Boothbay Railway Village’s S.D. Warren 0-4-0T No. 2 will be under steam on Sept. 8 for a day-long celebration marking the completion of its recent restoration. A brief ceremony will be held at the museum at 10:45 a.m. and then starting at 11 a.m. the locomotive will lead excursions around the museum’s loop of track every hour until 4 p.m. A museum volunteer will present an illustrated talk about the locomotive and its restoration.
While enthusiasts have heard of Maine’s five famous 2-foot gauge common-carrier roads, fewer know about the industrial railroad built to serve the S.D. Warren Paper Mill Co. in Westbrook, just west of Portland. Originally using horse-drawn cars on narrow gauge rails, the paper company purchased three 0-4-0T locomotives in 1895 from the Baldwin Locomotive Works to move materials around the plant. The locomotives were used by the paper mill until the 1940s.
Thanks for pictures! They are great!
When I visited Boothbay about three years ago, I talked to the engineer of the engine that was steamed up that day. He had an amusing and probably accurate take on the railroads and the gauge. He described it as “having a two-foot gauge rail network to support coastal Maine’s two-foot gauge economy” in the 19th century.
Beautiful