Coach 9: March 19, 2025 Update

Master Carpenter Eric Schade reports: “I wanted to post some photos of Coach 3 which we are using as a guide for building our new coach (9) at the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum. The Wiscasset and Quebec Railway had two coaches, a baggage/mail/express combine and a smoking car built for the opening of the railway in 1894.”

Coach 2 and coach 3 were sisters and nearly identical. Coach 3 went to the Bridgeton and Saco Railway in the early 1900s.

Coach 2 continued on at the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway until closure and in fact lasted until around 1951 when it was burned on the 4th of July to make room for a school ball field. Coach 3 continued at Bridgeton until it closed and it was brought to Edaville in Carver Massachusetts. In the ’90s it was returned to Maine first to Portland then to Alna where it now is in passenger service.

This is coach 3 as it appears today ready to carry happy passengers back to Sheepscot station.

This is coach 3 when it was ready to ship to Maine From the Jackson and Sharp factory in Wilmington, Delaware.

W&Q Coach 3 was ornately decorated inside and out. This car is being replicated at the WW&F Railway Museum in Alna, Maine. — This is Jackson and Sharp’s builders photo of the interior of coach 3. *Both photos from the Delaware Public Archive photo collection.*

This is W&Q Coach 3 when it was at the Bridgeton and Harrison Railroad probably in the 1930s

In order to understand the structure of the coach, Eric removed (temporarily) some siding to see what was under it. The diagonal braces would create a truss. The lower internal plank is Southern hard pine and is structural; it is secured to the floor sills with bolts. The sills are about 6inches high, 40 feet long.

Eric spent quite a bit of time measuring and sketching the car in 2017 in preparation for our reconstruction.

This is a well preserved piece of the original ceiling showing the fancy art that was applied to the panels. The panels are oak veneer over plywood (1894!) This portion of the ceiling was uncovered by the folks at the Maine Narrow Gauge RR Co. and Museum when the car came back to Maine in the ’90s.

Photos of the car in service at Bridgeton show the lamps missing and the chimneys covered with a plank the ceiling had been painted white and showed water damage. this is what you will see today.

Looking up in the bathroom (saloon) a piece of the original side ceiling still exists and was used a model for the art on our recreation.

The seats are apparently somewhat rare. They have a very distinctive cast basket motif. We found that these were actually painted a fairly bright color and that the arm rest was nickel plated.

This is one of about 30 hand carved badges between the tops of the windows.

Each end of the coach has transom panels which open to allow air to pass though screens over the platforms into the car.

This is the side frame of the coach trucks.

The coach trucks were recently updated with Eames Automatic Vacuum brakes; here you can see one of the trucks in all its glory. This truck is actually from a different coach but is very similar to that on coach 3.

With the trucks removed we could see the original coupling mechanism. This was originally part of the Miller Safety Platform system which included the Miller hook coupler and was fairly common in 1894.

Original photos of the end of the car show Wood Safety Gates like this one on a Boston and Maine coach located in Contoocook, New Hampshire.

This is a sample where we sanded to bare wood to determine the original colors. There were a lot or repaints over the years. We believe the color that appears black in this photo is the original color… actually a very dark olive green. We hired a professional paint conservator to get the exact color.

This is a color test in the clerestory area showing several layers of paint the earliest layers are a dark, almost black olive green.

The end of the roof showed us how the original roof was made using soldered metal sheets.

The clerestory windows were covered by screens. Currently only the top part of the frame exists; you can also see the hardware which allows the window to pivot in for ventilation.

W&Q Coach 3 on end of a Mixed Train at the WW&F Railway Museum in Alna, Maine.

Thanks for your continued support and interest in the WW&F!
The Coach 9 Team

Coach 9: March 19, 2025 Update

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