Over the years we've all read about many "Short Line" Railroads. As it turns out some of them are not all that short. Some are quite busy and are responsible for looking after many businesses over a large area. In some cases they are the only link to the outside world for some people who live in remote areas.
Now excluding Tourist Excursion Trains. Can someone tell me about the shortest "Short Line" they know of. And why is it there? I am wanting to find a very funky little operation to model from my layout room to other parts of the house.
If someone points me in the direction of a very small Shortline Railroad operation that catches my eye, I am willing to do more research on it. I can't research something that I don't know exist or ever did. Era is not important. Reason for existence is. I could ask this question over on Trains but I like the answers I get from a modelers perspective. I look forward to your answers. As always thanks.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Why not run your own short line ?
51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )
ME&O
East Washington Railroad the remnant remain of the Chesapeake Beach Railroad.
from Wiki
The East Washington survived for 40 years after the Chesapeake Beach Railroad stopped running in 1935. Its main customers were a liquor company, a cement company and PEPCO, the local power company. PEPCO needed coal delivered to its Benning Road Plant from Chesapeake Junction, the interchange with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1975 the power plant converted to oil, and shortly thereafter the cement company moved. In 1976, the railroad, which by then included four employees and a single Whitcomb ceased operations.
Enjoy
Paul
One of the shortest I'm aware of was the Hoboken Shore RR, which was under a mile long. It served the industries along the Hoboken waterfront, and started out as the Hoboken Manufacturers Railroad. As the HSRR web page says, "The line had tight curves, street trackage, a float bridge - all elements that endeared the railroad to its fans" I prefer more rural shortlines, but as urban lines go this one was quite interesting. It's all gone now, and the the street the railroad used to run through was changed from River Road to Frank Sinatra Drive. Yoo gotta problem widdat, pal?
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
UncBobWhy not run your own short line ?
We have a very large social circle ( because of my wife's interest not grumpy old me ) that come through the house. There are always people here. My main layout has a story behind just about everything that's going to be on it. Rail Road history runs deep in the family though more in an indirect way.
If I am going to put a line out of the train room to another part of the house I want to tell people the story behind it. Many visitors are fascinated by things they see along the tracks. A funky little short line with strange stops along the way gets them interested and they ask questions. Some short lines have peculiar reasons for there existence and I guess that's what I am looking for.
There are 7 miles of track left of what used to be the San Pedro & Southwestern Railroad. The remaining track serves only one industry, the Apache Nitrogen Products plant in Saint David, Arizona, on a spur off of the Union Pacific at Benson. They have one former Kyle GP locomotive to shuttle cars between the UP set-out track at Benson and the Apache plant.
During World War II and later, the Apache plant made dynamite, gunpowder, and other explosives. They have two fireless steam engines in a museum at their plant.
The Marion Carry Railroad in NY state was 1,320 yards long. It used a tank engine to pull 1 or 2 former horsedrawn streetcars and an occasional freight car.
The Ponchartrain Railroad in Louisiana was 4.9 miles long.
The Raritan River Rail Road in NJ was 12 miles long.
The Rahway Valley RR In NJ was 15 miles long.
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
There was quite an extensive thread on this very subject on the Trains Magazine forum a while back. My contribution to that was the Texas Transportation Company.
Edit: Here is the thread: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/153972.aspx?PageIndex=1
Quincy RR, in Mass.
Jimmy
ROUTE ROCK!
One shortline that has always caught my imagination was the Springfield Terminal Railway in Vermont. About six miles in length, it ran from Springfield, VT, across the Connecticut River, to Charlestown, NH, where it interchanged with the B&M. During the first half of the last century it was an electric operation, utilizing steeple cabs and street cars. Following WWII, most of the traffic was handled by 44-tonners, or leased B&M switchers.
Plusses were that businesses served on either side of the river were both diverse and interesting, the terrain classic spectacular New England, the west end of the RR terminated right in the center of town next to some impressive water falls on the Black River, there was street running and the narrow bridge carrying trains across the Connecticut River also handled vehicle traffic. Finally, an HO layout plan for the STR was published in RMC in recent years.
CNJ831
Kennebec Central. 5 miles long, 2 feet wide, served a Veterans' Home, no connection to any other RR.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
How about the Cassville & Exetor Railroad in Barry County, Missouri? It ran 4.8 miles from the town of Cassville to connect with the Frisco at Exetor. Here is a link to a short history:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mobarry/Exeter/train.htm
- James
One of the railroad magazines I purchased back in those days actually covered the last run of the East Washington. It delivered one boxcar to the liquor distributor then the curtain fell. I believe the article stated that East Washington was the shortest shortline of that era but I may be wrong about that- lots of brain cells have passed from the scene in the ensuing years.
Probably not the shortest of the short lines (7.5 miles or 450' of HO track) but a nice short one to model - Arcata & Mad River - near Eureka, CA on Humbodlt Bay just south of OR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcata_and_Mad_River_Railroad
Reporting marks AMR and it was affectionately known as the "Annie and Mary".
"During the lumber boom of the 1950s, the Annie and Mary served fifteen shippers on its 7.5-mile (12.1 km) railroad. The average daily car loadings were enough to place the road among the highest paying railroad properties per mile in the United States"
Operated from 1854 to 1983 so you could model just about anything other than the most current equipment. Athearn did some modern day cars in both N and HO
Also this link
http://www.amr-rr.com/
I hope this helps
ratled
Modeling the Klamath River area in HO on a proto-lanced sub of the SP “The State of Jefferson Line”
One of the shortest short lines I know off is the Chiemsee Railway in southern Bavaria. It connects the train station in the town of Prien with the pier at lake Chiemsee, covering a distance of 1,1 miles. It was opened in 1887, shortly after the death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his successor, Prinzregent Luitpold, turning Ludwig´s favorite residence into a tourist attraction, in the attempt of paying back the debts Ludwig amassed during the construction of the famous Neuschwanstein Castle.
The railway is still operated with its original equipment and is protected by the Bavarian Heritage Act as a national Bavarian monument.
Here are some pics:
Some data:
1 loco
9 cars
7 turnouts
2,200 m of track in total
20 daily trains - weekends and holidays only.
Wouldn´t that be an ideal road to model - only 67 feet of track and you have modeled every inch of the prototype!
Southern San Luis Valley Railroad was only 1.53 miles in its last years.
with one homebuilt loco
ami6Southern San Luis Valley Railroad was only 1.53 miles in its last years.with one homebuilt loco
Bertil,
this must be the oddest railroad in the world, topped off may be only by the rail taxis in Cambodia!
Maybe not the shortest of short lines, but a couple of lines in my area are the Detroit Connecting Railroad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Connecting_Railroad) and Lapeer Industrial Railroad (http://www.railroadmichigan.com/lapeer.html).
George V.
There are 3 in Southern Indiana , AW&W which survived up until 2003 which served several coal mines and a tie treatment plant , it used Alcos in the 1960's and early 70's and then had 4 SD 9's it got from the Southern RWY . It was headquartered in Oakland City , IN , I am not sure of the total miles , but not very long .
Then there is the Ferdinand RR which pulled up it's tracks in the early 1990's it was 7 miles long that ran from Ferdinand , IN . to Huntingburg , IN , it served several furniture and cabinet plants and at one time a small grain elevator . It used a 44 ton switcher until it shut down , before that it was one of the last Railroads to use a 4 4 0 steam locomotive in the 1950's . it also had a gas doodle bug for passenger service .
Then there is the LNAC in Corydon , IN . also 7 miles long. ( my personal Favorite ) it is still in operation but it is currently very limited . It serves a large furniture plant in Corydon , as well as several other plants and warehouses including a small chemical plant . up until 2005 it also had 2 large Ford parts plants , 1 being a frame plant for the Ford Explorer and a brakes parts plant that recieved 86 ft box cars .
There main power was also a 44 ton switcher as well as several alco switchers and road engines , through the 1990's they ran several RDC's for a tourist line as well .
They interchange with the NS at Corydon JCT .
It is the oldest continuely operated railroad in Indiana , in the days of steam they operated 2 , 4 4 0 steam locomotives they also had a branch line that crossed Indian creek by running through the creek instead of a bridge , this brach served a grain elevator and a stone quary .
The railroad follows Indian creek through some very hilly countryside and watching a little 44 ton switcher lug 86 ft box cars trough these hills is just begging to be modeled .
With the expansive name of The Atlantic And Western Railway, this line extended 3.38 miles at Sanford, NC when at full length. It still exists. They had 70-ton GEs and 80-ton Porters back in the 1970's, and operate with EMD today.
The shortest operation in terms of actual usage that I have ever visited is the Saltville Railroad in Southwest Virginia. Trestle weaknesses had eliminated access to the entire northern end of the line (originally 4 miles to Saltville). What was left in operation was an interchange with the N&W at Glade Spring, VA. They had about two storage tracks running parallel to the "Y" connection and they pulled covered hoppers up to an unloading facility about 200 yards up the "main line". They used 25-ton GE's, although an old SW-1 was inside the enginehouse up in Saltville.
Bill
Hows about the Muncie And Western that was in the Ball Glass Plant. Kevin
I think the shortest line currently exists and has been around for about 80 years.
It's the Baldwin 60000 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
It travels 10 feet 7 inches.
http://www.northeasttimes.com/2001/1114/franklininstitute.html
Springfield PA
The Olympic Railway was the successor to the Seattle and North Coast. It operated from the rail ferry slip in Port Townsend WA to a large paper mill just south of town (about 2 or so miles). It only had one locomotive - an SW-1 #52. It operated from 1988 until sometime before the tracks were removed in 1996. The actual date it stopped operating is unknown.
My freelanced HO Port Able and Pacific Railroad is based (loosely) on the Seattle and North Coast.
http://www.trainweb.org/snch&ts/index.html
-George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
The Ahnapee & Western. 34.5 miles of track going from Casco Jct. Wisconsin NE to Algoma, then NW towards Sturgeon Bay. There were a few other stops, but not many. If google doesn't fail you like it does to me (currently disgruntled with the LACK of certain non-train related subjects on the net) it's mentioned on a few sites I can remember off hand. Wikipedia, of course, donsdepot, and greenbayroute.com. I found the most info from the latter web site mentioned. It doesn't look like it, but if you look carefully you will notice the gbw site is updated. It's also a really nice site put together all round. I checked out a Pentrex video on the GBW (go figure none of the library's in Green Bay would have it) that I've already watched twice in the last 12 hours. I'm thinking of kid napping the video.
Back to the subject, 34 miles, two 70 ton diesel locomotives after 1953, and a mix of Moguls and Cons in the steam days. They even owned a few of their own cars, and had a passenger car for whatever reason. Snow plowing was achieved with from I've seen one of two methods. The first, an old gondola with a plow attached at one end. The other, a rather large plow pilot attached to the front of one of the 70T units. It looks like they got it off an old Oshkosh P-Series 6x4 snow plow truck. I love those things.
HamltnblueI think the shortest line currently exists and has been around for about 80 years.It's the Baldwin 60000 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.It travels 10 feet 7 inches.
I can beat that. This is the only remnant of CNJ's High Bridge Branch in Califon, NJ.
I can't remember the details, but the Beaufort and Morehead line in Morehead City, NC back in the 70's into the mid 80's. It is now run by the NC Ports commission. When it was the B&M (or M&B I forget which it was). It was from one dock in Morehead City to the fuel tanks on the causeway between the two towns, in the Newport River. Not sure of the length, but it couldn't have been more than 2 miles. It went across a single leaf bascule bridge to allow for ship traffic. The bridge is no longer used but the port still has a switcher on site (on the mainland) to make up trains for N&S.
A very good map of the NC port at Morehead can be found at
http://www.ncports.com/userfiles/FG_MHC_Map.pdf
Apparently they have started reusing railroad bridge of the river. Looking at Google Earth, it looks like it has received some updates since I last hung around there.
I would like to thank all those who posted. There is some interesting reading here. With one link leading to another, a lot of time has been spent in front of the computer the last couple of days.
I like the idea of modeling the explosives plant, next to the distillery, that is next to the Heinz Baked Bean plant. Could make for an explosive scene.
There are many possibilities for modeling I had not thought of. Thanks again.