Handle with care: A "high profile" load on the WW&F - Part 1. The winter of 2023 brought some changes to the WW&F Museum's Sheepscot Yard. After decades of use, the museum's passenger platform was in need of a facelift. The existing platform and station complex had settled and shifted in the soft Maine soil and the whole complex needed to be rebuilt. The platform and shelter area also needed to be enlarged, to accommodate a significant increase in passenger traffic since it was originally built. With this station re-build, came an interesting opportunity. A portion of the existing structure, namely the passenger shelter, was still quite serviceable, albeit too small to be reused here. What to do?
Well, as it turns out, the WW&F Museum now has 3 other stations on the line. One of these, at Top of the Mountain, is fast becoming the most heavily used, as it is adjacent to SeaLyon Farm, where the museum and the farm collaborate on a number of major events every year. With more and more passenger traffic, the spartan facilities at Top of the Mountain needed an upgrade and a passenger shelter was at the top of the list of needs. The existing Sheepscot Passenger Shelter might just fill the bill. But....how to get it there? Well, just like everything else at the WW&F Museum, the answer was to get it there by rail.
Pictured here, is the Sheepscot Passenger Shelter, removed from its footings and rigged on a 2-foot gauge flat car. And yes, if this load looks to have a high center of gravity, it most certainly does. This image was captured about 3 weeks before the move took place. In the ensuing weeks, the load would be re-rigged and lowered a bit. Appropriate ballast was also added to balance it laterally. Clearances were checked, not only in the yard, but along the entire line. Engineering calculations were run, looking at each of the curves on the line and determining how much this load could lean, before bad things would happen. And lastly, the line had to be cleared of a foot of new snow before the move could proceed. It took a lot of preparations by a lot of people and a lot of hard work. And of course, it would be moved by steam....
