Edaville 75th anniversary

[Russ Nelson]

Found a nice story about Edaville's 75th anniversary in print in Cambridge MA. Also on the web. ML&MW are borrowing the Monson loco to run it at Edaville.

https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/carver-reporter/2022/03/30/celebrate-75-years-since-completion-edaville-railroad-carver/7197509001/

[Ed Lecuyer]

At the invitation of our friends at Maine Locomotive and Machine Works, who are sponsoring and organizing this event, the WW&F will be exhibiting and answering questions. You may even find some familiar faces assisting with train operations and crowd control.

It will be a great weekend for those of us who want to remember Edaville.

[Mike Fox]

I have never been to Edaville but decided this was the time. Just as a tourist 😁

[Jeff Schumaker]

I have never been to Edaville but decided this was the time. Just as a tourist 😁

I made it twice, Mike, 1991 and 1997. A lot has changed since then.

Jeff S.

[Mike Fox]

Ed doing his best sales pitch on Sunday while working the table..



I found Dan



Then Bryce came over.. CIA?? I did not know he was a Dapper Dan man..(reference one of the movies we like..)



Bill Reidy was also manning the tables .



#11 on the run-by.

[James Patten]

The new sign looks good.

[Bill Reidy]

Thanks, Mike.  Great photos.  It was good to see you and your family today, as well as Rick Sisson, and Jerry and Carlos Steinke.

A couple of more photos from this weekend.  Brendan Barry was also on Monson 3's train crew, along with Dan Malkowski and Bryce Weeks.


The motley crew staffing our exhibit Saturday.  Dave Buczkowski joined Ed and me.


Thanks to Hannah Miller and Brian Fanslau for organizing this event.  This was my first visit back at Edaville since one of the last railfan events in the late 1980s.  It has been a great weekend.

[Wayne Laepple]

When I saw the first photo of Dan and Bryce, I immediately flashed back to "The Blues Brothers."  Thanks for the photos, Bill. Looks like it was a good day.

[Ed Lecuyer]

It was a great weekend, full of emotions, surprises, and nostalgia.

One thing that struck me was the strong feelings that were observed among those visitors who were clearly too young to have have seen (or at least remembered) Edaville before 1991 (when most of the historic equipment began leaving), or 2005 (when the loop was drastically shortened) and even those visiting for the first time. This enthusiasm from the younger generation proved (at least to me) that the magic of Edaville is still quite alive and well.

I sincerely hope this was not my last visit for a trip around the bogs of So. Carver.

[Kevin Madore]

Wish I could have gone down there last weekend.   I was already committed to a paid event in PA when this was announced, or I would have been there in a heartbeat, if only to ride over what was left of the original ROW.    When I last visited back in 2013, it was shortly after Christmas, and they were running Christmas Light Trains.   The Hudswell-Clarke 0-6-0 #21 was running that night.    Because it was dark, there was no scenery except for the lights.   The ride was much shorter than what I remembered as a kid.

So, is there another, larger loop that can be run, or is the unused trackage basically a dead-end now?    I hear that the owner has the place up for sale.  Hopefully, whoever buys it will not just subdivide it into housing lots, although I fear that's what will happen.

BTW, my first visit to Edaville was back in the late 1960s.   I took a ride on a train pulled by B&SR #8.   She had a late 1800s-style, coal-burner diamond stack on her at the time.   Of all of the non-authentic stacks I saw at Edaville, that one was the closest to looking real.

/Kevin Madore

[John Scott]

I started to learn about the Maine two-footers in the 1960s, when I read Linwood W Moody's excellent book. That led me to make the trek to Edaville, in 1972. There I rode the old mainline in Rangeley behind Monson #3.

All I am saying, really, is that Edaville was truly seminal when it came to the preservation of the Maine narrow gauge lines and Ellis D Atwood should always be honoured for the part he played. Moody, too.

Fifty years later, I see the collection at Sheepscot steadily growing and it gladdens my heart. It means that the next generation understands and it remains committed. These are more than just railroads, these are community connections from a simpler time.

Everyone involved with keeping these connections should enjoy a well-earned sense of accomplishment.

[Mark Spremulli]

Here is my video of the Edaville 75 Anniversary Weekend.https://youtu.be/nE4NzNlAwi0

[Mike St. Louis]

Here's my video aswell: https://youtu.be/E1h5PZqFHUU