That engine looks like it's fired with charcoal briquettes, one at a time. How did that little teakettle get the train around the loop? Did everyone have to get out and push? Does the fireman use a spoon?
Of course the loop is so small now, if they tried to take the three or four trains that they used to run at Christmas and put them on the current loop, they'd find out pretty quickly that they wouldn't fit.
I think that it's in the current owners best interest to wait until someone buys the whole deal. If they split it up I think they'll get less. Those buildings are no good unless you want to run a railroad or some sort of commercial enterprise. Some of the land is wetlands or outright swamp. Building along the east side of the Atwood reservoir looks to be difficult at best and depending on how much water is in there may be impossible.
The rolling stock that they still have and the motive power is nothing to jump up and down about. There is no historical value and it's the wrong gauge, most narrow gauge railroads are 3 foot, with Maine being the exception.
As for the remaining track, what track, I"m sure there are live steam layouts with more track than what is left down there. They've got the domain and website included in the Edaville package. What good is it if you don't buy the land with it?
I can imagine potential buyers looking at the brochure, studying the map, and saying to themselves, geeze, these people must totally barren of gray matter, they did not include a right of way that goes all the way around the reservoir. Close but no cigar. All of a sudden the 10 million dollar asking price needs to be adjusted downward to compensate for this monumental lack of foresight and judgement that the present owners have shown. Let's start at say 5 million and go down from there. 6 million if they don't include that Hudswell Clark. Take that thing with you and we'll give you an extra mil.
When the book on Edaville is written down the road, the chapter on what not to do and how not to run a railroad will certainly be a big one. It will concentrate on the present owners and chronicle them stumbling around in the dark. It will show how they were in way over their heads and just couldn't seem to manage a relatively small tourist railroad. Their first instinct was to tear down everything associated with the "old edaville" and not bother replacing it with anything.
Tearing down the attractive Cranberry Junction station and not replacing it with a similar station was a real stroke of genius. After all, why force the customers through the gift shop not once, but twice, after all, if you do, they might actually buy something. I guess there was something out of place buying your train tickets inside of the train station. I guess something about that made no sense to the present owners.
Let's see, we have a locomotive, I know what we'll do, let's tear down the shop and the engine house. While we're at it, let's tear up some track. It's just in the way. Who needs it. Track, even for railroads, is over rated. Let's get rid of as much as we can.
Oh yeah, and then their was "Einstien" who said, "let's see, we're a railroad, people come to ride the train, I know what we'll do, let's get rid of the train ride." And so they tore up the tracks and went from a 5.42 mile loop down to somewhere around 10 or 20 feet.
This makes about as much sense as an insurance company figuring they can make big profits by eliminating the claims department.
Let's see, we're a railroad, track is expensive, maintaining track is expensive, if we only didn't have so much track, then we could save a lot of money. I know, let's get rid of all of our track, save on maintenance. Don't worry about the customers, they only pay our salaries, who needs them? We'd be better off without them. Less for us to worry about and we wouldn't need an expensive insurance policy either. We can fire everyone, go home, sleep late, and not worry about running a railroad.
It will be an interesting book. I imagine that someone must be working on such a book. Of course, it's hard to write when you're rolling on the ground, holding your sides laughing.
Blount definitely left the railroad in better shape than when he got it. Richardson may have as well. I think he at least kept it status quo.
Bartholomew lasted less than 20 years. He walked off with the profits of the hard work and money that Blount and Atwood put into the place but at least the track was in-tact and the next owners were given the full right of way.
I cannot describe the present owners. I picture a little kid taking an expensive toy or other item and smashing it to the ground needlessly.
Hopefully Edaville will get another chance at life.
