Wayne Hoskin Wrote:
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>
> Bare with me but my inquisitive mind would like to
> know the following:-
> 1) If the railroad will be 3.5 miles long, where
> does the 8 mile post allude to?
The milepost numbers refer to the original railroad miles from Wiscasset, originally the railroad headquarters. The WW&F owns some ROW in that direction, but it would involve crossing a public road and no plans have been made to do that.
> 2) Was that 4% grade always part of the railroad
> of old times?
We have not made any material changes to the grade, so the original railroad faced the same grade. The new bridge at Trout Creek is about 12 inches higher than the original, so their is some new fill in that area. The ruling grade remains the same as the original RR.
> 3) Did the railroad have braking of some sort when
> in operation or was it non braked?
There were brakemen operating hand brakes on the cars.
> 4) Last question that has probably been asked, re
> the mat you are putting down, I am imagining it
> would create issues with ballasting, does the
> ballast tend to want to slide of or can it be
> ballasted with no issues or indication that there
> is a mat below.
The mat makes it eàsier for tracklayers to walk as the mat separates shoes from any mud. From what I can tell, the ballast locks together just fine even with the mat. Note some USA mainline RRs are using "geotextile cloth" to help keep the mud out of the ballast.
>
> Love your work and what you fella's achieve, you
> have a pretty good size work force there, will you
> have enough projects in the future to keep
> everyone interested and attending?
There are plans for a 3 stall roundhouse to be constructed, an event pavilion at Alna Center station, a sawmill / shingle mill at Top of Mountain, and plenty more.