Joy Town Railroad
Joy Town Railroad was an amusement railroad at Topsfield Fair, Topsfield, Massachusetts. The railroad was built and operated by Lester Friend.
Joy Town Railroad advertisement from "The Miniature Locomotive", November/December 1952
Advertisement for Joy Town Railroad from The Miniature Locomotive, May-June 1953.
From "The Miniature Locomotive", July/August 1953
The following photos were taken by A.W. Leggett, provided by Jim Leggett.
Engineer Vachon with Joy Town Railroad Hudson. Miss Vachon worked at the Friend's Yankee Shop, and also ran the locomotive at Friend's Joy Town Railroad at the Topsfield, Mass. fairgrounds in the 1950s. Photo by A.W. Leggett.
Bill Leggett Jr. watches the train pass by.
Jim Leggett's grandmother, Myrtle Leggett, on the right.
Myrtle Leggett on the left.
Gold Spike Ceremony
Forward
The Live Steamer, May-June 1950
There seems to be a growing popularity for the 1-1/2 inch scale railroads around the country in recent months and it surprised the writer to hear of so many having that size gauge. The West Coast seems to have a large number of them.
Of new interest around Danvers vicinity is the commercial 1-1/2 inch scale, 7-1/4 inch gauge railroad being set up by Lester D. Friend at Topsfield, Mass. The golden spike ceremony was to take place on or about May 29-30, 1950, and televised over a Boston TV station according to word from Joe Friend.
Where Did It Go?
Larry D (ldhobo) posted on LiveDiesel Yahoo Group, 10 May 2014:
- I mentioned selling my old Friends Joy Town Big diesel loco--the Alco FA-1