Edaville Railroad, Carver MA

Well, here we are at Edaville Railroad’s Festival of Lights located in Carver Ma. We’ve got a great night for the visit, clear and not too cold. We arrived at about 3:45 . The gates opened at 4pm. Even though it wasn’t dark yet the park had the displays lighted and ready to go. The ticket booths opened promptly at 4pm and we purchased our admission and were soon headed onto the grounds. I should mention here that we received a discount of $2.00/ ticket because I am a AAA member and had my card with me. Go AAA!.
I had been to Edaville many, many years ago and now I’m hearing that this may be the end of the line for the little narrow gauge railroad.

Edaville Railroad is considered a heritage railroad and is thought to be one of the oldest in the United States. It’s a very narrow gauge being only 2 ft (610mm) compared to the 3 ft narrow gauge trains of the American West. The railroad was originally built by Ellis D. Atwood on his cranberry plantation. The name Edaville derives from his initials, EDA.

Atwood obtained his 2 locomotives and most of his passenger and freight cars in 1941.
Edaville ceased operations in 1991 and the equipment was sold off however several railroad enthusiasts fought to resurrect the little railroad and in 1999 the “new” Edaville Railroad opened for business.

Unfortunately the owner of the property has been quietly shopping the land the park sits on for the last couple of months and has recently said the current operators of the park have decided not to renew their lease, prompting him to put the entire parcel on the market. According to the Taunton Daily Gazette the 32 acre section of the property where the parking lot is located has been approved for a 20 lot sub-division. If no one comes forward to acquired the whole parcel, then he will pursue this option which would effectively kill the park.

With this uncertainty hanging over the park, I wanted to be sure to get one last visit in before it was gone.
But enough of this hand wringing. Here you have the history and the current climate this little engine is operating under. It’s enough that a sense of urgency brought me here and in the company of my good friend JR. I’ll get into more detail about our visit in my next post!