Twofootartist’s Random Ramblings

At any given time I usually have a dozen or so drawings in progress. I draw for fun, so sometimes it takes years to finish them depending on my whims of the day. Here are some of them. Left click on any drawing to enlarge it to full screen.

Bridgton & Saco River Caboose 101

Franklin & Megantic RR Caboose, which became SR&RL #5

There are only four published photos of this car. One is a distant shot showing it with no cupola; another shows only the rear half, but with a cupola and no windows under the cupola on one side; and a third is another distant shot showing it with roof walks and end ladders.

The fourth photo is an interior shot that provided the end door size and configuration, as well as the seats, roof beams, and interior sheathing.

A drawing of the Billerica & Bedford Railroad excursion car from which this car was built, published in 1878 in The Railroad Gazette, provided basic dimensions and construction details consistent with the photos.

I have been working on this drawing for nearly 40 years. Here is my fourth or fifth iteration:

January 25, 2013 Update

Bob Schlechter sent me a previously unknown photo of this car today. This photo is very poor quality, but is a close-up of the full car. With some enhancement from Photoshop, I was able to confirm the overall dimensions, wheelbase, and cupola location; and to accurately scale off the window, side door, cupola, and sheathing dimensions.

The door opening was only 40″ wide; and the windows were not as I had previously shown them. The windows were 24″ wide and closer together. They were also about nine inches closer to the ends of the car, and the sills were two inches higher than I showed them. Sheathing was three inches; slightly less than I showed. Here is the revised version – still a work in process:

Given the scant information I had to work from, I still feel pretty good about the earlier drawings. Assumptions and drawings made by others that show this car with a shorter body are incorrect; the platforms were added to the original Laconia frame, as I have shown them, giving this car an overall length of 29 feet over the end beams, not including the buffers.

May 30, 2015 – New Information

It appears that there may be only three photos of this car, and that it was never an F&M car, but Sandy River 554. The photo with no cupola was taken in 1909, years after the photo in Kingfield with the cupola. New theory is that this car always had a cupola, but that 555 was converted from B&B boxcar and never had one. Also that it was 555 that was taken out of service in 1913, not 554. It was refitted with roof walks and end ladders about 1913 and lasted until 1926.

January 28, 2017 – A big Oops!

My old friend Peter Barney emailed me last month that there is a major flaw in this drawing: the cupola as a show it is about 30% too short. It spanned the area between three roof ribs, not two. An excellent photo on Page 213 of Jerry Devos’ Volume 4 shows this clearly. It also confirms that this car ran on freight trucks equipped with leaf springs and top bars that were not flat, but raised slightly in the middle.

F&M Baldwin No. 3/4

This is a pencil drawing that did not scan well. It is very accurate, however, as it is drawn from original Baldwin blueprints.

Kennebec Central Baldwin Forney No. 1 was similar to the F&M engine, but with a narrower cab and tank, as seen here:

B&SR RR Hinckley Forney No. 2.

The Monson RR Forneys were nearly identical to this engine. F&M No. 1 and B&SR No. 1 were similar to it. And yes, the smoke box really was as long as I show it. It will look more normal after I add the stack and pilot.

Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway No. 10

I first measured this locomotive at Edaville in 1994 and have been altering the drawing as the Wiscasset Museum has altered the engine. The version shown below shows the rear frame extended six inches, which the Museum plans to do but hasn’t yet. I think it would be a big improvement.

March 25, 2016 Update

The Wiscasset Museum announced today that Number Ten’s boiler failed its 15-year inspection and must be replaced. The proposed boiler will be slightly larger, with a higher steam dome and longer smokebox. Here is Eric Schade’s drawing of the new configuration. (And yes, he’s the person who designed my favorite kayaks pictured above and on the Merganser page. His brother Nick designed the Gannymede.)

Text and drawings on this page Copyright 2010-2016 by Wesley Ewell and may not be used in any form without permission. An exception is granted for modelbuilders who may copy the drawings for personal use, but may not sell, distribute or publish them in any way.

June 14, 2011

On April 28th a massive bolt of lightning wiped out electronic devices in at least four houses on my street. It fried my CPU and wide-format printer, along with my wireless router, land-line phone, answering machine, four GFIs, and a large oak tree that was hit by a fragment of the main bolt. The gurus at Cape Computer recovered all of my drawing files, but I have not been able to run my CAD software on the new operating system and cannot justify the cost of replacing it. As a result, I have returned to drawing with pen and ink for the first time in twenty years. I plan to redraw many of the subjects shown here for publication in the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette. Watch for them in coming issues.

July 9, 2011

Peter Barney asked if he could use my drawing of Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes RR Railbus 4 in the book he is preparing for the Bridgton Historical Society. He had previously published this drawing in the book on SR&RL railcars that I illustrated many years ago. Bus 4 was moved to the Bridgton & Harrison RR as their Bus 3 after the SR&RL closed.

My drawing showed this vehicle as it looked when first rebuilt with a four-wheel lead truck and steel drive wheels. In 1935, however, the split windshield was replaced with a single pane. Here is what it looked like when it ran on the Bridgton & Harrison RR from 1936-41 and still looks today.

May 28, 2012

Anybody recognize this one? Hint: it still exists, although in a different form.

Answer: This is the first iteration of the maintenance railcar now at Owl’s Head Museum. It was originally built by the SR&RL shops for Herbert Wing. At the time, Wing was the court-appointed receiver overseeing the railroad’s operations. After 18 months of using this car for personal trips and Sunday outings with friends and family on the former Phillips & Rangeley route, Wing donated the car to the railroad, which used it for rail inspection and maintenance. More information on this car, and the other SR&RL railcars, can be found in Jerry DeVos’ Book III.