The engine in this image "definately was E-7 # 3814, which in 1952 pulled Dwight Eisenhower's campaign special along the Western Route into Boston. It, along with Pacific # 3713 was hauled out of Pleasure Island on Dec 16, 1961, ended up at Schiavone scrap yard at Charlestown MA and was scrapped by late 1963 " See E9

Nelson Blount had his big collection of steam locomotives that later became Steam Town USA.in Vermont. He also owned Edaville RR in So. Carver.

He first leased Engine 4 to Pleasure Island with a string of cars, which pulled a train in a circle from the former Greenwood depot--a real beauty of a classic station, which unfortunately was later burned down by vandalls.

Engine 3 was built in 1913 by the Vulcan Iron Works, Wilkes Barre, Pa.for the Monson RR, in Maine, a six mile slate hauler near Moosehead Lake. It was shipped by salvage Co. Rochester Iron & Metal Co. Rochester, NY to Rochester salvage yard in 1944 after the Monson RR was torn up. Ellis Atwood of the Edaville RR found this engine and a No. 4 there in 1946, bought them and shipped them for use in So; Carver.

When the Edaville RR closed down in 1991, Maine Narrow Gauge bought them from the owner at that time, George Bartholomew.and shipped them to Portland, Me where they are now located.

While still in use by Pleasure Island in the late 50s, Engine 3 was later moved down to Bronx, NY for another "Disneyland" type operation, called "Freedomland" This only lasted a couple years-engine and leased cars were returned to Edaville.

Then another Edaville No. 5 replacement was shipped to Pleasure Island. No. 5 was a 30 inch gauge engine from a Louisiana sugar plantation. Axels were reduced for use on 2 foot gauge. This engine was a Vulcan, like the Monsons. Eventually it would go to the Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington Ry. Museum at Alna, Me., where it is now their No. 10. "Old Smokey" ran on the Pleasure Island RR the last few years before it closed down, I think in 1966--not sure of that.

They leased a few cars too. One of which was a coach from the former Bridgton & Harrison Ry. in Maine (from which most of the Edaville equipment came.) They had a couple open cars and I think they had a caboose.

Bob MacDonald

Canadian Pacific 2929 4-4-4 2929 - Bellows Falls VT - 8/26/63 {Bob Rathke Photo} http://www.steamlocomotive.com/pennsy/steamtown/bellowsfalls/

Steamtown-- Erik Ledbetter-- http://64.225.91.166/Articles/Steamtown/index.html

The subject of enormous controversy during its sudden transition from private foundation to Federal park fourteen years ago, Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pa has matured into a mainstay of the eastern railroad preservation scene.

Founded in New England in 1960 by the iconoclastic entrepreneur, evangelist and steam enthusiast F. Nelson Blount, the original Steamtown collection was very much the product of one man's idiosyncratic vision. Blount's desire was to preserve as many as possible of the vanishing mainline and short line steam locomotives of North America, and display them together in all their variety and glory. Soon dozens of engines of a bewildering multitude of types and predecessor lines were gathered together, first at various sites in New Hampshire, and later in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

Blount's death in a private airplane crash in 1967 put an end to the grand vision. For the next seventeen years the Steamtown Foundation struggled to make a go of it in its remote New England location, while the bulk of the collection—stored outdoors year round, even in the harsh Vermont winters—fell ever deeper into disrepair. In a last-ditch attempt to revive their flagging fortunes, the foundation relocated closer to the population centers of New York and Philadelphia by moving to Scranton, Pa. in 1984. However, the operation continued to hemorrhage money.

Then, powerful U.S. Representative Joe McDade single-handedly engineered the creation of a Steamtown National Historic Site under the U.S. Park Service in 1986. Preservationists cried foul at the sight of tens of millions in federal funds going to rescue an ill-assorted and unmaintained collection on an indifferent site, while treasures like the East Broad Top starved for funds. However, McDade saw a tourist bonanza for his district, and he was not to be denied. In 1988, the Park Service acquired all the assets of the defunct foundation, including 29 steam locomotives and 86 freight, passenger and work cars. After nine hard years of planning, reconstruction, and preparation, the NPS's Steamtown National Historic Site reopened its doors on July 1, 1995 with pageantry, speeches, visiting steam engines, and a locomotive parade.