Edaville USA 17th July 2016

Edaville USA is a family park located in south-eastern Massachusetts, a little under sixty miles from Boston. Shortly before our arrival we noticed a prominent road sign saying "your GPS is wrong; take next right", making us wonder just how many park visitors had inadvertently pulled into a private driveway over the years. I'm glad to say that I've always considered the instructions from satellite navigation to be guidance rather than orders to be followed blindly, and thus far I've managed to avoid driving into rivers and off the edge of cliffs.

We were greeted within moments of stepping out of our car by a bubbly member of staff who handed us a map and told us to have a great day at Edaville. This first interaction, simple as it was, set the tone for our visit; everyone we spoke to over the course of our stay was friendly and enthusiastic, and we were having such a good time that we ended up staying over three hours in a park that we'd fully expected to be a quick hit. Though presently geared at children the park is taking tentative steps towards bigger rides with the upcoming installation of Kersplash, a water coaster that operated for seventeen years at the Washington State Fair. We also saw the foundations for a go-kart track, as well as construction signs for Pirate Adventure which online reports suggest will be a dark ride.

The main entrance is through an archway that leads to what can be thought of as an ultra-minimalist version of Universal CityWalk. One side features a selection of craft shops selling locally produced goods, while the other is devoted to information boards talking about the park and its history. Our first stop once through the ticket barrier was at Spinning Lady Bug Coaster (#2277), yet another example of the compact spinning coaster from SBF Rides. The four car trains featured custom bodywork consisting of black spots on a red base, but otherwise the hardware looked and felt no different to the other models. The operator thoughtfully augmented our ride with a variety of man-made sound effects, chiefly words like "woohoo!" and "yeehaw!" every time the train passed through the station.

In 2015 the park became the third in the world to open an area dedicated to Thomas the Tank Engine, following in the footsteps of Drayton Manor in England and Fuji-Q Highland in Japan. The three parks have taken somewhat different approaches to the franchise, with individual ride selections reflecting their own unique markets. Edaville management decided to go with a Zamperla Speedy Coaster for their version of Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster (#2278), and the result is a respectable enough ride that handles well aside from a harsh chain lift engagement that, to be fair, is not exactly unusual for the product type.

Our next stop was at Winston's Skyline Express, an elevated monorail ride that featured lap bar restraints despite there being a side wall in each car, a sad reflection on the fact that local children cannot be trusted to remain seated. There were quite a few good photographs available from the aerial vantage point, including some close-ups of the Kersplash construction site. We did have to wait a few minutes to board, but that wasn't a big deal; the time passed very quickly as we watched the lady in front of us attempt to control her two daughters, whom she'd apparently chosen to name Arianna and Joliet, the latter being a name that seemed more than a little improbable.

The main attraction in the park is a narrow gauge railroad dating from 1947. The twenty minute loop is operated once per hour and is pulled by a full scale replica of Thomas the Tank Engine, albeit with cars that look nothing whatsoever like Annie and Clarabel. The uniformed staff gave a theatrical "all aboard" cry before dispatch, and once we were in motion an audio recording came on that pointed out key landmarks along the route. At one point someone came by and offered to take our photo, and though we declined we saw quite a few families taking advantage. The main thing that stuck with me from the journey was the sheer amount of space that the park has for future expansion; both of us felt that a Wooden Warrior clone would be a great fit!

Another recent addition to the park is Dinoland, a forested area filled with animatronic dinosaurs and the tangled remains of Gnome Coaster, a once-popular ride that, according to the signage, "closed abruptly twenty-five years ago". The veracity of this statement was (and is) impossible to verify as the only online references to a coaster by this name date from the last few years. However, it is established fact that the Edaville Railroad had carnival rides in the run up to its closure at the end of 1991, so it's certainly possible that the pieces came from an old credit that nobody remembers today. RCDB has the pieces listed as coming from the defunct Enchanted Forest in nearby Rhode Island, though whether that's correct or not is anybody's guess.

It would have been rude not to make a brief stop at Big Eli: The Ferris Wheel, a vintage sideways facing model dating from 1951. As we approached the operator asked us if we'd left our kids somewhere else, and he seemed genuinely pleased when we admitted that we were visiting on our own. He spoke briefly about how the owner had put an awful lot of work into sprucing up the park and how there was lots more to come, and he encouraged us to come back in a few years if we could. The ride itself moved at a substantial speed, as is normal for Eli Bridge wheels, but we managed a few photographs nevertheless.

We were on our way out the door when our eye was drawn to a sign for a Miniature Train, and we decided to follow it to a substantial building that we'd somehow managed to miss. The ground floor was devoted mainly to arcade games and shopping, but an upper floor featured a whole bunch of kiddie rides, a museum of retired farm equipment that had once been used to cultivate cranberries, a ball pit whose contents were themed to the aforementioned fruit, and a working model railway with an amusement park section at one end.