Sometimes it seems that Lorain's Lakeview Park Easter Basket gets all the attention – and the Oakwood Park Easter Basket gets ignored.
To help rectify this situation, here's a great photo that appeared on the front page of the Monday, April 7, 1958, Lorain Journal. It show's Lorain's "other" Easter Basket and some of the Lorainites who made their holiday pilgrimage to it on Easter Sunday 1958.
Gee, they get to climb all over their basket out in South Lorain! At Lakeview Park, a moat keeps you from violating the basket's perimeter!
When I was a kid, the only times that I ever saw the Oakwood Park Easter Basket were when when my family went out to South Lorain to go to Hills Department Store. Besides the basket, my siblings and I would also watch for the train in the park.
Is that train still at Oakview Park? If not, where did it go?
ReplyDeleteThe train was removed years ago by the Mad River RR Co. It's on a siding near the Lorain County Fairgrounds in Wellington. At the moment it is in several pieces - the cab has been removed from the body. I'm not sure it will ever be restored or if it even can be restored - it was in pretty bad shape before it was removed from Oakwood Park.
ReplyDeleteJohn Kovacs
Actualy that locomotive, Nickle Plate 384, is in the Lorain and West Virginia RR yard in Wellington. While it looks bad cosmetically, it is quite mechanically sound and would be relatively easy to restore.
ReplyDeleteThe group hopes to one day restore the locomotive and run it on the L&WV. However, at this time it's pretty low on the priority list.