Departing Thorndike. Boothbay Railway Village's hourly excursion train departs Thorndike Station after a brief stop to drop off and take on passengers. The power this day is Henschel #6, one of two, German tank locomotives in the Boothbay stable and one of three operable 24" (600 mm) gauge engines owned by the operation.
Boothbay Railway Village is a unique attraction, located in the town of Boothbay, Maine, a short distance off US Route 1 in Coastal Maine. It's a collection of historic buildings and other artifacts, which tell the story of the history of the State of Maine. Among the buildings, you'll find a blacksmith shop, a stable, a firehouse, a covered bridge, a classic car collection, and an early 20th century filling station....just to name a few. Each building is almost a museum unto itself. Wrapping around this little village is a 2-foot gauge railway, which is meant to represent the 2-footers that served rural Maine from the late 1800s, all the way into the early 1940s. If you're familiar with Henry Ford's Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, it's that kind of attraction, only on a much smaller scale. While only one of the steam engines here is American, and some of the rolling stock are replicas, such as the coaches seen here, the railroad does indeed own quite a number of authentic, Maine 2-foot railroad cars. In the past at least, this place was also home to a reputable boiler shop, which serviced not only the museum's locomotives, but those of several other New England operations, such as Conway Scenic Railroad, and Edaville Railroad. Within the past year, Boothbay Railway Village has come under new management, so it will be interesting to see the direction this operation takes. But if you're up in Maine, visiting some of the area's 2-foot operations, such as the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company & Museum in Portland, or the WW&F in Alna, it is worth taking a half day (or more) and dropping by this place. Figure it's about half an hour's drive from the WW&F.