Welcome to Cape Ann Rail     home of  the    Wormwood Point Garden Railway

History
of the
Cape Ann Rail Co.
&
The Wormwood Point Garden Railway 

 In 1899 a young man from Dublin, Ireland emigrated to the United States, to seek fame and fortune. His Name was Edmund and he worked, in the quarries, in Rockport, Massachusetts where he rose rapidly through the ranks. He was an astute businessman and after several years had saved enough money to buy a small, working quarry from an elderly gentleman. He named his new venture Wormwood Inc, named after its location on Wormwood Point. All was well for a few years until competition among the other quarries became fierce.  Transportation to the docks became difficult if not impossible.  So Ed took another gamble and invested in laying track to the near-by Boston and Maine tracks in Gloucester.  He purchased a 2cylinder Shay from the Lima Loco Works and was soon hauling granite blocks to the Port in Gloucester. 

It was a great time in America, the Industrial revolution was in full swing, and there was money to be made. A second and a third larger, 3 cylinder, shay, was ordered as business began to grow.  The age of sail was coming to an end as the age of steam ships began.  And so a second venture, Cape Ann Shipping, was born.  With the purchase of his first steam ship he began shipping granite blocks to Boston and to New York City, for the great buildings that were being built.  The Great Depression was yet to come.

Ed became a wealthy man.  He built a fine home in Beverly, Massachusetts and continued to grow the shipping company. There were now four steamships carrying granite blocks to Boston and New York.

1929

Unlike the speculators on Wall Street who lost it all, Ed managed to hold on to his fortune.  But the building industry had collapsed. By the time The Great Depression had ended the need for granite had ceased. Taller and more  magnificent buildings were being erected. Steel had become king.  All the quarries closed. 

2008

Press release:    Jan 1, 2008
Cape Ann Rail announces the sale of most of it's assets to Suleski Transportation . CAR will maintain a small fleet of NW2s to handle the movement of coal and oil from the docks in Salem to ST's yard in Beverly. Lawrence Mosher's grandson will oversee this small operation and Mosher will undertake the operation of the tourist line, The Wormwood Point Railway, running from the old Wormwood Point quarry in Rockport down to the docks in Gloucester.  Cape Ann Rail has always maintained  the track, from Gloucester to Wormwood Point, and during the summer tourists are transported to the quarries using the carefully restored 2 cylinder Shays. The quarries are still closed and have flooded over the years.  Today they are registered National Historic Sites, and are operated by the family as a park with overnight tent camping, hiking trails and of course.... the Wormwood Point Railway.
 

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