly and jeopardized the success of such projects. Essentially, by limiting the weight capacity of cars, the amount of weight transmitted to each axle was substantially less.”  

Not only does this troop of volunteers labor on restoration of these narrow gauge wonders, but they create various venues that allow visitors to step back in time. 

“Suddenly you are back in the 1920s. It’s quaint. It’s old-time Maine. The trains are authentic and many of the buildings are replicas of those that were once on the railroad,” said Roger Whitney, who has been with the museum since its inception. “On operating days, when you take a train ride, you see train crew dressed in period clothes and you get to ride in the only remaining original WW&F coach hauled by the only remaining steam locomotive. The experience is exactly the way it was when the original WW&F was running, complete with the hiss of steam and the whiff of coal smoke from the only original WW&F remaining steam locomotive, which we restored in 2015.”

Volunteers are needed in a variety of capacities. Cody McFarland, for example, volunteers his time in the gift shop. 

“The skills that show up among the volunteers are just astonishing,” McFarland said. “I like being a part of that.”

If you’re interested in taking a ride or volunteering, visit wwfry.org.