On Aug 11, reservists from the US Marine Corps arrived at the WW&F Railway Museum, Alna, ME, for the purpose of rebuilding the WW&F's Humason Brook trestle. "Advance units" (in the form of the officers) arrived on the previous Thursday & Friday with the heavy equipment.
One of our members is a Marine Brigadier General who arranged for the reservists to come.
The reservists spent the day Saturday the 11th enjoying the railroad's Annual Picnic, before going to work on the 12th. By Thursday, the 16th, they had completed the trestle, and had even put two pieces of rails on it for effect.
The trestle isn't very long, only 20-something feet, but it represented an obstacle to laying track north.
The marines leave on Friday the 24th, from the time they completed the trestle until they leave half of them will be involved with grading and ditching up to (and maybe beyond) the trestle, while the other half are working on preparing to pour concrete for our machine shop floor.
With a completed grade and trestle, we will begin preparations for our Columbus Day weekend tracklaying session, during which we hope to reach the trestle (1200 feet from current end of track). The Monday of Columbus Day we'll be running our steam engine on the work trains, and will hopefully be able to run it out onto the trestle that afternoon (for pictures of course).
The website doesn't have any information on the Marines yet, but likely will by the end of the week.