WW&F Railway History Links
Additional Links
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.