Edaville Railroad

[Matthew Gustafson]

Does anyone know the past to present history about this railroad?

[Mike the Choochoo Nix]

Matt,
  Type "edaville railroad history" into Google and you'll get several hits that will answer the basics.
Enjoy
Mike Nix

[Will Kalasky]

Matt, I'd also recommend watching Mark I's two-part series on Edaville. You can get it here: http://unix8.sunserver.com/mark1video/-strse-186/EDAVILLE-RALROAD--/Detail.bok

(...or save $20 and get way more for your money with this set:
http://www.amazon.com/Steam-Trains/dp/B00018WMSE/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1232561929&sr=1-7)

There's an excerpt on YouTube, but the sound is synched incorrectly. Here's the link anyway:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4HVHHcZtbA

I regret being born too late to visit Edaville before the Maine steamers left and the county fair rides moved in... They do have an English-built locomotive, but their website says she hasn't run in 2+ years for unspecified reasons.

[Dave Buczkowski]

All, but especially Bruce Wilson;
  I was reading a history of Edaville last night published in 1971 by a Trains magazine writer. (It was a small booklet). In it was a picture of #7 pulling a baggage combine and passenger coaches. As usual, the combine was directly behind the engine. What was unusual was the Santa Fe livery on the combine and first coach. Was this for a special event? Were they used at Pleasure Island and returned after its closing? Thanks.
KD

[Vincent "Lightning" LeRow]

Dave I believe the Santa Fe livery was from the coaches short stint at Freedom land USA in the bronx of new york.  I believe there is a thread about this in here somewhere with a video link...

[Dave Buczkowski]

Vincent;
Thanks fo rthe information. I vaguely remember a thread on the old Discussion Group but it's no longer available. I had forgotten about Freedom Land.
KD

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

There was an article in the Mass DOT magazine in the 1960's that featured a photo showing the cars in Santa Fe lettering going through a turnpike toll booth.  The writer had no idea where the rolling stock came from as he stated that "No doubt the cars had survived many an Indian attack while rolling through the wild west many years ago"

[Keith Taylor]

Stewart,
The western "Lakes Region" of Maine is STILL pretty wild! You never know when the masked bandits will come riding out of the woods....
Keith

[Pete "Cosmo" Barrington]

Heh! I get "masked banditos" all the way down here in suburban CT!

Maybe I should start hiring The Pinkerton's to guard my backyard RR!

[Stephen Hussar]

Question for the Edaville historians...or anyone who would like to venture a guess!.

At the height of the most successful period, how many trains per day left the station and ran the loop?? I remember when I was a kid being there on weekdays and riding behind steam...and other times there would be 2 steam-powered trains out on the loop simultaneously...maybe on weekends?

So how many passenger trains would they run per day...at their busiest?

Stephen

[Glenn Christensen]

Hi Steven,

I remember visiting Edaville at Christmas time on several occassions when 4 trains were running the loop simultaneously.  The record occurred when the trains carried 10,000 passengers on a single day. 

The math is staggering!  Assuming something like 300-350 passengers per train, that works out to roughly 30 fully loaded trains running over about a 7 hour period.  Literally, a train would pull in, unload/reload (arriving passengers out the front door, departing passengers in the rear door), and leave the station.  By that time the next train was waiting to enter the platform area to perform the same operation.  Trains left on 5-minute headways - ALL DAY LONG!

Anyone who doesn't believe those little two foot trains have earned their keep many times over never had the opportunity to travel to Edaville during a busy Christmas weekend.

Great memories ...


Best Regards,
Glenn

[Stephen Hussar]

Thanks, Glenn.

That IS amazing. My question was prompted by a thread over on RyPN which asked which locomotive has run the most miles in preservation...in excursion service? And I began to think that the former Edaville engines have got to have some serious mileage on them.

In the 50 years that Edaville operated with 4 steamers...how many miles as a fleet? Hazard a guess?

Stephen

[Bill Sample]

I also witnessed what Glenn did - my best memory is just before Christmas 1967.  Four trains were out running and our #10 was fired up on standby IIRC.  Especially at night you would hear the whistles echoing across the bogs - not just four whistles but at least 6, as the 7 and 8 had two whistles each and many of the engineers were musicians with them.
As many of you know, there was a block signal system on the line and this must have been quite useful during these peak operations.  At certain locations along the reservoir you could see one or two of the other trains off in the distance and occasionally one of the signals.
I was lucky enough to get a couple of cab rides in during my visits and once when riding one of the B&SR locos in the woods away from the lights I remember thinking about how it must have been on the same engine years before in Maine.  Decades would pass before I would get to actually ride on the B&SR roadbed - mostly in a Dodge Dakota thanks to Mike Fox on one of his tours. 
You know, those white pines of Edaville did have their cousins along the Bridgton.....
This was an interesting part of 2 foot railway history even if it was for a different purpose than the historic lines.

[Glenn Christensen]

,,, the former Edaville engines have got to have some serious mileage on them.

In the 50 years that Edaville operated with 4 steamers...how many miles as a fleet? Hazard a guess?

Stephen

Well lets see ... Edaville was running well enough by 1947 for Moody to write his booklet on the line in that year.  So lets take that as the start date.  The original line operated basically until the end of 1991 (I believe), so lets take that as the end date.  Lets also simplify things by saying the line ran 7 days/week from June to September - that's 4 full months or roughly 120 days.  And we'll say they ran 6 trains a day during that entire period. 

  44 years
x 120 days
x 6 trains per day
= 31,689 trips/yr
x 5 miles / trip
= 158,400 miles

- ignoring Christmas, early operating starts, double-headers, but taking credit for extra trips between 1947 and 1956 (when F. Nelson Blount took over.)

Check my math, I didn't use a calculator.

Best Regards,
Glenn

[Stephen Hussar]

  44 years
x 120 days
x 6 trains per day
= 31,689 trips/yr
x 5 miles / trip
= 158,400 miles

Glenn

That's a lot of miles no matter how you slice it!