Through The Lens 180 – I Never Thought I’d See The Day…


Standing in the roundhouse in June of 2018, as I took this photo of a sunbeam illuminating #16’s pilot, I never thought I’d see the day that a steam locomotive would move under its own power at the East Broad Top Railroad.

Happily, I was wrong. On Wednesday February 1st, 2023, Locomotive #16 moved under its own power for the first time in 67 years! Congratulations to the entire team at the East Broad Top Railroad on a job well done!

Happy Friday!

Through The Lens 175 – East Broad Top

Yesterday was the 60th Anniversary of the the East Broad Top Railroad’s first tourist trains under the ownership of the Kovalchick Family who saved it from being scrapped. It was fitting that yesterday was also the first public train rides hosted by the EBT’s new owner, the EBT Foundation. Great things are coming from what is arguably the best preserved railroad site in the United States.

Happy Friday!

Trip Report – Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington 2018

Early Morning in the Yard

In April, the Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum in Alna, ME held their annual photo excursion.  The WW&F has been on my to-do list for a couple years and the opportunity to attend finally presented itself this year.  The day started in the yard with some locomotive maintenance and switching before moving out onto the line.

Enginehouse

Oiling Around

Switching the Yard

Water Tank

Out on the line we made several stops including Cockeye Curve:

Cockeye Curve

Humason Trestle:

Humason Trestle Reflections

Alna Center:

Station Master & Train Crew

And Top of the Mountain:

Switching the Yard

The WW&F Ry Museum is dedicated to historical accuracy in just about everything they do. While modern machinery is sometimes used where necessary, the old fashioned way is preferred wherever possible. Case and point was the removal of about 330ft of rail at Davis Grade. They needed to remove the rail to facilitate the correction of some roadbed issues and while they could have easily used modern machinery to pull the rail, they chose to do it by hand just as it was done in 1937 when the line was scrapped. Even more incredible was the fact that the flat car that was used by the original WW&F Ry to scrap the line is back in service at the WW&F Ry Museum today. Since none of the WW&F’s locomotives were operable in 1937, they used draft horses to pull the flat car. All of this was recreated for the photographers assembled this spring. Why? Because they can!

Scraping the Line

Scraping the Line

Scraping the Line

Scraping the Line

The day ended with a night session produced by Stephen Hussar and his crew. The night session actually started before dark in the machine shop where we found a mechanic working on the Railway’s Ford Model T Railcar:

The Mechanic

Once Blue Hour hit, we moved outside to work with the Train Crew and Locomotive #9:

Needless to day it was a fun day photographically and I’m looking forward to a return trip, hopefully next year.

Through The Lens 36 – Snow on the Narrow Gauge

Since we’re in the middle of a heatwave here in the mid-atlantic region, I thought I’d share one from winter’s past.  This one was taken on a private photo charter on the Durango & Silverton back in February 2011.  Enjoy and try to stay cool out there!