The crown jewel. Safely tucked away in Bay 1 of the Sheepscot Shop Building is the crown jewel in the WW&F Museum's collection: Locomotive #9. An 1891 product of Maine's Portland Company, this engine spent a 40-year career on 3 other Maine 2-Foot Railroads before coming to the WW&F in 1933, shortly before the line closed. Saved from the scrappers by railroad enthusiasts, she then spent 50 years in a barn in Thompson, CT, before returning to Maine. In December of 2015, this engine emerged from a 10-year restoration effort with a new boiler and a new lease on life. She's now the primary power at the WW&F Museum.
The car shop building, where the WW&F Locomotives currently live, is loosely based on the design of the original WW&F Shops, which were located in Wiscasset. Because the original location of the Wiscasset Yard is now a public school, the present-day WW&F Museum is attempting to recreate that yard and all of its infrastructure roughly 5 miles to the north, at the site of the old flag stop known as Sheepscot. The shop building seen here has 3 stalls, which are typically used for the construction, restoration or repair of wood frame rolling stock. Adjoining the shop building on the west side is the railroad's machine shop. This is where all of the heavy machine tools used to fabricate and repair equipment are installed. The machine shop has a floor pit and is the only part of the shop complex that is heated in the winter time. For now, it is where the steam locomotives typically live. In a couple of years, the museum hopes to build a 3-stall roundhouse, similar to that which existed in the Wiscasset Yard. That facility will house the museum's two existing steam locomotives, and will have space for a 3rd engine that they intend to build in the coming years. When the roundhouse is complete, the museum will finally have the ability to steam up and hostel locomotives indoors.
