Wiscasset waterfront’s past, in 3-D
Participants in a June 30 ribbon-cutting on Wiscasset’s Main Street Pier, for a new exhibit in the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum’s Turner Centre “Creamery Car”” are front row, from left, Wiscasset Selectman Bill Barnes, the museum’s president Stephen Zuppa, Selectmen’s Chairman Pam Dunning, Selectman Ben Rines Jr., and Town Planner Misty Parker; and back row, Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce board member Les Fossel. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Railway Museum member Peter Barney created this diorama of the circa 1925 Wiscasset waterfront. It’s now on display in the museum’s Creamery Car on the Main Street Pier. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Participants in a June 30 ribbon-cutting on Wiscasset’s Main Street Pier, for a new exhibit in the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum’s Turner Centre “Creamery Car”” are front row, from left, Wiscasset Selectman Bill Barnes, the museum’s president Stephen Zuppa, Selectmen’s Chairman Pam Dunning, Selectman Ben Rines Jr., and Town Planner Misty Parker; and back row, Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce board member Les Fossel. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Railway Museum member Peter Barney created this diorama of the circa 1925 Wiscasset waterfront. It’s now on display in the museum’s Creamery Car on the Main Street Pier. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
The Wiscasset waterfront’s bygone days are back, in three dimensions, on the Main Street Pier. Thanks to the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum in Alna, visitors can look through a glass inside the museum’s rail car of exhibits on the pier and view a miniature version of the businesses and other sights that lined the Sheepscot River shore circa 1925.
“It’s going to be a real draw for people interested in our rich heritage,” Wiscasset Selectmen’s Chairman Pam Dunning said June 30 at a ribbon-cutting for the new exhibit in the museum’s car, known as the Creamery Car.
The museum commissioned one of its members, Peter Barney of New Bedford, Mass., last fall to create the diorama for $3,000. It depicts the north and south buildings of the Wiscasset Grain Company, book-ending the Turner Centre Dairying Association and Wiscasset Lumber Company.
The project represents the museum’s effort to get people coming back to the car to check out new exhibits, President Stephen Zuppa said.
“Otherwise, their first visit will more than likely be their last,” he said.
The diorama’s debut came just days before the second anniversary of the Creamery Car’s July 4, 2012, ribbon-cutting in Wiscasset. The museum built the car as a replica to the one that the original, narrow-gauge WW & F Railway used to transport milk from farms to the creamery. The car is open to visit for free any time Sprague’s Lobster is open; the business looks after it for the museum, Zuppa said.
After Monday’s ceremony, participants entered the car to view the waterfront diorama and other displays. “That was my grandfather’s garage,” Selectman Ben Rines Jr. said after spotting the building in a photograph. The former site of the auto repair shop Rines Bros. is now the restaurant Le Garage, Rines said.
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