Edaville Railroad
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Location: Plymouth County, Massachusetts
Dates of operation: 1947 - 1991, 1999 - present
Track gauge: 2 foot (610 mm)
Length: 2 miles
Headquarters: South Carver
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 2 foot (610 mm) 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. In late 2010, the Edaville operators announced that they would not seek to renew their operating lease. The railroad was put up for sale for $10 million and was not sold as of June 6, 2011. Edaville reopened September 2011.
History
Atwood purchased two locomotives and most of the passenger and freight cars when the Bridgton and Saco River Railroad was dismantled in 1941. After World War II he acquired two former Monson Railroad locomotives and some surviving cars from the defunct Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad 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. Atwood purchased the equipment for use on his expansive cranberry plantation in South Carver. Sand and supplies were hauled in to the bogs, and cranberries were transported to a ''screen house'' where they were dried and then sent to market. Atwood's neighbors were enchanted with the diminutive railroad. At first, Atwood offered rides for free. When the demand for rides soared, he charged a nickel a ride. Eventually the line became less of a working railroad and more of a tourist attraction.
Atwood died in 1950, the result of injuries he received when the oil burner in the screen house exploded. His widow and nephew carried on operations at Edaville until the railroad was purchased in 1957 by F. Nelson Blount, a railroad enthusiast who had made a fortune in the seafood processing business. The Atwood Estate retained ownership of the land over which the railroad operated, a key point in later years.
Blount operated Edaville for the next decade, hauling tourists behind his favorite engine #8 and displaying his ever growing collection of locomotives. Among these was the Boston and Maine Railroad's Flying Yankee. This helped form the basis for his Steamtown, U.S.A. collection, first operating at Keene, New Hampshire before moving to Bellows Falls, Vermont. (It would later move and be reconstituted as the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania.) Blount also leased some of the 2 foot equipment from Edaville to operate at two theme parks in the Northeast: C. V. Wood's short lived Freedomland in The Bronx, New York and Pleasure Island in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Nelson Blount died in the crash of his light airplane over Labor Day weekend in 1967. Blount's friend and right hand man Fred Richardson continued on as general manager until the railroad was sold to George E. Bartholomew, a former Edaville employee, in 1970.
Edaville continued operations for another two decades with Bartholomew at the helm. In the 1980s, Bartholomew's attention was divided between the narrow gauge Edaville, and the standard gauge Bay Colony Railroad he was then forming, running over disused Conrail branch lines. To some observers and former employees, Edaville began to stagnate around this time, although the annual ''Festival of Lights'' at Christmas continued to draw huge crowds.
In the late 1980s, land prices (and property taxes) were increasing monthly, and the Atwood Estate passed some of the rising tax bills on to their tenant, the railroad. Edaville became increasingly cash poor, and Bartholomew, now occupied with Bay Colony, and now unable to obtain ''bridge loans'' to pay the bills during Edaville's off season because of a recession, put the railroad up for sale in 1991.
Edaville ceased operations in January, 1992 and much of the equipment was sold to a group in Portland, Maine led by businessman Phineas T. Sprague. The equipment was to be the basis of the newly formed Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum along the shores of Casco Bay. The sale generated great rancor. Many of the railroad employees weren't ready to give up on South Carver. Much of the contents of the museum, housed in the former screen house, had been auctioned off the previous fall to raise money, unbeknownst to several of the museum's donors who cried foul. But the sale was closed (although the Portland museum took on a debt that would prove all but crushing in subsequent years) and locomotives 3,4 and 8 were trucked to Portland aboard antique trucks loaned for the occasion. Locomotive #7 was ensnared in a legal dispute over back wages, and would remain on the property for several more years before making her way to Portland.
Two attempts to revive Edaville during the 1990s foundered. The Edaville Entertainment Group formed an ambitious business plan to revive the park, but their relationship with the Atwood Estate (upon which the tracks were laid) turned sour. The group briefly considered moving the park to a parcel in Freetown, Massachusetts, but eventually they abandoned their effort. South Carver rail, led by former Edaville employees (and engineers) Paul Hallet and Rick Knight, operated the hastily refurbished #7 for Fred Richardson's 80th birthday at Edaville, and ran trains during the Cranberry Festival over a Columbus Day Weekend in the mid 1990s, even managing to borrow Monson #3 from Maine. Ultimately their efforts to reopen the park failed, and it was the last time that the ''original'' Edaville locomotives ran over the line.
In 1999, the new Edaville Railroad opened for operation. Owned and operated by construction company owner Jack Flagg and developer John Delli Priscolli, the railroad acquired a 'new' steam locomotive, #21 ''Anne Elizabeth'', built by the English firm of Hudswell Clarke and a veteran of the Fiji sugar industry. An oil burner (the ''original'' Edaville engines had burned soft coal), #21 was beset by a series of problems and spent much of her time in the newly constructed engine house. Several of the original Edaville buildings, including the station and the engine house, were demolished with new buildings taking their place. Ambitious plans called for the construction of a roundhouse, served by the original turntable, with an enlarged collection of locomotives and rolling stock.
By 2005, Edaville Railroad and the land upon which it ran was now owned by a single man: John Delli Priscolli bought up the Atwood property, bought out partner Jack Flagg, and became the sole owner. Although this removed the railroad - landlord conflict that had plagued Edaville for decades, it proved to be the end of the ''old'' Edaville. Priscolli turned the land near the milepost known as ''Mt. Urann'' into a housing subdivision, and pulled up the tracks that ran through the new lots. Late 2005 saw the very last run over the ''original line'' (pulled by oil burner #21, which had been cosmetically modified to more closely resemble a Maine prototype). When the rails were removed over Mt. Urann, the mainline became a 2Êmile loop, including about half of the line around the old reservoir.
Edaville U.S.A., as it was now known, became a small theme park with cranberry harvesting and railroading as its two main themes. It was and still is a well known family attraction throughout New England. Edaville U.S.A.'s Holiday Festival of Light remained a major attraction during the winter seasons with festival decorations and attractions along the railroad. In late 2010, the Edaville operators announced that they would not seek to renew their operating lease with Priscolli. Priscolli then put the railroad up for sale for $10 million, stating that if a buyer was not found, the railroad would be shut for good and the land turned into housing lots. Edaville reopened in September, 2011.
