Jax Stumpes: 1985 Edaville Railroad, MA (10/27/1985)

Sunday, October 27, 1985

Kent had inventory at BIF again, but was home when we came back from Sunday School. After lunch we drove out I-195 to I-495 to South Carver, MA. Found the Edaville Railroad, and paid a total of $12 to enter.

Edaville Railroad adult ticket

Edaville railroad child ticket

We headed for the train ride, but got sidetracked by locomotives and trolleys to climb in and on.

Kyle

Erich

They were also painting and putting together their Christmas display, so we saw signs of Christmas all around. We passed the amusement rides and found the train. It was full of people, but we climbed aboard an open car and people squeezed together to let us sit. We took off at 14:30 for the 5-1/2 mile ride around the cranberry plantation.

Cranberry bog

The railroad was bought by Ellis Atwood, a RR buff, to help maintain and harvest the cranberry bogs; 1800 acres! It is the largest cranberry plantation in the world, soon to become a public attraction, and is open during cranberry season. We were pulled by a real steam locomotive, and went through woods beginning to be filled with the trappings of their Christmas Light Extravaganza, with figures made of plywood. We circled the reservoir with its miniature boat docks, lighthouses, and church.

Reservoir

We stopped to watch them actually harvesting the cranberries right in front of us! These bogs had been flooded, and there are machines that agitate to dislodge the berries, which then float to the surface.

Machines to loosen the cranberries

The berries are “corralled” and sucked up into trucks.

Corralling the cranberries

Cranberry truck, and a couple Christmas decorations

Billions and billions of cranberries!

Cranberries

Steam locomotive

Edaville RR train

Back at the train station we bought some ride tickets, and Kyle and Erich also went in the free air-inflated bounce house. Kyle wanted to go to the museum where we saw a large collection of model trains and paraphernalia. One area had real Pullman cars, fire engines, and a few old automobiles. There was a working player piano. We left to let the boys go on a couple more rides, and they really enjoyed “driving” the miniature model Ts.