Joy Town Railroad

Joy Town Railroad was an amusement railroad at Topsfield Fair, Topsfield, Massachusetts. The railroad was built and operated by Lester Friend.

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  Lester Friend with his 1.5 inch scale Hudson at Topsfield Fair. From "True", May 1951.

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  Joy Town Railroad advertisement from "The Miniature Locomotive", November/December 1952

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  From "The Miniature Locomotive", July/August 1953

The following photos were taken by A.W. Leggett, provided by Jim Leggett.

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  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.

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  Bill Leggett Jr. watches the train pass by.

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  Jim Leggett's grandmother, Myrtle Leggett, on the right.

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  Myrtle Leggett on the left.

Gold Spike Ceremony

Forward

by George Murray

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

External Links

• "Joytown RR/Waushakum Hudson update", Pat Fahey, Chaski.org
• "Woman Live Steamers , that Build and Run", Pat Fahey, Chaski.org
• Some history on the Joytown Hudson, Pat Fahey, Chaski.org
• "Charlton Railroad", Chaski.org