The National Railway Historical Society has selected the WW&F Railway Museum of Alna, Maine as a recipient of a Railway Heritage Grant. This award of $3000 will be used to help equip the locomotives and rolling stock of the railway with an Eames Automatic vacuum brake system. Automatic vacuum brakes are an important safety feature as our railroad expands, as they will engage automatically if the cars in the train become separated. Moreover, the single control in the cab will give the engineer greater control over the train.

The original WW&F used straight vacuum brakes on their locomotives, and the restored Number 9 now utilizes these as independent (engine) brakes. To protect the entire train, Eames patented an automatic vacuum braking system, but it was never fully developed in the US, due to his untimely death. As the Museum is a continuation of the original WW&F railway, it is fitting that we fully develop automatic vacuum brakes – which is likely the choice the original WW&F would have considered had it been required to install an automatic braking system.

Already WW&F museum coach 8 and Number 9 have been equipped with this system; but testing was not completed in 2016 due to other projects. Testing will be completed in the coming year and the system added gradually to the remaining locomotives and rolling stock.

The WW&F thanks the National Railway Society for choosing this project to receive a Railway Heritage grant. The NRHS has been very supportive of past projects at the WW&F, including funding the recreated Planished American Rolled Iron (also called "Russia Iron") jacket on Number 9 and our continued mainline extension.

In other WW&F news, the "21 Campaign" to build two new locomotive boilers is well underway with nearly 60% of the needed funds raised. The raw boiler materials have already arrived at the museum, and shaping #10's boiler will begin shortly. However, funds are still needed to complete both boilers. We invite our friends and followers to support this effort at https://fundrazr.com/21campaign.

Finally, our "Easter Eggspress Spring Steam Up" is next Saturday, 4/15/17. Details at: http://wwfry.org/?tribe_events=special-event-easter-eggspress-3

Hello Ed,

Thanks for sharing this news. I look forward to getting back up to Maine this summer and perhaps becoming involved in some way as a log-distance volunteer.

This was one of 8 grants totaling $20,000 that NRHS announced at it's April board meeting.

NRHS now announces its grants early in the year so that outdoor work can start early in the year when the weather gets good.

Funding for NRHS grants comes only from donations made to NRHS and can be made at
http://nrhs.com/giving.

This years grants are listed below:

• $2,500 to the Southeastern Railway Museum, in Duluth, Ga., towards painting the car under-frame and restoration of the wood siding on Western Union Tool Car “WUTX 3558” built in 1929, which was used for maintenance by Western Union of its telegraph lines across the nation.

• $2,500 to the Harrisburg Chapter NRHS Inc., in Harrisburg, Pa. for reconditioning and painting three historic items in the former PRR Harris Tower. The historic items include the metal covers of its interlocking machine, its lantern and flag storage cabinets, and its original employee lockers.

• $3,000 to the Wiscasset Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum, in Alna, Maine, to outfit its equipment with an 1881 automatic vacuum braking system patented by Eames and originally utilized by its locomotives and cars.

• $3,000 to the Central New York Chapter NRHS, Inc., in Marcellus, N.Y. towards repainting the exteriors of seven cars and two locomotives belonging to the chapter. The equipment will be displayed at the New York State Fair.

• $1,000 to the South Park Rail Society, in Denver, Colo., for hardware and materials toward the rebuild of the tender of ex-Klondike Mines Railway narrow gauge locomotive No. 4, an engine built by Baldwin in 1912.

• $3,000 to the narrow gauge Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad Company, in Saint Marys, Pa., for framing material for a new shop/storage area addition to its existing service and storage building.

• $2,700 to the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, in Nevada City CA, for materials to complete the restoration of a 118-year-old cattle stock car used by the former Denver & Rio Grande Western on its lines.

• $2,300 to the Friends of the New York Transit Museum, in Brooklyn, N.Y., for archival sleeves to rehouse its reprocessed and cataloged photography collection documenting the New York City elevated train systems.
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Bob H

In other WW&F Railway Museum news; they have announced the plan to build replica passenger car #9 which was originally the Wiscasset & Quebec #2.

The museum now owns the sister car #3 as well as a pair of Jackson & Sharp passenger car trucks. They are very expensive parts of a wooden passenger car. The museum companion site on Facebook has some historic photos of the proposed passenger car.

And they are converting their WW&F #8 ex Edaville #26 to a combine this winter. It will be similar to the WW&F #4 combine, which only had a door on one side.

Ted Miles, WW&F Member

What a great photo; forgive me for asking (my dial-up connection doesn't allow me to cruise the web for this answer), but is that a period pic or modern? The car on the right side make me suspect modern; the clothing all looks correct, but number 9 looks "too shiny" for the time period!
If I ever go back east, this is on my "must go to" list.

That's a modern day photo, taken while #10 was still being fired and #9 had just come online. Stephen Hussar is a most accomplished photographer and his work is beyond reproach. Nobody can blame you for not recognizing the gap in years.

WW&F is the finest restoration in the northeast, bar none.

Thanks, that's one of the things that makes that place so special; you CAN go back in time. I thought that car on the far right looked like a modern excursion car!

Maybe not for long though- plans are afoot to convert that excursion car to a replicate an excursion car the Portland Co. designed for the WW&F but never built.