I agree that the WW&F is a historical operation, by virtue of accurate re-creation, and even that Boothbay is a good historical interpretation, even if more a tourist railroad than a historic railroad.
The fuzzy area we are talking about (returning to the 2-foot theme) is well displayed by Ellis D. Atwood's backyard railroad. Taking advantage of his available funds, property, farm, and the remnant trains in Maine, he built a line which was supposed to be a functional freight railroad hauling cranberries for Ocean Spray. Well it was a fun hobby too. So began a new phase in the tourist railroad industry when visitors to Plymouth Rock wanted to ride E.D.A.'s railroad. Such as it is, the 18" gauge Sand Hutton predated Atwood's railroad by about 25 years, however there was a war looming when the proprietor passed away and all was scrapped (except one coach body) prior to the postwar era. It never had the levels of tourist ridership that even in early days was at Edaville.
Even the EBT survived as a hobby project of a man (now, family) with the resources to make it happen (or at least its scrapping to not happen very much).
Early tourist railroads were things like the Mt. Washington Cog, Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods, Yosemite Valley, the Gilpin Tram, that line in PA with the 2' gauge 4-4-0s, the Mammoth Cave RR, and others which may have provided a scenic ride, but the purpose was to transport tourists to a specific scenic destination. The only place where the ride itself was the tourist attraction (that I am aware of) was looping rides at amusement parks and miniature railroads at various fairs. The advent of widespread automobile use made train rides of all sorts more of a novelty.
The question we may be dealing with this century is "What the purpose, function, and viability of museum and tourist railroads as American personal mobility costs increase while middle class income decreases?" I wish it were not that way, but it seems we keep getting pinched by the players of the world, as well as changing times due to limitations of resources etc. Hmm, maybe this topic here is more appropriate for another forum.
O. Anderson
