For our January 2026 Update we are thrilled to announce that an anonymous donor (with close ties to the 2 ft community) has AGAIN challenged the friends, followers, and members of the WW&F to raise $60,000 to Build Locomotive 11. He will MATCH up to $60,000 in 2026 so that progress continues “Pushing Forward.” Below,

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held on November 12-14. …and thank YOU for giving more than 111% to this project! As the 2025 campaign comes to a close, our friends and followers have donated an astounding $142,131 towards Build 11 – 118% of our $120,000 goal (for 2025.) All additional funds are being

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held on October 10-12 during our Fall Work Weekend. …and thank YOU for giving more than 111% to this project! In 2025, our friends and followers have donated an astounding $139,073 towards Build 11 – 116% of our $120,000 goal (for 2025.) All additional funds are being used

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held on September 8-10. Harold Downey, Gordon Cook and Rick Sisson set up our crankpin press to, you guessed it, press crankpins into our driving wheelsets. In the following photo, you can see how the crankpin press extension was specifically designed to fit between the counterweight and wheel.

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held on August 12-14. Rick Sisson test fit the laser cut components of the wheel press extension fixture. The head of this fixture, designed by Gordon Cook, is sized to fit between the driver and its counterweight so that the wheel press can be used to press the

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On Tuesday, Sept 9, 2025, the Build Locomotive 11 crew pressed in one of the crank pins into the outer counterweight. Thanks for your continued support and interest in the WW&F!The Build 11 Team

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held on July 15-17. Quentin Bethune brought the eccentrics back from his home shop where he had finished machining the interior surfaces. That’s a lot of steel in Quentin’s truck! On top of this load you can see the fixture Quentin designed and fabricated at home. This fixture

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held during June 10-12. Our main goal was to pour lead into the main driving wheelset counterweights. We needed to add approximately 70 pounds of weight to each counterweight. The counterweights were cast with an interior void designed to capture the additional lead. Quentin Bethune drilled and tapped

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Volunteers at the WW&F Railway Museum in Alna, Maine are building a new steam locomotive. Here you see Harold and Quintin pouring molten lead into the hollow counterweights on one of the locomotive’s drive wheels. This process allows a precise ratio to counterbalance the force of the drive rods, which will be attached to the

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held during May 14-16. Quentin Bethune picked up the lead truck journals from Noah MacAdam and brought them to our shop. These were beautifully finished. Rick Sisson was tasked with scraping the journal surfaces – a process that begins with bluing the axle bearing surface and positioning the

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held during our Spring Work Weekend, April 24-27. Our friends at Mountain Machine Works have completed quartering of the driver wheelsets; they achieved 90.000 +/- 0.002 degrees. They bored the crankpin seats and machined the crankpins. The wheelsets and crankpins have been moved to our shop and we

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held on March 25-27. Rick Sisson assisted by Bob Longo and Quentin Bethune fabricated the “fire ring” that we will use to heat the driving wheel tires during installation planned for our Spring Work Weekend. Our design is scaled up from the fire ring we built to install

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held on February 18 – 20. Brendan Barry and Jason Lamontagne picked up driving wheels, axles and counterweights from Mountain Machine Works in Auburn, Maine and transported them to Millinocket Fabrication and Machine on Tuesday where they were joined by Quentin Bethune and Rick Sisson. Preliminary inspection of

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The WW&F’s latest Build 11 work session was held on January 14 – 16. We’ve completely assembled the lead truck (less springs) and equalizer components, continued to machine small and large components and are closing in on tramming the shoes and wedges. We finally received the clevises which, along with the threaded rod, connect the

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We apologize for the delayed “11th of the month” update for you, our most dedicated Build 11 donors. We switched giving platforms to “Zeffy” which required a few extra days of preparation, but will allow us to more effectively conduct fundraising and ticketing, while saving the museum thousands of dollars in processing fees. Thus, your

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Here’s a video look-back on the progress made on the locomotive during 2024. The crew has been hard at work over the past 12 months and we are inching closer to making a concept into a reality. In 2025 we have ambitious goals. We’ve been challenged to raise $60,000 by an anonymous donor who will

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Here’s a video quick video illustrating the swing motion action of the front pony truck of Locomotive 11. Thank You for Your Support We appreciate all contributions to the Build 11 project – together we are making what was considered an impossible dream a reality. Please consider helping by contributing on our donations page at www.build11.org.

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Build 11: December 2024 Update The WW&F Build 11 volunteers have been as busy as Santa constructing our new steam locomotive! Hark, that’s Harold riveting! Gordon Cook has been making 3-D models of the various components for locomotive 11. Here is a full rendering. Now if Santa could only bring us a big enough 3-D

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December 2023 Update We have more progress to report during our November 13-15 work session. We accomplished quite a lot during this work session and we’re taking a break in December to enjoy the holidays. But we’ll be back at it in January. Stay tuned for our next update. But first…. WE DID IT!! Our

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December 31, 2022: 2022 Goal Exceeded! Thank You. Thank you to our friends, followers, and supporters of the Build 11 Campaign. On January 11, 2022, we set out the most ambitious fundraising goal of the campaign – $70,000. Through your efforts, that goal was exceeded – raising nearly $85,000 (including a $25,000 match from the

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December 2021 Update On Nov. 30 and December 1, a four-man crew including Jason Lamontagne, Gordon Cook, Rick Sisson and new volunteer Eric Snyder completed flanging the throat sheet for No. 10. This work included forming the knuckle by hand, using wooden mallets to form the final curve over a die. The flanging machine was

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December 2020 Update There is some great news about the Build No. 11 Project this month. First and foremost, our FundRazr has reached and surpassed its goal of $17,000, thanks many donations from members and friends far and near. Nevertheless, if you want to contribute, you still have about three weeks to do so. We’ll

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