Celebrating the Volunteers. Every spring and every fall, they come. Some live just a short walk away, while others drive for hours. Still others book airline tickets, hotels and rental cars. Goodness knows they don't do it for money, or any kind of accolades from anyone. They don't even do it for the free meals the museum offers. They do it because they have a common love of railroading, preservation, teamwork and cameraderie. For one weekend each spring and each fall, volunteers come from all over the country to help put back a piece of Maine's heritage at the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum.
The museum typically has 4-6 projects prepared, so there's plenty to do. This day, at least 78 people helped with track work, a new restroom facility, a replica reefer car, and a steam locomotive restoration. On Saturday night, after the work is all done, it is traditional for the museum to feed its troops, serenade them with some local musicians and take them out on the line to ride the trains that they could only watch while they were working. Here, the sunset Volunteer Extra rumbles through Alna Center right at last light, after traveling all the way to the end of the line. Doing the honors this evening in the cab were Engineer Robert "Bullet Bob" Longo and Fireman Josh Recave. Manning the brakes on the platform of Coach 8 was Museum President Steve Zuppa. Road Foreman Dana Deering hitched a ride and reported that the day's track-work was very successful and the evening ride was very smooth as a result.
