18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest The American Experience
All Aboard!

This was taken at the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railroad Museum in Alna, Maine. The WW&F Railway traces its roots to 1894 when the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad constructed a two-foot “narrow” gauge railroad northward from the bustling wharves of Wiscasset. Winding through the wild pine forests, farmlands and hamlets of the Sheepscot Valley to connect the interior of Maine with the coast, the WW&F served the businesses and residents of rural Maine until 1933. Ultimately, the railroad was closed, scrapped, and nearly forgotten. In 1989 the Museum was formed as a non-profit, dedicated to the display and preservation of the two-foot gauge Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway and its predecessor roads, the WW&F Railroad and the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad. The Museum attempts to replicate history through the use of steam locomotives, hand signals, and the methods used by people on the original railroad, as much as possible. The Museum is entirely volunteer-run.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 05.2018
Date Uploaded: 11.2020
Photo Location: Alna, Maine, United States of America
Camera: Canon EOS 80D
Copyright: © Kathleen Nadeau