Hello All,
I seem to recall that MR had an article many years ago about a railroad run totally by one man servicing about 4 miles of track with a 44 tonner or similar servicing a hospital among its clients? Can anyone enlighten me as to the name of the Railroad and where it was located please? Is it still running?
TIA from Australia
Trevor
It rings a bell. I think it was an article about the Stewartstown Railroad (back when it was a freight railroad, not the tourist operation it is today) which had one locomotive, a two axle "critter." I remember a photo of the "engineer" gassing it up at a regular fuel pump like you'd see at a gas station. Whether it was literally a one man railroad I cannot recall but I do think it was a one man crew.
Dave Nelson
Amended Post: Hey I found the article - October 1966 MR. The Stewartstown RR in Southern Pennsylvania had about 7 miles of track; grain and furniture were the primary customers. It had two Plymouth gasoline locomotives and a photo caption says the fireman was gassing one up, so I guess they had two man crews. It also refers to shops and a board room. It's a great article showing motive power of the past in addition to showing its 1960s operations, with trackage maps. The Stewartstown still exists but now as a tourist operation.
There is another very short railroad, in Illinois, that was perhaps written up in Model Railroad Planning, not MR. As I recall it had just over a mile of track, used one 0-4-0T locomotive, and may have had just one customer.
DN
Here's a link to their website and in the history (under "about"), there's no mention of the railroad being operated by one man, but by volunteers.
http://www.stewartstownrailroadco.com/
Russ
Modeling the early '50s Erie in Paterson, NJ. Here's the link to my railroad postcard collection: https://railroadpostcards.blogspot.com/
There was an atrticle about a railroad, a one man operation it ran between the IC and the state hospital in South Elgin, about 4 miles in length. He had a 44 tonner and ran coal to the hospital. The hospital switched to gas instead of coal so the railroad shut down. A friend of mine wrote it one of those Railroads you can model. The museum there may know more about it. Greg Heier was the authors name maybe mid 1960s when he wrote it.
CGW121A friend of mine wrote it one of those Railroads you can model. The museum there may know more about it. Greg Heier was the authors name maybe mid 1960s when he wrote it.
And that hint found the article: "One-Man Prototype Railroad" by Greg Heier in the September 1967 Model Railroader.
The internet also has some useful info and pics.
industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2018/01/ae-aurora-elgin-fox-river-interurban.html
Thank you everyone... the only trouble I have reconciling my memory of reading that article is that it was supposed to be a one man railway/interurban remnant and the pic of Dave's reference point clearly shows two men, one as a flag man! May be that second man was made mandatory with safety concerns?
Thanks Again
Cheers from Australia
That hospital line is pretty neat. Interesting to see a shortline doing that kind of work. I doubt the hospital I work at would have ever needed enough fuel for heating boilers it would have needed coal shipments to fuel the place. I don't even know if our building is old enough to even ever have used coal. We actually didn't get any rail connection to my hospital until the 2000's when a light commuter rail line made it up the hill to us!I imagine a lot of shortlines and interurban lines while not quite 'one man' jobs were at least two or three man operations. Have the scrappy remains of an industry and the shortline that served it, and then model the shortline during its leanest years and you have a 'one train a week, two or three employee' line in a nutshell. My 'hometown railroad' that folded well before I was born was a one horse-three employee operation in its final decade after the smelter it served shut down. This James Belmont photo is a photo of the entire company together after delivering the line's last outbound freight car to the Western Pacific interchange. The company would close up shop only a few years later (source: https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=389767).
So its not quite as spartan as a 'one man railroad' but its a reminder that as economies and industries changed over the years, many shortlines found themselves running on minimal freight traffic and spartan crews, making perfect modeling fodder for those looking to base their layout on a lightly trafficed line.
I was at the museum today and was talking to people there. The guy would have family members as well as museum members help him as well from time to time. Also it was a more relaxed time as well, So yes it was a one man show.