Pleasure Island, Wakefield, Massachusetts, 1959-1969

Tidbits

E9 at Pleasure Island : Posted to the Boston & Maine Fourm

Posted by Mike O'Dorney (modorney@aol.com) on Mon, Apr 2, 01 at 17:05

http://www.wakefield.org/pleasureisland/performers/stooges.htm

Shows a B+M locomotive in the background. This was part of a static display at Pleasure Island, funded, in part, by Blount, of Steamtown fame.

Does anybody know what happened to theis B+M Loco? thanks,

mike

Posted by: Al P (alp@cheshire.net) on Mon, Apr 2, 01 at 17:18

I belive it was an E7 and it was scrapped.

I would expect Doug Kydd to weigh in heavily on this one. Al P.

Posted by: Doug Kydd (DFKyddSeDe@aol.com) on Mon, Apr 16, 01 at 0:02

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

Wed, 21 Mar 2001

Hello,

You may not be aware of it, but the #5 locomotive that used to serve at Pleasure Island in the '60s can now be found at the WW&F Railway Museum, located in Alna Maine. We purchased it in 1999 and have been running it since last year. The URL is http://www.wwfry.org if you are interested.

I have a question about the lettering schemes found on the engine while it was at Pleasure Island, and I was hoping someone might be able shed some light on it. Saturday I was scraping paint off the tank of the engine when I found not one, but three separate letterings of "Old Smokey RR".

There was a layer of silver lettering that appears to have been applied first. Next it appeared that there was a yellow layer, and a white layer. The silver and yellow letterings were three lines, centered on the tank in this manner:

Old
Smokey
RR

The white lettering was not centered, and looked roughly like this:

Old
Smokey
RR

I've already determined through other channels that the yellow lettering was there in 1970, when the locomotive was back at the Edaville Railroad, which supplied the engines and passenger cars for the Pleasure Island attraction.

So my question is: can anyone tell me roughly when the other lettering schemes were on the engine?

Thank you,

James Patten
WW&F Railway Museum

jcpatten@lincoln.midcoast.com

Thu, 22 Mar 2001

Henry Stahle - class of '63 ? WHS may be able to help you. -- Mike O'Dorney

MODorney@aol.com

Test firing of the Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway 1999 steam locomotive acquisition, #10 (ex-Edaville #5) which was brought to Pleasure Island's from Louisiana in 1959 and nicknamed "Betsy"

From Time Magazine, 1959, as quoted at the Thrill Mountain web site page "Disney and Son"

...Such coin counting has spawned sincere flattery: imitation Disneyland's are shooting up across the country. The best are the brainchild of drawling, a blunt-talking Texan C.V.Wood, 38, a onetime industrial engineer whose survey on Disneyland's prospects so impressed the master that he was invited in to build the park. At present, Wood is supervising construction of five others (including Denver's Magic Mountain, Great Southwest Park near Dallas, Montana Magica in Caracas), has half a dozen more in the planning stage. This week, his latest is open: $4,000,000 Pleasure Island, 14 miles north of Boston in Wakefield, Mass. Most spectacular feature: a 19th century New England fishing village, from which the kiddies can slosh off in whale boats to stalk a 70-ft. replica of Moby Dick.

http://www.thrillmountain.com/articles.asp?art=118

Carousels of New England Web Site

"frame of a portable carousel appears in the 1968 movie Charly, no figures on it, had overhead jumping mechanism"

http://world.std.com/~macinnes/new_england_carousels.html

Message on Clayton Moore's 85th Birthday Page...

Dear Mr. Moore, Thank you for many happy Saturdays in front of the black and white Philco and for the twinge of surprise when, seeing you in person at Pleasure Island in Wakefield, Mass, I learned that your outfit was blue! I also learned that you were a real person with real feelings when you recited the Lone Ranger Creed. It made a lasting impression. Thank you for bringing the Lone Ranger to life and for adding more substance than the scriptwriters could have first imagined. Dexter Rowe.

http://members.tripod.com/~ClaytonMoore/clay85th.html

From the Lost Colorado Ski Areas page of the "Colordao Skier" web site...

"A man named C.V. Wood was the Big Kahuna for Disney during the building and first few years of DISNEYLAND operation. He left Disney and became a "theme park consultant" billing himself as "The Master Planner of Disneyland" until Disney sued. Wood's first theme park was PLEASURE ISLAND in Wakefield, MA near Boston. It opened in 1959 and is now closed. His second theme park was FREEDOMLAND, in NYC. It opened in 1960 and lasted five seasons. Mr. Wood was very good at building theme parks that lacked one item - the Disney magic."

http://www.thrillmountain.com/articles.asp?art=118

• Cook minced clams in additional water for anhour.
• Saute onions.
• Add onions, lobster and shrimp and continue to simmer.
• Dice potatoes fine; cook with haddock only until done.
• Combine all ingredients.
• Add milk and tablespoon roux (recipe below)
• Roux must be heated over hot water before adding.

From the History of the Royal Hanneford Circus... Tommy Hanneford is recorded as a circus performer as early as April of 1933 with the Downie Brothers Circus. At the time, he was a clown and only 5 years old. Not since his father, George, Sr., had a Hanneford owned and operated his own circus. So it was at Pleasure Island Park in Wakefield, Massachusetts in 1965 when Tommy, his sister Kay with her dog act, his wife Struppi on the high wire, and other acts performed the first Hanneford Circus, a title incorporated in Macon, Georgia.