There are some great PCRR photos in the Warren Wing books. GN bought them the same year I was born. (1951.) So all I ever saw, was an occasional glimpse of an GN switcher. Boxcab E50
Hey im new, id have to say my shortline is Michigan Northrern Railway. It was a shortline that ran from Grand Rapids, MI to Mackinaw City, MI. It hauled wood products, people, cars to connecting RR's car ferrys, just about anything. The power came from old ALCO's and they got 2 Shark Baldwins 1205-1206 loaned to them that made the trip. The grade is now know as the White Pine State Park, thats a nice bike path and serve the snowmobilers(like me) in the winter. My other fav, shortie is Marquette and Huron MT. RR. This was a passenger excurstion railroad that ran from Marquette, MI to Big Bay, MI. The line was only about 25miles and ran from about 1968ish to 1983. The line was bought from my fav. RR LS&I, and they had 2-8-0 steamers that were bought from the LS&I when the line was bought. This old RR grade runs on our property up in Marquette and is very evident that it was there. I have picked up many things walking the grade, Spikes, phone poles, ties, mile marker nails.
Welcome Aboard!!! Thanks for the info on these lines. Good to hear from that part of the country! Neat stuff. I love walking old grades. Found me a railchair on the old Towle Bros Lumber above Drum Forebay,CA.
[i995impalass- Welcome to TrainBoard! Hmmm. I once owned a '63 Impala SS. 300hp 327, 4spd, etc, etc.... kinda miss that car. Boxcab E50
Thanks for having me.Yea they are very nice cars I have a 95 and a 95 & 94 cop car Caprice 9c1 , B bodys are sweet LT-1 260hp factory, my Impala runs about a 14.3 in the 1/4 so you could say its a little hopped up.
Boxcab & John- The Red River had the electrified trackage due to cheap power...PG&E needed a lot of power to keep California growing, and they spent the better part of the 1920's and 1930's building many hydroelectric power plants in northeastern California. Some of the reservoirs lay on Red River lands, and the company got free power as part of the compensation package...but only up to a certain amount. Red River had power operators constantly keeping tabs on how much electricity the operations used, and they had the capability to switch to other power sources if the free power draw came close to the maximum amount allowed by the contracts. Red River found a use for the electricity at night by routing it through a thick cable laid at the bottom of the log pond...the voltage was enough to keep the log pond from freezing up, but don't touch the water! What would have been really interesting is that in the late 1930's Red River was seriously contemplating building an electrified logging railroad that would have run from a connection with the Western Pacific at Poison Lake, CA, northwest to Burney, CA, to harvest the huge (80,000 or so acre) Burney tract that the company owned. This line would use equipment transferred from their Westwood-Chester operation. However, Red River sold out to Fruit Growers Supply Company (FGS) in 1944. FGS contemplated building the line themselves in the late 1940's/early 1950's, but in the end did not- they instead sold the harvesting rights to the Burney tract to the McCloud River Lumber Company, which is what prompted the extension of the McCloud River Railroad Company to Burney in 1955. That Red River book is a good one...written by Robert M. Hanft, who also wrote Pine Across the Mountain about the McCloud River and a San Diego & Arizona book. The book had been out of print for a long time, up until a historical society up in Westwood reprinted it earlier this year/late last year. However, as good of a book as it is...it is far from complete. I suggest that you try to find yourself a copy of Fruit Growers Supply Company by Tim Purdy- it complements Hanft's book well. And if Jimmy Bryant ever gets around to writing his books about the Lassen County loggers and their railroads our knowledge will be much richer than it is now. Jeff Moore Elko, NV
In the late 1800s the Cunningham Sugar Company built a railroad to connect with the International & Great Northern in Arcola, Texas. This would allow the company to gain direct access to the sugar cane grown in Brazoria county without having to ship it through Houston. They named it the Sugar Land Railroad. In 1905 W. T. Eldridge bought the line when he became part owner in the sugar company which became Imperial Sugar. He traveled extensively in business cars borrowed from connecting railroads. At that time business cars were pulled free of charge by the railroads in the country as a courtesy to each other. This arrangement was a little lopsided as not may railroads reciprocated and ran their business cars on the Sugar Land Railroad. When Mr. Eldridge was brought to task on this problem by the president of another railroad, he was reported to say, “My railroad may not be as long as yours but it is just as wide.” The government finally put an end to this practice by requiring a fee to be charged. In 1927 the SL was sold to the I&GN, a subsidiary of the MoPac. The story goes that the I&GN was given the whole railroad at no cost as long as they agreed to ship raw sugar over the line for $1.00 a car load for all time. After inflation took its toll on the railroad the company was supposed to have re-negotiated the contract for more equitable terms. In 1956 the line was totally absorbed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In the 1970 the MP gained track rights over the Southern Pacific into Houston and eventually abandoned all of the line between Highway 90 and Arcola. The yard in Sugar Land is still used by the Union Pacific. I have traced where the line used to go on these photos of the sprawling suburbia that has covered up this ghost railroad.
Ah. So one of my guesses was indeed correct. Interesting to learn the reason that brought it about. Boxcab E50
Hmmm, there are a few But I really like the Grasse River Railway based out of Conifer, NY. We had a house a few miles from Conifer at Mt Arab station just down the Adirondack Branch. Also the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville is another favorite of mine. The book Rails of the Northwoods is a great resource for Adirondack railroads, as is a much larger book that I think is titled Adirondack Railroads.
Hmmm, not real familiar with many shortlines, but a few come to mind... Quanah, Acme, & Pacific - probably one of my favorites, just because of the history, cool name, great logo, and proximity to my favorite railroad, the Fort Worth & Denver Ry. Colorado & Wyoming- actually got my parents to railfan the southern division when I was in Jr. High. Sabine River & Northern (which may still be around?)- Tried to railfan this one but couldn't find any motive power at the time. Texas Export- didn't realize this was its name, but I always noticed the old ROW when my dad worked in Graham, TX in the 90's and thought it would be a cool "what if" railroad to model in modern times. Learned later its history and still think about it as a potential small layout from time to time. Maybe when I go to O-scale in my later years.
The late Bellevue & Cascade narrow gauge railroad in northeast Iowa is my favorite shortline. I have several photos. It would be a scenic railway to model; the countryside is rolling hills with a few steep grades. The B&C was owned by the Milwaukee Road, my favorite.
I have a cabin in Tolland right by the Moffat Road. I wish i could of seen the Mallets climbing the Giants Ladder.
Michigan-California Lumber Co With my first post in this thread I mentioned I had two favorites, the Mountain Quarries RR and the Michigan-California Lumber Co. The Mi-Cal calls to me alot. As a kid my family visited the forests of the Georgetown Divide area many times each summer. Our favorite spot was along Brush Creek deep in the heart of Mi-Cal territory. Miles and miles of track wound through the woods nearby and my father would take me hiking and show me remains. On top of all the miles of roadbed you can walk, and the numorous trestle remains, we used to be able to drive to the old mill site at Pino Grande. This was a huge complex at one time that was the rough cut mill. The logs would be brought here from the woods and dumped in the log pond to be cut up later. Unfortunately it is now a very long walk due to some gates and it is getting harder and harder to get a feel for what it once looked like. The topper for all the interesting stuff in the forest is the cableway remains. Back in the day, Mi-Cal had a cable strung across the American River Canyon to connect the north side logging areas to the finishing mill at Camino,CA. Old pictures and stories reveal quite a breathtaking adventure of riding across this cable. Both the north and south cable sites are accessible if you know how and are very neat to check out. The best thing is I get to combine reliving my childhood, camping, a beautiful forest and trains! What more can you ask of a shortline? All this and the Mountain Quarries RR mentioned earlier are definately the inspiration for my website, Foothill Rails PS. Caution: Watch out for the Banana Slugs. They get quite large!!!
Ghost Shortline Probably the favourite for me would have to be the Oregon Pacific & Eastern. Even though it was only about twenty miles long it had character. Even Hollywood used the OP&E for movies. The General with Buster Keeton in the way way back past. Then in 1973 "Emporer Of The North" was filmed with Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. The steam train the "Goose" was a great trip. Rode it three times. Two steamers #5 a 2-8-0 and #19 a 2-8-2 now on the Yreka Western. The GE 70 Tonners and later the SW-8 and Espee's Budd RDC-1. The crown jewel was the GE Centrecab unit.
OP&E RR Photos There is a site Western Shortline Rosters. Look under Oregon and then find the road in the list. trainweb.org/rosters/Oregon I think is part of the adderess. Had my slides made on photo CD. These are the ones I sent to Western Shortlines
My Favorite Fallen Flag My favorite is the North Shore (Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee). They knew how to do commuter service: > 100 MPH in 1942! It was a fun road to ride and to watch as the poles clacked along the wires inbterspersed with the clickety-clack of the wheels. David
I have to say the Diamond & Caldor Railway, which ran from Diamond Springs in California's Gold Country (El Dorado County) east for 34 miles to the old sawmill site at Caldor. Though organized in 1904 as a common carrier, the D&C spent all of it's 49 years hauling rough-cut lumber (and later logs) to the interchange with the Southern Pacific in Diamond Springs. The D&C interests me for several reasons. First, I'm involved with the effort to restore the one remaining locomotive of the line -- the D&C Ry. No. 4, a Class B Shay with construction no. 1896. But also, the mainline ran about 200 yards from my home and wound through territory that I often frequent. If you know what to look for, D&C sites, like grade crossings, are still visible along Pleasant Valley and Bucks Bar roads. And once you get back into the Eldorado National Forest around the Caldor site, pick a road and there's a good chance you're driving an old logging spur.
Ahnapee and Western Constructed in 1892 from a connection with the Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western at Casco Junction to the city of Ahnapee (renamed Algoma in 1899) and then north to Sturgeon Bay, a total of 34.0 miles. Operated as a branch of the Green Bay and Western for most of it's life; sold to independent interests in Sturgeon Bay in 1947; the Algoma-Sturgeon Bay section abandoned in 1968; Casco Junction-Algoma operated under various ownerships 'till the late 1980's. Why? I was stationed in Sturgeon Bay as the Navy Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair 1977-1980. There was still quite a bit of "physical evidence" still around, and a lot of the old-timers were my neighbors. The road to Sturgeon Bay was train-order throughout it's history; it was never signalled; never had more than two locomotives on the rails simultaneously; ran small (very small!) steam until 1953; then two GE 70T. I always like the underdog; and diminutive steam locomotives battling snow drifts, flooded bogs, broken bridges and (mostly) prevailing fascinates me. The relationship of the railroad with the shipbuilders in Sturgeon Bay, and the proposed car ferry interchange in Sturgeon Bay and the real car ferry interchange (on KGB&W) in Kewaunee makes it interesting to this naval architect/marine engineer as well. Resp'y, Bob S.
