Rails over Trout Brook! The 2019 Fall Work Weekend at the WW&F marked a major milestone in the history of the museum. For the first time in 82 years, rails were once again in place across Trout Brook, and for the first time in 86 years, a steam locomotive made the crossing. How fitting that it should be the last surviving locomotive that ever ran on the line, the Portland-built, WW&F #9. In this image, looking south from the north shore of the brook, we see #9 supplying the power for a work train. Behind her are a pair of flats, carrying stone for ballasting the new track. Front-coupled on the bridge, we see an open-air excursion car, which was used to transport personnel during the work session.
Although roughly 2100 feet of new track has was laid during the fall work session, and the line now stretches all the way from Cross Road in Sheepscot to Route 218, a distance of about 3.5 miles, there is there is still some work to be done. First, the new track will need to be ballasted, leveled and tamped. Some ballasting was actually accomplished a few weeks after the Fall Work Weekend, but the bulk of the remaining work is scheduled for the 2020 Spring Work Weekend. In addition, a passing siding will need to be built at end-of-track. That siding will have a switch at the south end, and a small turntable at the north end, enabling the locomotive to always face forward. That's important, because the Portland-built WW&F #9 does not have sanders for reverse operation. Lastly, a station shelter will likely be built at what will be the northern terminus of the museum trackage.....at least for the foreseeable future. The new station location is already being called "Trout Brook Station" and the track to that location will be placed in regular passenger service in 2021.
The bridge you see is roughly 50 feet long and was originally built by the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1918, spanning Moose Brook in Gorham, New Hampshire on the Berlin Branch. The bridge remained in place until 2004, when an arsonist set fire to it, rendering it unfit for operations. At that time, the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges (NSPCB) saved the remains of the bridge by taking possession of it with the hope of rebuilding. The structure was documented by the National Covered Bridges Recording Project, a documentation program of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), which is administered by a division of the National Park Service. Later, the remaining iron parts were shipped to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where the university's Engineering Department completely rebuilt the trusses according to the HAER plans using all new wooden components. A series of tests on the structure yielded valuable data on bridge design and load ratings, and provided a framework for the preservation of the remaining examples of this design. At this point, the NSPCB, secured a grant from the National Park Service for the re-assembly of the bridge trusses. The next step was to find a suitable home for the historic span, and a number of locations were explored. Since the original location was no longer in use for railroad purposes, it was no longer needed there. After becoming aware of the bridge's availability, talks began between the NSPCB and the WW&F regarding use of the Moose Brook trusses as a possible solution to the WW&F's need for a means to cross Trout Brook. The NSPCB then offered to donate the trusses, including the reassembly funds from its NPS grant to the WW&F, so the bridge could once again be put back into active service on a rail line. It was reconstructed in the WW&F's parking lot in early 2018 and then moved over Route 218 to the installation site in early September of that year.
The bridge is a historically-significant example of a Howe Boxed Pony Truss bridge, one of only six surviving examples of such a design in North America.
