The late Fred Richardson, center, posed in front of "his" engine, Edaville (former Bridgton and Harrison) 2-4-4-T #7. The date was June 8, 1997, and ex-Edaville engineers Rick Knight (left) and Paul Hallett fired up the 37-ton Baldwin as a surprise for Fred's 80th birthday. Richardson was the superintendent of Edaville for some 36 years, and was the lifelong friend of Edaville savior F. Nelson Blount, who purchased Edaville in the 1950's after the untimely death of founder Ellis Atwood.

This was the first time that #7 had steamed in nearly 6 years.

Knight and Hallett made an attempt to revive Edaville in 1997, but were unsuccessful due to some unfortunate political shennanigans. But all that was in the future; on this day everyone enjoyed seeing #7 chuffing around the bogs, with the spry Mr. Richardson at the throttle. Reports were that Hallet and Knight had to keep asking him to "slow down!"

Photographed by Mike Chapman, June 8, 1997.
Added to the photo archive by Michael Chapman, August 7, 2005.
Railroad: Edaville.

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