Beginning in 1932, Linwood W. Moody (1905—1983) documented in photographs and collected artifacts of Maine's two-footer railroads. A pioneer of railroad photography, his work led to articles in numerous publications such as
Railroad
Magazine
and later culminated in Linwood's 1959 publication
The Maine Two-Footers
. Among his personal effects at the time of his death in 1983 were hundreds of photographs of three of the Maine two-footers—the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway; the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad; and the Monson Railroad. The state of Maine was unique in regards to its narrow-gauge railroads. Most railroads in the United States have a width of four feet, eight and one half inches between the rails, known as standard gauge. Due to the efforts of George Mansfield, a railroad promoter of the late 1800s, a very narrow gauge of two feet between the rails was successfully developed in the state of Maine.