Any tourist RRs haul freight for $$$

[wgnrr]

Mid-Continent should have #1 done in a couple of years. 1385 is useless, and Polson Lumber (Saginaw Timber) #2 is being worked on by it's owner (No, MCRWY does not own it). There was a lot of legal BS that MCRWY got into when #2 broke down at the 1998 Snow Train. The agreement to run it said that MCRWY could not take it apart. What did they do? Take it apart. There is a suit open, and they will end up paying for the repairs made to the engine--something they can't afford.

What would make sense for Mid-Continent to get is the 175, which is up in Houghton/Hancock, MI, but that is another story. It has a good boiler, but bad firebox. The 1385 has a bad firebox and a decent (I say this because they want to replace the entire boiler) boiler.

The Wisconsin Great Northern does not directly haul freight. However, they own or operate the Mineral Range Railroad in the UP of Michigan under the name of Vreeland Rail. As of 4 years ago, a freight operation would make or break the railroad. But, the railroad has been pulling along good.

Phil

[Southwest Chief]

Durango & Silverton has hauled horses up to an isolated dude ranch, although they don't normally carry freight.

[PBenham]

The Arcade and Attica exists not because it hauls tourists, but because of the odd 100-125 ton grain hopper delivered to the line's owner's grain mill.

[WP_Malco]

Yes the Verde Canyon does haul raw and completed products to and from a Cement Mill in Clarksdale, AZ.   I do beleive it has two trips a week.

[traintownofcowee]

I believe the Great Smokey Mountian Railroad hauls some feed to a chicken farm or something like that.

Indeed it does. I got a cab ride in GSMR #711. We went to Sylva and picked up five hopper cars, and brought them back to the shops for new break shoes. The railroad mostly hauls feed, but occassionally transports other stuff. I also got a tour of the railroad shops. I have pics of 1702 & 722 in there current condition!  

[mudchicken]

Add Whitewater Valley RR to the list (by accident, they didn't go looking for the business)

http://www.stb.dot.gov/FILINGS/all.nsf/f9333daaab92d9da852572f100045a90/a3e630de8f7f2776852570d00071eb4a/$FILE/215305.pdf

 

[JT22CW]

Add the Black River & Western to the list.  (The NH&I's neighbor across the Delaware.)  Also includes the Belvidere & Delaware River line.

[Anonymous]

The SAM Shortline, which is the "only mobile state park in Georgia" allows freight to be hauled from a CSX connection in Cordele, Georgia, to Americus, Georgia.  Not sure how much revenue goes into the SAM coffers, but freight is hauled on the line.

Erik

[crzink]

The SFS used to haul freight with their tourist excursions.  Go to www.texaswesternmrc.org and enter the website.  Then click "Club Activities: (at the top or to the left), then "SantaFe Southern/Cumbres-Toltec trip 2002".  Our HO club visited there in 2002, on the way to the Cumbres & Toltec.

On the run down to the mainline at Lamy, we picked up a couple of empty boxcars from the local beer distributer for interchange.

Decapod Driver
Webmaster, Texas Western Model Railroad Club
Ft. Worth, Tx.

 

 

[Jetrock]

Add the California State Railroad Museum's "Sacramento Southern" tourist line: they transfer cars of wood products between Union Pacific and Setzer Forest Products. They typically use an SW1 for the freight switching, rather than their 0-6-0 steamer.

[Train 284]

The Yreak Western and the Mcloud River Railroad haul lumber.        

[mccannt]

The Mount Hood RR in Oregon still serves freight customers, mainly fruit packing businesses, between Hood River and Odell. The old Dee Lumber Co. mill further south, which the railroad used to serve, burned down in the late 1990s.

Incidentally, MHRR now has an operating steam locomotive to add to their three diesels. They acquired a former Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 off the Grand Canyon Railway earlier this year, and were supposed to have put it in service over the July 4 weekend.

In central Oregon, the City of Prineville RR, while not strictly a tourist road, does haul both freight and the Crooked River Dinner Train.

[New Haven I-5]

Add the Fillmore & Western

[KayBee]

The West Virginia Central/Durbin & Greenbriar Valley has a freight operation. They interchange with CSX at Tygart Junction.

[cnwfan51]

     The Bonne and Scenic Valley Railroad works the east side of Boone with both a lumber company and a steel manufacturing company they interchange with the Union Pacific near downtown Boone    Larry

[Carbarn O]

 

Jersey freight lines that have occasional excursions include the Morristown & Erie and the Susquehanna. Earlier mention was made of the Black River & Western and the Bev - Del River line. Down around Cape May there is freight and passenger operations but I forgot the name of the line.

[wjstix]

An interesting story (as related in Trains mag maybe 15 years ago) was the Crab Orchard and Egyptian RR. It was started by four guys in the 1970's as a steam powered tourist line in southern Illinois. It was able to expand it's trackage by taking over a branch line from a railroad, but had to agree to continue to serve the one or two industries still on the line. Eventually they found they were making more money from the freight than the tourists, and closed down passenger operations - making CO&E the sole steam-only / freight-only operation in the U.S. c. 1980.

[jpwoodruff]

Colorado and Southern RW entertains tourists at Leadville using their track toward Climax.

It seems that the Climax molybdenum mine seems to be preparing to reopen shortly (moly prices are said to be historically high).  

Perhaps the railroad might refurbish and use their property for ore?  None of the news articles I've seen encourages this hypothesis, but maybe?

John 

[awalker1829]

TVRM's East Chattanooga Belt Railway handles limited amounts of freight and there is one industry on the TVRM main line. Occasionally a TVRM train will handle freight cars, but ECBT does most of the freight moves.

[fafnir242]

I'm pretty sure that the Monticello Railway Museum has an interchange with the Norfolk Southern line somewhere in town.  Whether they do anything with it or not, I don't know.

[Mr_Ash]

San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad who operates Rio Grande Scenic

[spokyone]

San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad who operates Rio Grande Scenic

The day we were there, one coach and 25 freight cars were returning from Antonito. Sorry, my pic was blurry!

[Anonymous]

I think steam town does...if you count, them having CN running through the museum site

[Flashwave]

Add the California State Railroad Museum's "Sacramento Southern" tourist line: they transfer cars of wood products between Union Pacific and Setzer Forest Products. They typically use an SW1 for the freight switching, rather than their 0-6-0 steamer.

Don"t they also have to throw down a temporary diamond across the UP to do so?