- Edaville Railroad
Infobox rail
railroad_name=Edaville Railroad
gauge=RailGauge|24
start_year=1949
end_year=present
length=2 miles
hq_city=South Carver
locale=Massachusetts The Edaville Railroad is a heritage railroad in South Carver,
Massachusetts .Opened in 1947, the Edaville Railroad is generally regarded as one of the oldest heritage railroads in the United States.
The Edaville Railroad is a RailGauge|24 narrow gauge line that operates excursion trains for tourists. It was built by the late Ellis D. Atwood (initials E.D.A, for which EDAVILLE is named) on his cranberry plantation at the beginning of Cape Cod.
History
Atwood acquired four locomotives and various other equipment from defunct narrow gauge rail lines in
Maine . This equipment ran on two-foot narrow gauge tracks, as opposed to the more common three-foot narrow gauge in the western United States.The Edaville Railroad was operated for many years by seafood company owner
F. Nelson Blount , who collected several static display locomotives for Edaville. This helped form the basis for hisSteamtown collection, first located atBellows Falls, Vermont and later established as Steamtown National Historic Site inScranton, Pennsylvania .Blount also leased some of the 2ft equipment from Edaville to operate at two theme parks in the Northeast:
* C.V. Wood's short-lived
Freedomland inThe Bronx ,New York
* Pleasure Island inWakefield, Massachusetts ale and resurrection
Edaville ceased operations in 1991 and the equipment was sold to a party in
Portland, Maine , where it was put into operation on the newly-constructedMaine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum along the shores ofCasco Bay .Several railroad enthusiasts fought to resurrect the railroad, and in 1999, the new Edaville Railroad opened for operation. The railroad has a 'new' steam locomotive, #21 "Anne Elizabeth", built by the English firm of
Hudswell Clarke and a veteran of the Fiji sugar industry.2005-present
In 2005, much of the original 5½ mile mainline was taken up, leaving the present mainline with an approximately 2 mile loop including about half of the line around the old reservoir.
Edaville USA, as it is now known, is a small theme park with cranberry harvesting and railroading as its two main themes. It is a well-known family attraction throughout New England.
ee also
*
List of heritage railroads in the United States
*List of amusement parks in New England External links
* [http://www.edaville.com Official Website]
* [http://members.cox.net/edaville-rr/ Reinhard's Edaville Website]
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