"Rumor Mill" in this neck of the woods is that Edaville U. S. A. will be operating steam on Fridays and Sundays during its upcoming Christmas Lights Festival. Apparently won't be Edaville's own Fiji 0-6-0 "Anne Elizabeth", but a guest locomotive. Supposedly not a former Edaville locomotive from the Maine Narrow Gauge RR Museum collection. Not many 2 footers to choose from up this way! Maybe something from Boothbay RR Museum--or Thorn Mead's German 0-4-0T?

Anyone heard anything? Would be nice to see steam back at Edaville again--though it'll be a ghost of Edaville's "glory days".

Frederick G. Bailey

Back when I was working on the 2010 operable steam list for R&R magazine, Edaville told me that they'd have steam this winter, but not the Anne Elizabeth. The woman that provided the info couldn't give further details. This begs the questions, what's wrong with Edaville's own steamer? How long has it been since it's run?

Jeff Terry

Jeff:

It's been several years since the 0-6-0 ran last. Apparently has some boiler issues, though I'm not 100% sure what they all are. Reportedly, a contractor is working on the locomotive--but it won't be ready this year.

Seems to be a growing problem in the tourist railroad/museum industry these days that "the lady who answers the phone" doesn't know what's going on. I can't believe how hard it is to get accurate and/or updated information from some organizations these days! With the modern communications we have available to us, it should be easy to keep ourselves updated on the small number of steam projects out there in the U. S.--but it just isn't possible. Thank you for the work you do in keeping us informed on some of them in R&R.

Frederick G. Bailey

Confirmed with Edaville that they will be having steam on Fridays and Sundays for their Christmas lights festival this year. Edaville spokesperson today said the locomotive is coming from the Boothbay (Maine) museum, but they don't know which locomotive yet. It'll be arriving in a couple of weeks. Safe bet: it'll be a German 0-4-0T.

Frederick G. Bailey