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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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 printer, we’d be done with

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held October 11 -14 coincident with the WW&F Ry Fall Work Weekend. On Saturday, Joe and Jay Monty manned the torches to heat the transverse equalizer so that we could form the “ears” on each end. Rick Sisson, Bill Steussey, Joseph Gilbert, and Joe and Jay drove our

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We’ve been cooking up a brand new steam locomotive! Here we are heating the lead truck equalizer during our Aug 13-15th work session. Gordon Cook, Harold Downey and Rick Sisson again used our flanging machine to form the “ears” at the end of the lead truck equalizer. Harold had prepared the end of the equalizer

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Today, we are pleased to announce a major donation towards the completion of WW&F Locomotive 11, a new-build reconstruction of WW&F no. 7, which was scrapped in the 1930s. Two lifetime fans of the Maine two-footers, Gordon Fay and George Bartholomew, have pledged $15,000 to get the Build 11 project on track for completion. This

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Our latest Build 11 work session was held July 9 -11, 2024. Gordon Cook, Harold Downey and Rick Sisson spent a great deal of time preparing the main equalizer pedestals for installation. These components are located on the forward frame and support the main equalizers which pivot about a 2” pin. We then turned our

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Build 11 team members Gordon and Rick were working on the locomotive today, so instead of a detailed written progress report, see for yourself how the project is progressing! Learn more and contribute at: www.build11.org Thanks for your continued support and interest in the WW&F!The Build 11 Team

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Here is a somewhat tardy report from the Build 11 work session that was held June 8 -11. Quentin Bethune and Gordon Cook heat shrunk the previously machined sleeves onto the second axle on Saturday. Quentin then machined both sleeves on the axle. Both rear truck axles are now ready to receive wheels. On Sunday

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The team building locomotive 11 have been hard at work over the last several days, so a formal work update will be coming soon. Here’s a sneak preview of the accomplishments this month – one of the tender truck wheels being fitted to its axle! Learn more and contribute at: www.build11.org Thanks for your continued

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Our last Build 11 work session was held April 25 – 28 during our Spring Work Weekend. Between sessions Harold Downey has continued working on the rear truck frame – the arch bars and journal boxes have been bolted in. We plan to prime all the components before final assembly. Quentin Bethune brought back the

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A springtime snowstorm did not slow down our progress this month; an abbreviated Build 11 team was back for our April 3-5 work session. Between sessions Harold Downey continued assembly of the rear truck frame. Gordon Cook spent part of the day Wednesday working on locomotive 9’s injector with Roger Whitney and Jason Lamontagne. Later

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The Build 11 team was back for our March 5-7 work session. We had a number of team members working on projects during the March 5-7 work session: Harold Downey and Rick Sisson used our flanger to complete all the bending operations described in the captions. Harold also machined the 180 degree bends to finished dimensions.

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The Build 11 team was back for our February 4-6 work session. Harold Downey, Joe Monty and Rick Sisson completed hot bending the lead truck pedestals using our flanging machine. The shorter bends were performed during the January work session. These components will be machined to ready them for assembly. Meanwhile, Harold finished machining the

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The Build 11 team, after enjoying a holiday break, was back at it again during our January 2-4 work session. Quentin Bethune completed polishing the first rear truck axle journal bearing surfaces using a tool post grinder generously donated by Noah MacAdam. Meanwhile, Gordon Cook, Rick Sisson and Jason Lamontagne completed installation of the lead

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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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