For the last several years, people have only been able to ride the rails off and on in Wiscasset, mostly off, unless they worked on a freight train. It feels like Maine Switching Services' upcoming run at excursions might be the one, though. It has a lot going for it feasibility-wise. So, unless you do not believe in psssenger rail, let's wish them well and maybe hop on board (with a ticket) this fall to show them we want to, and will, ride. 

In the meantime, how lucky are we? Just drive next door to Alna, or onto the Boothbay peninsula, and you can already ride. Not to shopping in Bath or Damariscotta or Rockland, but at least time spent at Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum on Alna's Cross Road or Boothbay Railway Village on Route 27 is a walk around and/or ride into history, held together and grown by people who really love the rails and their "ties" to our towns' pasts.

Riding a train is just a different experience, another thing once commonplace. My grandfather used to take a train from Augusta to Bath Iron Works. Did you also have family members who commuted by rail?

We are already hearing from people happy to have heard or seen a freight train coming through Wiscasset again. That is the sound and look of commerce and, with the planned return of excursion, commerce that can get very local.

Week's positive parting thought: Way to go, Wormfest! The commitment by so many locals was impressive, even heartwarming, and the assurance of a Wormfest 2026 was welcome. Worms, for the most part, don't have legs. But Wormfest does.