The return of Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes #6. The Grand Reunion of the Maine 2-Foot Locomotives at the WW&F Museum in January of 2020 featured the return of Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad Locomotive #6 to active service, after an absence of 96 years!! How is that possible, you ask? There are only 5 surviving Maine 2-Foot engines...right? Two Bridgton & Saco River engines, 2 Monson engines and 1 WW&F engine. There are no Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes engines in that list....or are there? Well, as a matter of fact, THERE IS ONE. You see, WW&F Locomotive #9 is pretty unique in that she served 4 of Maine's 2-Foot railroads during her 40+ year working life. She was born as Sandy River #5, and when that railroad consolidated with several other small lines to form the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad, SRR #5 became SR&RL #6. She served that railroad well from 1908 to 1924, before moving on to the Kennebec Central and later, the WW&F. So in fact, a Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes steamer DOES survive. For the first day of our Grand Reunion, the WW&F Museum re-lettered her for the SR&RL, at the hands of the very talented Museum Member, Eric Schade, who not only did the lettering, but re-created the brass number plate on her smokebox. With the possible exception of some details in the headlamp, the re-lettered locomotive was a dead-ringer for some of her historic photos. In this image, we see the reborn SR&RL #6, taking water at the Sheepscot Tank, with her planished iron boiler jacket reflecting the cobalt blue Maine sky. That's Fireman Gordon Cook handling the spout, while Engineman Bill Piche takes a brief break, and Trainmen Dan Malkowski and J.B Smith look on from the coach platform.
