Now that I am retired, I can finally tell the real story of this famous two-foot gauge railroad. The Isles of Shoals are a grouping of scrub covered granite islands some five miles off the Atlantic coast near Portsmouth, NH. These islands have been home to pirates (Black Beard), the British, during Colonial days, the Rich seeking solitude, the Army for coastal defense, and tourists occupying several Grande Hotels, which were popular in the middle of the 20th Century.

The Army, prior to the onset of WWII deemed the existing shore defense installations inadequate and sought better protection farther off shore. The Isles of Shoals were ideally situated, affording umbrella coverage using 16" guns placed around the "Big" Island, Isle of Shoals. Five batteries were constructed around the island, a circumferential distance of 7.3 miles supported by a 2-foot gauge railroad. The track was substantial, 65# flat-bottomed rail laid on 7X7" by five foot ties as the munitions loads were heavy and bulky.

Motive Power was a mix of Yankee and British gas mechanicals, French steam, and local contractor's motors. My favorite engine was the infamous Decauville "Deuce", an indirect drive steam locomotive. Other rolling stock consisted of heavy-duty flat cars and bulkhead 4 wheel flat cars and a Brake van-parcel-coach.

Several years after the war, just as I got my first job on the line, the Army proposed abandoning the line. A consortium of five businessmen from Boston, lead by Rich Chiodo's father, proposed taking over the Army installation on the Island. They envisioned three hotels, each on one of the gun sites and then converting the two remaining sites to picnic pavilions. The Little Railway would remain in place to carry the tourists to hotels and picnic sites. In 1951 the deal was done and the railroad and all of the equipment belonged to the Isle of Shoals Hotel Corporation.

Over the next two years three grand hotels were constructed with the able assistance of the Railway. The Isle of Shoals Grande was the flagship followed by the Major DeMerrit, in honor of a Revolutionary war commander whose raiding party stole black powder from British stores situated on the Island. The last hotel to be built was the Smuttynose Inn, catering to families. I never did understand why its popularity didn't reach expectations.

Such was the Isle of Shoals Light Railway. It never made a dime for its owners but it made an entire career for me. Eventually, the rich took to the air and broadened their vacation horizons, the whole "package" began to teeter and fall apart. I ran the last train away from Smuttynose Dock on September 17, 1957 as a salvage operation tearing up the track as it proceeded around the Island.

If you visit the Isle of Shoals today you can find remnants of the right of way, castings and metal bits of several flat cars around Smuttynose Dock and my Decauville is still rotting away in the weeds near the abandoned "Grande". Everything else was carted off to serve a new tourist attraction, "Edaville", in Carter Massachusetts. Only one thing is sure, I will never touch or eat another potato.

G. Ennis Plammer