For the past dozen years, volunteers from Maine's WW&F Railway Museum have made it a practice, on the first weekend in November, to travel to other locations to assist. They have built track at Maine Narrow Gauge, Boothbay Railway Village and Sandy River. They've also done clearing work and carpentry to Albion station, the northern terminus of the WW&F, assisting the Albion Historical Society.

This past Saturday, WW&F volunteers worked at Phillips, Maine, building track into the Sandy River group's new car house, while a second contingent help install ties and spike rail at Maine Narrow Gauge in Portland. There were also a few volunteers at work at the home base at Sheepscot. I think this has been great for relationships between the various museums, helping build morale and personal relations for the good of all. It's something that other organizations might want to consider.

Thanks for sharing this story. It's always enjoyable to read about ways museums and associated organizations help each other for the common good. I hope this will become more typical across the preservation movement in the future with volunteers becoming less "territorial" (for lack of a better phrase) and promoting the shared interest.

The Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys considers cooperation between organizations to be something we fundamentally encourage and support. We are happy to be partners in the preservation of the electric transportation history of the Philadelphia area with various organizations.

More about our efforts with various organizations can be found in a recent Heritage Rail Alliance article and on our website at the following links:

https://heritagerail.org/2020/10/friend ... -pcc-2168/

http://friendsofphiladelphiatrolleys.org/

Perhaps stories like the WW&F assisting other organizations and The Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys will be an inspiration to others and promote additional cooperation.

Sincerely,

Matt Nawn
Director, The Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys, Inc.

More groups need to think and do as your group does. Furthermore, you might even learn something! Keep up the good work AND spread the word!