General Passenger Agent Ed Lecuyer, in his volunteer conductor uniform, rests his arm on Steam Locomotive No. 9 at the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum in Alna. No. 9 is one of two surviving locomotive from the original WW&F railroad and the only one still running. (Christine Simmonds photo)
Ed Lecuyer describes himself as a “train guy.”
He knows there are stereotypes around that, but that doesn’t bother him – he just loves trains.
“I like the history; I like the technology,” he said. “It harkens back to a simpler time.”
There was no particular moment or inciting incident that inspired his love of locomotives; he has simply always loved them.
“It was just always an obsession with me. You know, model trains, real trains, whatever,” he said.
The obsession prompted Lecuyer to completely change his life in order to be closer to the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum in Alna.
“This is a powerful place. It’s built on dreams. It’s built on visions,” Lecuyer said.
The WW&F Railway Museum is dedicated to restoring and rebuilding the Sheepscot Valley railroad that operated from 1894-1933. So far the organization has restored 2.5 miles of the railroad, rebuilt steam locomotives, and restored railroad cars. Passenger train rides operate every Saturday and sometimes on Sundays.
The museum also holds special events like the lavender train trips every Saturday in July, where passengers take a train ride to SeaLyon Farm in Alna, pick lavender, and have lunch.
Lecuyer is the general passenger agent at WW&F Railway Museum, in charge of ticketing, social media, marketing, and public outreach. He greets the visitors who come to ride the train and makes sure they have a good experience.
He is at the museum just about every Saturday performing this work, all as an unpaid volunteer.
Lecuyer lives in Alna, just down the road from the museum, which is not a coincidence. It also was not a quick process. Rather, it was the result of a 25-year journey drawing him to the railway museum.
The journey started in 1995. Lecuyer was living in Massachusetts and was on vacation in Midcoast Maine.
At the time, passenger trains were running between Rockland and Brunswick. Lecuyer was, of course, riding the train during his vacation. He was unaware the path of his life was about to change forever.
“There was a little flyer on the train describing this little thing … so I picked up the flyer and said, ‘Oh that’s just down the street. Let’s try to find this thing,’” he said.
That “little thing” was the WW&F Railway Museum.
Lecuyer said when he arrived at the museum, there wasn’t much to it. Nobody was there, the track only extended a few yards, and there were almost no buildings. But Lecuyer said there was something about the place that resonated with him.
“I got the sense that something was (going to) happen here,” he said. “I didn’t know what that was, but I got the sense that this was different … There was something about it.”
Lecuyer said while he had been to train museums and tourist railroads around the country, the WW&F Railway Museum was unlike any other. Part of that was the dedicated work of the volunteers, he said. To him, the WW&F Railroad Museum is a story of restoration and of being rebuilt.
After his first visit, Lecuyer returned home to Massachusetts, but kept thinking about the WW&F Railroad Museum, and he periodically checked the nonprofit’s website.
When the WW&F held a campaign to recruit volunteers, Lecuyer signed up and returned to Maine. And then he kept coming back.
“It started as I would come up from Massachusetts once or twice a year,” he said. “Then once every couple months. Then once a month. Then once every couple weeks.”
Over time Lecuyer began to move his home closer and closer to the museum as well. He works remotely for his day job as technical customer support manager at Trimble Forestry in Colorado so he was able to live anywhere he wanted. He wanted to live closer to the WW&F museum.
His last home before Alna was in Brunswick. It was closer than Massachusetts, but it didn’t satisfy Lecuyer.
“Even that wasn’t close enough,” he said.
Then a house in Alna went up for sale. It was a short drive from the museum and adjacent to one of the stations. He could walk down to the railroad track from that house.
He bought the house. That was three years ago.
Lecuyer has a philosophy around trains that he applies to everyday life.
He said through his work with the trains he has learned the spirit of teamwork. Lecuyer is the conductor when he rides the trains, but he could not operate a locomotive alone.
“It takes at least four people to run a passenger train,” Lecuyer said. The engineer drives the train, the fireman shovels the coal, the brakeman makes the train stop, and the conductor coordinates the entire operation.
Lecuyer said that operation mirrors his work for Trimble Forestry. He supervises and directs a crew, and they perform the work. This requires cooperation and communication. The whole team has to work together and look out for each other.
“It’s not about if you did that wrong or didn’t know; it’s building that spirit of camaraderie and making sure that everybody’s best interests are looked out for,” he said.
There is also a transformative power in the WW&F Railroad Museum that Lecuyer said he sees each week. Visitors will arrive for a trip on the steam locomotive, and when they return he can see a difference.
“They’re smiling, they’re happy,” he said. “And just for a moment whatever that trouble was that they were carrying, it’s gone away.”
He said it means so much to him to be part of that and to see that experience.
Outside of his day job and his work at the museum, Lecuyer is also a Catholic Church musician. He said that work is in part to give thanks for everything he is able to do at the museum as well as for having a job that allows him to perform that volunteer work.
When he watches the trains head out from Alna station, Lecuyer said that is always a special moment.
“I just stop and just say, oh man, this never gets old,” he said. “Maybe it’s still that little kid who sees a train across the field, and is like, ‘Hey, train!’ But I also know that it’s doing something. It’s bringing people on a little adventure.”
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