The Boothbay Railway Village has received a 2016 TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. The Certificate of Excellence accounts for the quality, quantity and recency of reviews submitted by travelers on TripAdvisor over a 12-month period. To qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five, have a minimum number of reviews and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months. This is the fourth year in a row that the Museum has qualified for the honor.

The Museum welcomed a new team member at the end of May. Kathy Goldner is now the director of education & curator and is responsible for caring for the Museum’s large and eclectic collection of three dimensional objects as well as its archives and ephemera. In addition, Goldner will be assuming responsibility for the Museum’s educational programming. Most notably she is quickly expanding the Artisan Days program bringing more working artists into the Museum as well as completing work on a new exhibit all about how Maine became Vacationland to open mid-season.  Goldner brings with her nearly 30 years of experience in Maine’s cultural community including her most recent role of External Relations Director at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport.

A new sight and sound at the Museum is a 1940s Whitcomb diesel locomotive. Passers-by might have observed this new engine’s arrival as its sleek art deco shell is a stark contrast to the Henschel steam locomotives generally in operation. Although historically the Narrow Gauge railroad lines didn’t last long enough to convert to diesel, the Maine Central and Belfast & Moosehead standard gauge railroads (which the historic stations and associated buildings at the Museum served) did. Diesel locomotives gained favor with American railroads starting in the 1930s. They were easier and cheaper to operate and helped the railroad industry continue to compete with trucks, planes and automobiles.  The diesel locomotive is on loan and is only expected to be in Boothbay for about twelve months.

This season on some days, instead of a train ride, guests are invited to experience special historic rail equipment. The 1925 Model T was converted into a crew car for the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad at Phillips, Maine. A motorized inspection car was a significant upgrade from the earlier hand cars that were used to transport tools and workers to locations on the tracks that needed repair. It is on loan from the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine.

That same year, the SR&RL built a 12-passenger railbus to accommodate dwindling passenger counts. The bus was originally built using a REO truck frame and motor. In 1936, when the SR&RL was abandoned, it was sold and later given to the Bridgton & Harrison Railroad, where it operated from 1937 to 1941. When the B&H failed, it went to Edaville where the REO parts were replaced with equivalent from a Model A Ford. It operated at Edaville until 1961 when it was wrecked at a grade crossing. It was restored and returned to Maine nearly 20 years ago but has rarely operated during that time. It is on loan from Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum in Portland, Maine.

The Museum’s Railroad and Steam Shop is undertaking a major restoration project which will interrupt train service twice a week this season. Many will remember S.D. Warren Baldwin No. 2 as the engine that was under the Museum’s entrance sign for decades. The restoration of an industrial locomotive is a unique opportunity to highlight a segment of rail history that is often left out of the story of New England railroading.  This locomotive was built in 1895 at the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia Pa. for the S.D. Warren Paper Company in Westbrook, Maine.  This locomotive, essentially a standard Baldwin industrial product along with identical sister No. 1, were part of the same order and replaced the horses at work in the mill yard.  While it is commonly thought that the Sandy River Railroad was the first 2-foot gauge railroad in Maine, actually the railroad in the mill (Cumberland Mills) was the earliest, although it did not have steam power until 1895.  At the time steam power arrived at Cumberland Mills, S.D. Warren was producing more than 35,000 pounds of paper a day and was the largest paper mill in the world. No. 1 & No. 2 hauled both pulpwood and coal throughout the mill, and they both survive today thank to the efforts of the late Frank Van Walsh of Southport, Maine.  The mill complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as the Cumberland Mills Historic District.

This large project is well under way with support from the Tom E Dailey Foundation and with the majority of the work performed by Museum volunteers under the direct supervision of Chief Engineer Brian Fanslau.  Work on the locomotive, which last operated under steam in the 1940’s, includes building a new boiler, repairs to the wrought iron frame, all new bearings, a new cab and a new saddle tank. This creates an unusual opportunity for the visiting public to experience behind the scenes shop tours to see the restoration of S.D. Warren Baldwin No. 2 up close. These thirty minute tours will take place on Fridays at 11:30 am and 1:30 pm and depart from Freeport Station. The tours are complimentary with Museum admission.

Also in the works in a major renovation to the Museum’s Antique Engine Exhibit. Over the winter, Larry Stevenson of West Boothbay Harbor donated nearly 300 vintage outboard motors dating from 1910 – 1965 to the Museum. The collection includes two very rare 1930 Caille Red Head Model 36 motors with electric start, two Clarke Trollers, a WWII Evinrude Storm Boat Motor, a West Bend 80 hp Tiger Shark, Evinrude Row Boat Motors, a 1904 Wonder two stroke inboard engine, two Fageol 4 stroke outboards, a Fageol VIP pod drive, a WWII generator set and a two-man chainsaw made by Mercury Kiekhaefer, the first outboard model made by Johnson, a 1938 Johnson “Sausage Tank” motor, and dozens of others.  The new exhibit is expected to debut later this summer however a selection of the twenty or so most important are already on view inside the Antique Auto Exhibit.

More information about the Museum, the schedule of education programs and special events, and ways to get involved is available online at www.railwayvillage.org or on Facebook.