The "Mountain" is open. Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Locomotive #9 makes its southbound charge up the grade known as "The Ladder" toward Alna Center, hauling the first revenue train to run the now completed "Mountain Extension." In 2019, the WW&F Museum Volunteers extended their trackage all the way from "Top of the Mountain", down to the historic location, where the WW&F used to cross State Route 218. It had been the museum's intent to open the so-called "Mountain Extension" in 2020, but the COVID pandemic overcame that plan, along with a lot of other things. As the pandemic eased a bit in 2021, museum volunteers were able to come back to Alna to fully ballast, level and tamp the new track, and construct some of the necessary infrastructure, such as a short, locomotive-size turntable a the end of track, and a brand new station building, which is know as Trout Brook Station. With many of these tasks complete, the museum formulated a new plan to open the entire line during it's Annual Picnic in August of 2022, and that's what happened this day. The train is pictured here at about Milepost 6.6 running along an agricultural field which has become known as "Albee's Field." Fireman Dan Malkowski is the fellow leaning out of the cab, watching that strange flying contraption, hovering about 40 feet away.
