HISTORY

Enjoy other sites that are dedicated to railroading, both narrow and standard gauge.

Maine Two-Foot Gauge Websites

• Boothbay Railway Museum, located in Boothbay, Maine, is the home to WW&F Boxcar 312 and several other historic, preserved two-foot equipment and memorabilia. The Museum was the first such museum in Maine.
• The Bridgton and Saco River Railroad, one of the five original Maine Two-Footers, ran from Bridgton Junction to Bridgton, and later to Harrison. A new museum hopes to reconstruct part of this railroad.
• The Kennebec Central lives on today as a rail trail, maintained by the Friends of the Old Narrow Gauge Trail.
• Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company & Museum, located in Portland, Maine, offers a scenic trip along Casco bay.
• The Monson Railroad currently has no official preservation organization dedicated to it. The railroad station in Monson is under private ownership.
• Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad Museum is just north of Phillips, and has quite a collection of SR&RL equipment.

Other Two-Foot Gauge Railroads (600 mm – 610 mm)

• The Amberley Museum is a museum in Sussex, England, displaying how industrial technology affected the general populace. They have a two-foot gauge industrial railroad collection.
• APPEVA Society – P’tit Train de la Haute Somme is a two-foot gauge French trench museum railroad.
• The Australian Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Society preserves two-foot gauge railroading in Queensland, Australia.
• The Bala Lake Railway (Rheilfordd Llyn Tegid) is built on an abandoned standard-gauge roadbed in Wales. The present line was opened in 1972.
• The Billerica & Bedford Railroad & Friends of Bedford Depot Park. The B&BRR was the first commercial 2-foot gauge railroad in North America. The roadbed later became the Lexington Branch of the Boston & Maine Railroad.
• Brecon Mountain Railway, located in Southern Wales.
• Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway Museum, located in Kent, England, started as a private hobby railroad but now is a fully operational railroad.
• The Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad, located in St Mary’s, Pennsylvania.
• The Chicago Tunnel Railroad Company ran an extensive electrified two-foot gauge underground freight railroad, underneath the city of Chicago. This is the Wikipedia page.
• The Cripple Creek and Victor. A Colorado two-foot gauge museum and attraction on the roadbed of the old three-foot gauge Florence and Cripple Creek RR.
• Dampf-Kleinbahn Muehlenstroth is a site in German about a German two-foot gauge line.
• The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, an Indian two-footer and marvel of engineering. It could be considered the highest and steepest two-foot railroad in the world.
• Death Valley Baby Gauge RR was a railroad serving two mines in Death Valley. They operated tourist service in the late 1950’s.
• The Edaville Railroad. The Massachusetts tourist attraction, which closed in 1993, was reopened on Labor Day 1999. It is now operated by our friends at Maine Locomotive and Machine Works.
• The Feldbahn Railway, in Frankfurt, Germany, preserves and operates German 600mm gauge railway equipment.
• The Ferrymead Railway, in Christchurch, New Zealand. This group is completing a loop of track in a local park, using equipment that formerly saw service in salt plants.
• The Ffestiniog Railway, in Porthmadog Wales, is one of the grandfathers of the two-foot railroads in the world. This railroad was the inspiration for the Maine two-footers. This website includes both the Ffestiniog and the recently completed Welsh Highland Railways.
• The Ffestiniog Railway Society exists to support the Ffestiniog Railway.
• The Goose Creek Railroad, a private two-foot gauge railroad in Virginia.
• The Lake Macquarie Light Railway is located in Toronto, NSW, Australia.
• The Leighton Buzzard Railway is located in Bedfordshire, England. It was originally built in 1919 to transport sand.
• The Light Railway Research Society of Australia has some really neat articles on Australia’s 1800 miles of two-foot gauge sugar cane railroads.
• The Llanberis Lake Railway located in Llanberis, Wales.
• The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, located in Devon, England, is being rebuilt after 50 years of abandonment.
• The Perus-Pirapora Railway of Brazil, aka the EFPP, ran until 1983. The equipment remains in-situ. This site is in Portuguese.
• Redwater Creek Steam & Heritage Society, a Tasmanian museum.
• Risten – Lakviks Järnväg, A Swedish 2-foot railway museum.
• Sandstone Heritage Trust in South Africa are working to preserve much of South Africa’s railroad heritage, including the two-foot gauge lines there.
• Schinznacher Tree-Nursery Railway, a Swiss two-foot gauge railway.
• Skansa Järnväg, in southeastern Sweden.
• The South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society is England’s highest narrow gauge railroad. This was built on a section of abandoned standard-gauge roadbed.
• The Teifi Valley Railway was built on the roadbed of the broad-gauge Carmarthen to Aberystwyth Railway. This is the Wikipedia page.
• The Vale of Rheidol Railway in Aberystwyth, Wales.
• Wales West RV Resort, a two-footer tribute to Welsh railways located in Alabama.
• The Welsh Highlands Heritage Railway is maintaining the heritage portion of the original North West Narrow Gauge/Welsh Highland Railway.
• The Welsh Highland Railway Society is the support society for the recently-completed Welsh Highland Railway, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadoc, Wales, UK.
• The West Lancashire Light Railway, located in West Lancashire, England.

Less-than Two-Foot Gauge Railroads

• The Bure Valley Railway, a new 15″ gauge English railroad attraction.
• The Fairbourne and Barmouth Steam Railway is a 12 1/4″ gauge miniature railway that hauls people 2 1/2 miles from a ferry to a resort in Wales.
• The Riverside and Great Northern Railroad offers a beautiful scenic train ride through the Wisconsin Dells countryside on coaches inspired by the Maine Two Footers.
• The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway was one of England’s most extensive 15″ gauge railways (double-tracked), and even warranted armored trains during World War II. It survives today as a museum/tourist operation.

Greater-than Two-Foot Narrow Gauge Railroads

• The Connecticut Antique Machinery Association has a 3-foot gauge railroad along with other old machinery in Kent, CT.
• The Corris Railway was thought to be the oldest narrow gauge in Wales, built to the gauge 2’3″. Restoration efforts are proceeding to reopen this line.
• The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, a three-foot gauge railroad, runs over the steep Cumbres Pass in southern Colorado. This page is maintained by the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec.
• Durango and Silverton Railroad, a three-foot gauge railroad in southwestern Colorado that runs between the mining towns of Durango and Silverton.
• East Broad Top Railroad, a three-foot gauge railroad museum in Pennsylvania, the oldest operating narrow gauge railroad east of the Mississippi.
• The Georgetown Loop, a recreation of the famed three-foot gauge Georgetown Loop, west of Denver, CO.
• Knott’s Berry Farm has a railroad with much equipment from the old Rio Grande Southern.
• Midwest Central Railroad, a 3-foot gauge Museum line in Iowa with equipment from all over the country.
• The Puffing Billy Railway in Australia is a preserved and restored 2’6″ narrow gauge railroad.
• Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railway, located in California, operates a historic logging railroad and camp.
• A Rio Grande Southern information site, with an interesting and informative map of its route. The RGS was a three-footer that ran from Durango to Ridgeway between 1890 and 1953.
• Another RGS information site, with many more facts.
• SABA – Le Petit Train du Bas Berry, a three foot gauge railroad located in France (the site’s in French).
• The Sittingbourne and Kelmsley Light Railway is the remnant of a 2′ 6″ narrow gauge industrial line which was turned to tourist operation.
• We’re inspired by the South Park Rail Society‘s efforts at Como, Colorado. They started with a few derelict buildings and now have a working rail yard, roundhouse with turntable, and an operational steam locomotive. Long live the Denver South Park & Pacific Railway!
• St. Kitts Scenic Railway, a 30″ gauge former sugar railroad on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.
• The Sumpter Valley Railway, a three foot gauge museum located in Oregon, rebuilding the timber- and ore-hauling Sumpter Valley Railway.
• The Talyllyn Railway, in Wales, was built the unusual gauge of 2’3″.
• The Tweetsie Railroad, a North Carolinian theme park, using equipment from the narrow gauge East Tennessee and Western North Carolina (ET&WNC) railroad. The Tweetsie has one of the finest mechanical shops in the country.
• The Walhalla Goldfields Railway a 2’6″ preserved railway in Moe, Victoria, Australia.
• The Welshpool & Llanfair Railway, a rebuilt 2′ 6″ gauge line in eastern Wales.
• The White Pass & Yukon Railroad, the nation’s “most modern narrow gauge”, in Skagway, AK.

Standard Gauge Railroads

• Amtrak, America’s passenger railroad.
• A Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad history website.
• Berkshire Scenic Railroad, in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts.
• The Boston & Maine Historical Society, preserving the history of New England’s B&M Railroad.
• The Branford Electric Railway Museum, aka the Shore Line Trolley Museum, America’s oldest operating suburban trolley line.
• Connecticut Electric Railway Association aka the Connecticut Trolley Museum located in East Windsor, CT.
• Conway Scenic Railroad. Travel the famous and beautiful Crawford Notch by rail.
• Downeast Scenic Rail, a group attempting to save the former Maine Central Washington County Branch.
• The Downeaster, Amtrak’s Boston-to-Portland train.
• Flying Yankee Restoration Group are restoring the B&M 6000, New England’s first streamlined passenger train.
• New England Steam Corporation is working to restore Maine Central engine #470 (long displayed in Waterville Maine) to operation.
• The Hobo Railroad located in Lincoln, New Hampshire; and the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad, located in Meridith, NH.
• The Central Maine and Quebec operates the former Bangor & Aroostook system, plus the former Canadian Pacific line through Maine.
• Mt Washington Cog Railway, the first cog railway in the world.
• Nevada Northern Railway, a railroad museum in Ely, Nevada.
• Seashore Trolley Museum, home of many preserved and restored streetcars, and is the oldest trolley museum in the world.
• The Virginia & Truckee Railroad runs again in Virginia City, Nevada, and is actually being rebuilt in its entirety. The V&T helped mine the Comstock Load, the richest silver mine in the world.
• The White Mountain Central Railroad, better known as Clark’s Trading Post.
• The Wilmington & Western Railroad, an excellent shortline located in Delaware.

Other Railroad-related Sites

• The 470 Railroad Club operates New England railroad excursions and maintains a collection of historic equipment.
• A Brief History of the Texas Railroads includes a list of additional resources. Special thanks to “Ethan” for the suggestion!
• All About The Street Car, Trolley and Subways gives a great overview of electric traction. Special thanks to Nicole from the Lyndhurst Stem Club for Girls for finding this resource and calling it to our attention!
• The Amherst Railway Society runs the yearly Springfield Train Show at the Big E Center in West Springfield. The Society distributes proceeds from the show to various museums and operations around New England.
• Brookville Mining Equipment, manufacturer of mining and industrial locomotives, and builder of our Engine 51.
• Cotton Valley Rail Trail Club, Inc maintains the track and right-of-way along the former Wolfeboro Railroad between Wolfeboro and Sanbornville, New Hampshire.
• Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec are working to preserve the C&T Scenic Railroad.
• Friends of the East Broad Top are working to preserve the EBT Railroad.
• Friends of Pleasure Island are working to remember the 1960s Pleasure Island amusement park in Wakefield, Mass. Our own #10 ran there for several years.
• Historical Research and Development of the Transcontinental Railroad
• Light Iron Digest, a magazine about narrow gauge industrial operations.
• Maine Two Foot Quarterly, a magazine with information for modelers and followers of the Maine Two Footers.
• The Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts, in Massachusetts.
• The Narrow Gauge Dead Goat Saloon discussion group.
• The Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum
• The Narrow Gauge Railway Society is an English narrow gauge interest group that now has a global membership.
• NERail is a site with lots of photographs from New England and other parts of the US.
• New York Railroad Enthusiasts, in (where else?) New York State.
• Railfan & Railroad Magazine.
• Railpictures.net contains many high-quality photographs of railroads all over the world, including the WW&F.
• RailsNW, providing tours and excursions on various railroads throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico.
• Railways in the Far South, a fascinating web site about the railroads (many narrow gauge) found in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, in extreme South America.
• Railway Preservation News posts news and articles about railroad sites from all over the country.
• Restoration Stories, a PBS-supported TV covering some of America’s restoration efforts – including the WW&F’s!.
• Steam Locomotive Terms.
• Trainriders/Northeast was the driving force behind the return of passenger trains to Maine.
• Trains Magazine: THE magazine of railroading.
• The Walker Transportation Collection has a collection of railroad and other transportation memorabilia.
• YouTube hosts videos of the WW&F Railway Museum on its official page.

Local Area Links

• SeaLyon Farm is our neighbor and partner in several special events. Please stop by their farm during your visit to Alna.
• The Lincoln County News, a paper covering events all over Lincoln County. This paper has been around many years and reported on the original railroad’s happenings.
• Maine Office of Tourism.
• The Wiscasset Woods Lodge is just a few miles outside of Wiscasset on Rt 1. It is frequented by both volunteers and visitors to the Museum.