We recently ran a story about the AY Hoppers we sold to the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway (WW&F) and the Edaville Railway in Maine, USA. The units were delivered directly to the WW&F which is some distance from the Edaville Railway. Following on from our previous post (https://www.sandstone-estates.com/index.php/railway-heritage-58/2ft-narrow-gauge/3769-the-usa-rolling-stock-arrives) we received a mail from the Chairman of the WW&F, David Buczkowski, detailing the move of the wagons destined for the Edaville Railway.
David takes up the story:
I hope this email finds you well. After the hopper cars arrived in the States they had an "interesting" journey to South Carver, MA (Edaville). Getting them the four hour ride to Alna, ME entailed refurbishing our Hudson trailer, putting two new front tires and leaf spring clamps on our flatbed truck (lorry), and then finding the time to make the journey. Since we are an all volunteer organization that took some time. The first hopper arrived in Alna last Friday about 12:30 am.
We spent Friday making sure the journals were cleaned out and greased along with rigging up a connector between our knuckle coupler and the SA coupler. It's basically a link and pin. Attached are three photos. One is the hopper on the trailer at Edaville. The second is labelled "DJB on hopper" with the hopper half-filled with ballast at Albee's Field on our mainline. The elderly, I mean, distinguished, gentleman on the left is me. The third is the second trip with a full hopper. We need to make a few adjustments to the door linkage but, otherwise, we are very pleased with it. I swear the hopper car rides and tracks better than our passenger cars!
Thanks once again!
Best regards,
Dave
Sandstone is pleased that our surplus wagons are being put to good use, albeit a long way from their original home!
The truck with the hopper at Edaville. Picture by Brendan Barry
DJB on the hopper. Picture by Bill Reid
A trip with a full hopper. Picture by Bill Reidy