Martha's Vineyard Railroad
The Martha's Vineyard Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad on the island of Martha's Vineyard. It was built in 1874 to connect the Oak Bluffs wharf with the section of Edgartown known as Katama. The line closed in 1896. Development After the decline of the whale oil industry in the 1860s, the east coast island of Martha's Vineyard sought to develop a tourist trade. As part of this effort a gauge railroad was chartered in 1874 to take tourists across the island. The railway started at Oak Bluffs where steamships of the Old Colony Railroad docked and ran southeast along the shore through Edgartown to Katama. The line was constructed within 8 weeks across the flat, sandy soil and completed by August 7, 1874. Edward R. Dunham of Edgartown built one half of the bridge over the Sengekontacket Pond, while a mainland contractor built the other half. When the two ends met in the middle, a measurement error of more than 2 inches (50 mm) became apparent, for which the contractors blamed each other, before the necessary corrective action was taken. Fearing that a conventional steam locomotive might frighten horses, the railroad company purchased a dummy, a steam-powered railcar as