by Bill Robie/photos by the author
F. Nelson Blount loved trains. In particular, steam locomotives. Big ones, little ones, plain ones and fancy ones. He collected them like some boys back then collected marbles or baseball cards. Why did he like trains? Probably from his proximity to steam railroad operations on the New York, New Haven & Hartford next to where he grew up in Warren, R.I., and a friendly engineer that encouraged his interest and convinced his parents that all railroad men weren’t “rough guys.” I’ve often said, sometimes you’re just born with it. Some little boys grow up with an interest in automobiles, or boats, or airplanes. Nelson (as he preferred to be called) liked all three, but trains in particular wound up being his predominant passion and he certainly followed his dreams.
Blount made his money as founder and president of Blount Seafood Corporation. It was located in Warren and at the time, was one of the largest seafood processors in the U.S. Nelson first indulged in his passion for trains by acquiring the Edaville Railroad in South Carver, Mass., from the Ellis D. Atwood Estate in September 1955. Edaville Railroad, beginning in 1946-1947, had become the location for Atwood’s collection of steam loco-motives and rail cars that he obtained from the abandoned Maine “Two Footers.” Atwood, and then Blount, ran the “baby” locomotives and trains around the Atwood cranberry bogs on a 5-1/2 mile loop.
ABOVE: “Faithful Fifteen,” having originated from the North Walpole railyard, is heading south toward East Westmoreland pulling the normal four-car train that included the Mountaineer tacked onto the rear on September 1, 1963.
Edaville’s “Cranberry Route” was originally used to haul both passengers and cranberries harvested from the large extent of bogs on Atwood’s 1,800-acre property. Along with Bridgeton & Saco River Railroad locomotives Nos. 7 and 8 and Monson Railroad Nos. 3 and 4, the Blount/Edaville operation acquired Boston & Maine 2-6-0 steam locomotive No. 1455 in 1956, which was Blount’s first standard gauge locomotive acquisition. The following year, the Boston & Maine Railroad donated the famous Flying Yankee streamlined articulated trainset.
In 1958, a group of developers, promoters and dreamers officially launched the project to build Pleasure Island, a theme park modeled after the success of Disneyland in California. The amusement park, located near Boston in Wakefield, Mass., was to be contained with-in a 100-acre site and among all the other Disney-type attractions, would have a railroad. Pleasure Island initially acquired a 30” gauge 2-6-0 that had recently been used to haul sugar cane in Louisiana. That didn’t work out and Pleasure Island turned to Blount (already a director on the Pleasure Island board) and a deal was made to provide a train from the Edaville equipment roster.
ABOVE: Multiple generations of families, along with railfans and historians, from the 1950s through the 1980s, enjoyed the nostalgia of visiting Edaville in South Carver, Mass. The main attraction was riding the two-foot gauge trains on the 5-1/2 mile loop around the cranberry bogs. Four locomotives and many freight and passenger cars rescued by Ellis D. Atwood in the middle 1940s from historic Maine “two-footer” railroads formed the “Cranberry Belt Route.” Engine numbers 7 and 8 came from the Bridgeton & Saco River Railroad and Nos. 3 and 4 came from the Monson Railroad. In this 1978 photo, No. 7 is steaming along one of the dikes between a water source in the foreground and a cranberry bog in the background.
Simultaneously, Blount continued to collect standard gauge steam engines and needed a place to keep them. Pleasure Island became the obvious choice — not only to store them, but also to dis-play them to the public. Thus, “Engine City” was born. By June 1959, when the park opened, Blount’s nascent collection of over twenty locomotives and railcars that eventually grew to become Steamtown U.S.A., was on display. This equipment included B&M 4-6-2 3713, Canadian Pacific 4-4-4 2929, Rahway Valley 2-8-0 15, Grand Trunk Western 4-8-2 6039 and Canadian National 4-6-4T 47…
