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 Post subject: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 7:20 pm 

Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:10 pm
Posts: 151
Location: Shingle Springs, California
The Boston.com website today reported Edaville to be for sale.

Boston dot com: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/ ... -for-sale/


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 9:09 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:07 am
Posts: 737
Location: Philadelphia Pa
Well, we all know it will fully be developed as housing now.


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:06 pm 

Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:41 pm
Posts: 6
Location: Mass
Priscoli has a vision of "Edaville 2.0" which includes restaurants, shopping, event venue and residential units. Not sure how that is Edaville.. but I digress


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:39 pm 

Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:07 pm
Posts: 1114
Location: B'more Maryland
junior wrote:
Well, we all know it will fully be developed as housing now.


You could go buy it.

_________________
If you fear the future you won't have one.
The past was the worst.


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 3:22 pm 

Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:07 pm
Posts: 1192
Location: Leicester, MA.
It may not be the Edaville of old, but nothing lasts forever. Things always change. As much as we all love our railroad history, that only can take a place like Edaville so far. The fact is that Jon Delli Priscoli could've sold it off ten years ago when this first came up. He didn't. Instead he put the time, money and effort into the park so it could grow. With a lot of stuff brand new, the park in good shape, essentially as close to turn key as you can ask (in my mind anyway) for new owners to come in and keep it going? I doubt that knocking it down for housing is a given. The land has immediate value, but the park presents the opportunity for long term income.

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Dylan M. Lambert
https://www.facebook.com/LambertLocomotive/


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 5:54 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
Go compare the Disneyland of the 1950s with that of today--or Disney World, Busch Gardens, Six Flags, Cedar Point, Dutch Wonderland near Strasburg, or any theme park. Even amusement parks that seem to act as museums such as Knoebels Grove in Pennsylvania have had to add new rides and attractions to stay relevant in a cellphone/internet games era.

The valid question, not just at Edaville but everywhere we are interested in for this forum:
How do you keep steam railroading relevant to people nearly a century after it was relevant in everyone's lives?


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 10:13 am 

Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:15 pm
Posts: 1477
Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:
The valid question, not just at Edaville but everywhere we are interested in for this forum:
How do you keep steam railroading relevant to people nearly a century after it was relevant in everyone's lives?


I think the steam locomotives themselves have become relevant by becoming unique brands / personalities.


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 10:54 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
Crescent-Zephyr wrote:
I think the steam locomotives themselves have become relevant by becoming unique brands / personalities.


Only with the right work and context. Otherwise, it could just as well be a diesel, a hybrid, or a donkey on a treadmill.....


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:10 pm 

Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:15 pm
Posts: 1477
Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:
Crescent-Zephyr wrote:
I think the steam locomotives themselves have become relevant by becoming unique brands / personalities.


Only with the right work and context. Otherwise, it could just as well be a diesel, a hybrid, or a donkey on a treadmill.....


This seems like a strange riddle, and not an actual point.

There aren't any diesels or donkeys on treadmills that draw large crowds that I'm aware of so I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2022 2:25 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
Crescent-Zephyr wrote:
Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:
Crescent-Zephyr wrote:
I think the steam locomotives themselves have become relevant by becoming unique brands / personalities.


Only with the right work and context. Otherwise, it could just as well be a diesel, a hybrid, or a donkey on a treadmill.....


This seems like a strange riddle, and not an actual point.

There aren't any diesels or donkeys on treadmills that draw large crowds that I'm aware of so I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.


The majority of Edaville patrons go to visit an amusement/theme park. They do NOT go JUST to see steam locomotives, big or small. Just like virtually no one goes to Disney World (or Clark's Trading Post, Dollywood, Tweetsie, Knott's Berry Farm, etc.) just to ride trains/the monorail, save for a few railfans or the special "railfan weekend".

Go look at the Edaville website.
The "Steam Train" is buried in the "Rides and Attractions" section, is only on "Select Days," and when you click on "Find on Map" it's a dead link.
Keep looking, and you'll find they haven't updated some crucial pages since mid-2019 at best. "Santa Returns November 2019"................... it's nearly May, and they haven't updated their calendar since 2021. If I were planning a trip and did an internet search, I'd presume the park is closed until they find a buyer. There's also the Edaville.org website that hasn't been updated since 2005................

If the steamers at Edaville "drew large crowds" they wouldn't be selling the park, or at least announcing that it was for sale. Some large business conglomerate, on the order of Disney, Xanterra, Universal, Six Flags, a resort operator, or the like would have swooped in to buy the park already to take advantage of "large crowds" to make money.

This train is NOT a historic train ride. For all we can tell, it's a fake steamer, ONE picture notwithstanding. All the news coverage about it being put up for sale describe it as the "amusement park," not a railroad. There's mention of Thomas the Tank Engine, but only in the copyrights at the home page, nothing more.

When I want to Clark's Trading Post in 1990, I was the only apparent railfan that day. While crowds shopped in the tourist shops, rode amusement rides, and watched the bear acts, the engineer of the Climax gave me a cab ride which stretched out over 90 minutes and three round trips, and a chance to fire the loco, seemingly out of loneliness. Everyone else was only paying attention to that actor playing a crazed hermit "chasing" the train in his wreck of a car in mock anger......


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2022 1:30 am 

Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm
Posts: 2875
Crescent-Zephyr wrote:

There aren't any diesels or donkeys on treadmills that draw large crowds that I'm aware of so I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.


None that you know of? Grand Canyon Railway ring a bell? White Pass & Yukon? Mount Washington Cog? Pikes Peak? Etc, etc, etc. Many of us here love steam, but many average tourists simply want a nice train ride.


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2022 4:26 pm 

Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:15 pm
Posts: 1477
Bobharbison wrote:
Crescent-Zephyr wrote:

There aren't any diesels or donkeys on treadmills that draw large crowds that I'm aware of so I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.


None that you know of? Grand Canyon Railway ring a bell? White Pass & Yukon? Mount Washington Cog? Pikes Peak? Etc, etc, etc. Many of us here love steam, but many average tourists simply want a nice train ride.


The diesels aren’t drawing the crowds in those cases. The scenery and / or destination is.


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:57 pm 

Joined: Sun May 20, 2007 10:27 am
Posts: 223
Location: New Haven Ct area
Facebook says that Edaville has been sold. Does anyone know who bought it, and what role if any steam will play in the park's future?

Back during the big run this summer I had a conversation with someone who was good friends with the owner who claimed that they had a buyer in line who eagerly looked forward to preserving steam at the park. I wonder if this was the buyer?


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2022 9:25 am 

Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 5:19 pm
Posts: 567
Location: Bowie, MD
I just spent several days in the area on vacation. While planning things out, Edaville was considered, but lack of information on the train on their website seemed to make it clear there was high risk of paying to see nothing but another park, which I can do any other day of the week.

Bob


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 Post subject: Re: Edaville Railroad Family Theme Park: For Sale
PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2022 11:13 am 

Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm
Posts: 2875
Crescent-Zephyr wrote:
There aren't any diesels or donkeys on treadmills that draw large crowds that I'm aware of so I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.


Well, no donkeys, but many tourist railroads now run all or mostly all, diesels. Steam is definitely an attraction if done right, but it is possible to be profitable without it.


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