I received an e-mail from an old shipmate of mine saying he had recently come across some info on Maine’s 2’ gauge railways. Seems like a really narrow one for a working railway. Anyone else hear of this?
Fergie
Where have you been anyway? [:D]
Maine had many two foot railroads, all over the place. There is some equipment running these days on the Portland waterfront. Do a Google search on Maine 2 foot railroads and you will come up with dozens of links.
Many years ago I visited Edaville in South Carver, MA where they had some of the Maine steamers, cars and equipment in operation. Took a ride on the train there too - the passenger cars only had one seat per side. You could stand in the middle and touch both of the outside walls! Real neat stuff - looking directly into the steam engine cab from ground level - no looking up required! Much of this equipment is now on the site in Portland. There are several other railways being restored in Maine using this diminuative gauge.
Bob Boudreau
Bob- Fergie has been in a snow bank. [igloo].
There was an article re-quarries using 2 footers. I’ll see if I can find it.
Flip
I grew up in maine, and they sure did exist a few museums in maine have displays on them search google and alot will come up here are a few of the road names that used to run:
Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, Bridgton & Saco River, Kennebec Central Railroad, Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington RR.
There is even a yahoo group for them:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaineTwoFooters/
Railroad Model Craftsman magazine had a couple of feature articles last year about the Maine 2’ gauge lines, so you might want to see if you can get ahold of back issues of their magazine. Sorry I can’t provide more definitive information about the issues that contained these articles, but I don’t have access to those magazines right now. RMC doesn’t seem to have a Web site, because the only information they list for contact is e-mail of the various editors, subscriptions, advertising, etc.
Here is a link to Amazon for a currently available book
Funny you should mention that. My wife and I are members of the WW&F (Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington) museum in Alna, ME : http://www.wwfry.org/.
Andre.
This site http://www.trainandtrooper.com/ carries kits and engines for modeling 2 foot gauge in HO, S, and O. Several books have been written over the years on the Maine 2 footers. A good one, “Maine Two Footers”, by Linwood Moody, is back in print - this edition is edited by Robert C. Jones.
There is also a magazine, see this site http://www.maine2footquarterly.com/
HO uses N scale track which is closer to HOn30
S uses HOn3 track which is a couple inches two wide.
O uses both HO track as On30 and On2 track.
Large scale uses 7/8n2 running on G track.
I plan on having a some 2’ gauge on my S scale layout.
Enjoy
Paul
There have been quite a few books in the last few years on the Maine 2 footers; without doubt, the best of the bunch just for the enjoyment of reading it is “The Maine Two footers” by Linwood W. Moody.
Mr. Moody was an oldtime railroader, starting with his hometown Georges Valley RR early in the 20th Century, and finishing his career with the Belfast & Moosehead Lake in the early 70’s. He also got to know the men who made Maine’s two foot roads work and railfanned those roads in the 30’s and 40’s. [he also helped set up the original Edaville RR after WWII]
The neatest thing about Mr. Moody was his writing style…a stereotypical Down East DRY sense of humor.
I have several books by Robt. Jones, and I hope he had the good sense not to mess with Moody’s delightful storytelling. I don’t have the new edition, but the original from 1959. [does that make me OLD?]
Oh, Fergie! What AM I gonna do with you!?!?
If you can find issues of MR from the early eighties Dave Frary and Bob Hayden modelled… IIRC the Carabasset and Dead River, an HOn30 based on the Sandy River and Rangley Lakes.
I believe they were in RMC and not MR. [:D]
Bob Boudreau
There’s been a few articles on the C&DRRy in both magazines. And don’t forget TONS of switching puzzles based on the C&DRRy in MR.
On a more general note about the Maine 2-Footers, in the great John Armstrong book “Creative Layout Design” is one whole chapter devoted to a 2-footer layout in, of all things, 7/16" scale!
–Randy
The early articles they did together were in RMC in the 60’s and early 70’s. Later after Hayden went to work for Kalmbach their articles appared in MR starting in the late 70’s. Hayden has his own version of the C&DR; his layout has been covered in MR and the annual Great Model Ralroads. [:D]
The RMC articles are the ones that got me hooked on the two footers.[:)][:)]
Enjoy
Paul