Assigned to a trestle-building project for two weeks, the Marines gave the museum and its volunteers a huge boost by constructing the new trestle and doing other work needed at the museum.

They celebrated their accomplishments at a picnic Thursday at the home of WW&F member and Alna Selectman, Gordon Davis.

In the woods off Rt. 218 there is a brand new railroad trestle over Humason Brook. There is no track yet laid on either side of it. It seems to come from nowhere and it goes nowhere. It is, right now, only about five or six yards of isolated track. But it has the potential to be much more.

This echoes the history of the WW&F itself. What began as a few people lurking around an abandoned railway yard in the 1960s has become a thriving non-profit preservation society that attracts visitors from all over New England and as far away as California and Wales.

The train enthusiasts started with barely a skeleton of the old WW&F and have made it what it is today. Although there is only one mile of track at the moment, they have also gone to great lengths to restore the train that goes on it.

The biggest obstacle to moving the train any further down the line was the trestle. According to founding member Ken Maguire, if the members themselves had tried to build the trestle, construction would have begun next year at the earliest.

Asked how it would have gotten done, he replies, We werent exactly sure. He was certain that it would be very, very slow. At most there could only be only eight or nine volunteers working on the trestle at one time, as opposed to the almost 30 Marines available. Furthermore, the Marines had their own heavy equipment. The WW&F would have had to rent, adding to the expense. The trestle would have been a major undertaking for a group of volunteers, but it took the Marine engineers just over four days. This left time to help with some of the museums other goals. In short, the track itself is ahead of schedule by at least a whole year and the concrete floor the engineers laid has, according to Maguire, advanced the machine shop project probably by two months. What remains to be seen is how the WW&F will use this great boost to their organization and, also, just how far they plan to go. According to Maguire the goal is Alna Center before the snow falls twice. But how do members and other community members see this railroad affecting the community when, and if, it is completed? State Senator Marge Kilkelly sees the railroads effect on the community as very positive. She sees the work by the Marine engineers and the ongoing work by WW&F volunteers as a great connection with where weve been. Some see the railroad, also, as a connection with where we are going. WW&F member, State Representative and local economic developer, Christopher Hall hopes to see the railroad come all the way to the Wiscasset waterfront and act as an integral part of their waterfront development. Were not giving people a reason to get out of their cars, he says. He notes that narrow gauge steam trains like those of the WW&F have been very successful in attracting tourists in other places and says that he hopes for a similar result here. However, he concedes that everyone might not be interested in bringing the railroad to downtown Wiscasset; particularly those whose property would be very close to the railroad itself.

Not everyone wants the railroad coming through their back yard, he says. While the Marines stay was brief, the work they have done will have a lasting effect on the community. How far the WW&F railway will go and how significant a role it will play in the communitys development remains to be seen.