Hi all, I am interessed in trackplans of isolated railroads that did exist in the past or still existing now. In Model Railroader June 2002 there was a trackplan of a modern switching railroad served by CP. The still existing railroad is the Progressive Rail. Two switchers are used to serve their customers. In Model Railroad Planning 2002 a small past C&O, isolated yard was shown served by a barge. Only one switcher served the customers. Any others on the web? Paul
Check out the new re-issue of the Kalmbach "Railroad's you can Model" book - there are several Short Lines in there that may interest you. As for the web - I'm not really sure - any one know a good web source for short lines?
The most isolated railroad that I can think of is the Prince Edward Island Railway. PEI is Canada's smallest province and located just above Nova Scotia and Northeast of New Brunswick. I have a book about the railroad - no tracks exist there now. That would be one railroad that was connected to nothing except by ferry. The interesting thing about the PEIR is that the creation of the railroad was designed to force PEI into the Confederation to become part of Canada by creating debt. Charlie
Thanks for the info Rob and Charlie. It seems to me that it looks great to build an existing or in the past existing switching layout that can be taken outside in summer, this way I can enjoy my trains and the heat of the sun at the same time. Paul
Rail isolated...... How about the Milwaukee Road Olympic Division? Served by a barge from Seattle to Port Townsend, Washington? Or their successor that carried a few more years into the mid-1980's, the Seattle & North Coast RR? A little further north, before connecting with tracks later in life, the Pacific Great Eastern RY in British Columbia. Served by a barge from North Vancouver to Squamish. Or even further north, the White Pass & Yukon Route from Skagway, Alaska to White Horse, Yukon Territory. And finally, even further north, the Alaska Railroad....... Served by barges from as far away as Puget Sound in Washington state. BoxcabE50
Well, the Suncook Valley Railroad (late 1800s-1955) was mostly isolated by mountains and poor economics. Ran east of concord NH. There's a book about it called The Blueberry Express IIRC. Neat history.
CP had a railroad served by barge in the Northwest of BC. There was an article in Trains magazine in the mid 70's about it. The power was one of the FM roadswitchers they owned. Cool article, later before it was abandoned, they used GP9's. Greg Elems
Several railroads, I know the Erie and B&O, had small isolated yards in Manhatten, reached by carfloat from NJ. One of these would be small enough to be portable yet provide tons of modeling. Gary
There was also Frisco's isolated trackage on Blakely Island off Mobile, AL. Motive power in the diesel era was at first a 45-tonner, then later an SW1 purchased from BN (which, oddly, went BACK to BN after the 1980 merger). A carferry also served as connection to the outside world.
I'd forgotten all about this line. Believe I recall that article. Barges from Slocan City to Nakusp? If I've the names correct. BoxcabE50 [ 17. August 2002, 16:11: Message edited by: BoxcabE50 ]
Wasn't this written up in Railfan & Railroad? If I'm correct, by chance do you remember the issue? So I don't need to spend half a day digging..... BoxcabE50
