Former theme park train finds new home at N.B. blueberry farm

At Trueman Blueberry Farms in Aulac, N.B., visitors don’t get around by foot, animal or even farm equipment. Instead, it’s soon to be all about train transportation.

The Evangeline, which sits on top of freshly laid tracks, is the farm’s newest attraction.

“We’re certainly happy that we took it on,” said Tom Trueman, owner of Trueman Blueberry Farms.

“No question, it’s a bigger project than maybe we naively anticipated, but it’s certainly a lot of fun and I think it’s going to be a great asset for the farm and for the local community.”

Over the last few months, the train and its carts have been parked at the farm for people to explore and enjoy before the railroad construction got underway.

The once again functional train came from Upper Clements Park in Nova Scotia, where Trueman says it ran from around 1989 to 2019.

“[The seller] was quite interested in having the train stay in Atlantic Canada where it kind of started out and hopefully the people who, you know, rode it as a kid could find it still running somewhere. So we’re happy to carry that legacy forward and look forward to another 30 years of it running here on our farm,” he said.

“We get contacted daily by people that have either visited the park and rode the train, or quite a number of people who worked at the park and actually drove the train or did the maintenance on the train.”

While the Evangeline will keep its original name, the farm has officially named its railroad company Trueman Mill Railroad, after the Trueman Mill Pond that is also on the property.

During the ride, visitors will get the chance to see the farm’s tulip patch in the spring, the sunflower maze in late August into September, and the wild blueberry bushes.

The hope is to construct a full train station and make the train a corner stone of activities, including possible themed rides down the road.

“Excitement. Excitement is really what I’m hoping for, the joy and excitement into what we’ve put a lot of hard work and labour into,” said Blair Spence, who has been a carpenter on the project.

Currently, it’s estimated around 400 to 500 man hours have gone into construction, with more still to go.

“It’s going to be, by the time we’re all done, it’s the best part of a half a million dollar investment to get this train in place and the station up and all the odds and ends that go with it,” said Trueman.

However, thoughts of the end product are keeping spirits high for everyone involved.

“It’s exciting. It’s exciting,” said Spence.

“The other day when we hooked the three cars on and Tom said ‘there, take the reins and away we go’ and around the track we went. I drove, and that was just real exciting… real exciting.”

Those involved say there’s at least another week or two of final adjustments before a provincial inspector comes down to give the green light to open the train up to the public.

The 10 to 15 minute ride is expected to be a crowd pleaser that will highlight both a piece of history and the future. However, Trueman says there is one thing the train is still missing.

“It was sitting idle at the park and the train whistle went missing. So if anybody out there in the Clements Port area or wherever knows where the train whistle went, we would dearly love to have it back to put it back to her original state,” he said.

The goal is to welcome everyone aboard the Evangeline Labour Day weekend.

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