Freelance Railroad History

[Jimmy_Braum]

The Austinville and Dynamite City railroad was incorperated in 1950 by the cities of Austinville and Dynamite city(obviously).  The railroad is using an old PRR branch line that was abandoned in the 1930's.  It incorperates also the Austinville Southern-a logging railroad that existed for 10 years from the 1920's-1929.  The railroad owns four passenger cars (one is the presidential business car), a few boxcars,a tankcar for an industry, a coal hopper for the fuel business that also has an oil tank, an old 2-6-2 parie PRR locomotive, a US Transportation corps locomotive for the freight, and a Consolidation for the passenger/commuter service.  It interchanges with the PRR, and shares a yard in Austinville PA.  I will explain more if anyone is interested.

[Geared Steam]

My layout is based in the spring of 1937, in NW Montana, it is a representation of a fictional town named Wolf Prairie (Wolf Prairie, although not a town, is an area up the Fisher River Road, in the Flathead Tunnel area of the BNSF) The area my layout is based on is off of the Big Blackfoot Branch of the Milwaukee Road, the Big Blackfoot is a branch line that leaves the Milwaukee main in Bonner Mt, and travels up the canyon approximately 30 miles or so. It was used by the Milwaukee to bring logs down to the mill in Bonner. My little road branches off the Blackfoot, and goes up into the mountains where gold and silver has been located. There is a small town, a mine and a small sawmill to support both.

 

The material is mined and stamped, brought down to town by geared steam, weighed, then the cars are set out for pickup by the Milwaukee Road, for transport down to the Anaconda smelter by an Alco 2-6-0 rod engine.

 

Currently the motive power is:

(1) ea. 3-truck Shay (Bachmann)

(1) ea. 2-truck Shay (Modified Bachmann)

(1) ea. 3-truck Climax (Bachmann)

(1) ea. 2 truck Heisler (Rivarossi)

(1) ea. Class A Climax (MDC modified)

(1) ea. Diesel electric Boxcab (MDC modified)

(1) ea. 2-6-0 Mogul (Bachmann)

[Bob Schuknecht]

My freelanced Detroit Southern is a super regional that runs from Detroit through Atlanta to northern Florida. In the north we run as far west as Chicago and east to Youngstown. We also haul coal from West Virginia and Kentucky.

My modeled portion of the railroad is the Chicago sub-division.

[Mr. LMD]

My fictional class-1 Railroad, the Chicago Central & Illinois Railroad, is an unique privately-owned railroad as its trackage run through ghost towns that the founder and his succeding relatives bought over the years as well as the Rock Island railroad trackage. The railroad main yard is based in Evans, Illinois (real place) rivaling only the U.P. Bailey Yard in size, trains, and rolling stock seen in the yard. The CC&I is also the only Railroad to sue and win its court battle to hinder Amtrak from using its rails as well as continuing to operate its and the Rock Island passenger trains up to the present.

Touching western coastal states, the mining midwest, and the gulf coast, the CC&I haul anything from mineral ore, lumber or wood related items, steel, food, and many other products along its rails that it shares with spin-off regional and short line railroads after it bought out defunct railroads such as Conrail (two days before it declare its end). Then in turn a new railroad was spun off, my friend's Boston East Coast Line, that operates the Northeast Corridor stretching the line from Portland, Maine down to Jackonsville. Other than freight goods, the CC&I has a vast shipbuilding and steel mill portfilo owned by its privately owned holding company parent, The Blac Corp.

With its vast history and trackage length, its size hindering other class-1 railroads CSX, Norfolk, BNSF, U.P., CP, and CN from having the lengths they have today.

[Isambard]

At five pages the history of the Grizzly Northern Railway is too long to post here so here's a summary:

The Grizzly Northern (originally the Groetli Northern) was founded in the early 1900's, with the objective of creating a freight and passenger carrying mainline that would run from the Canadian prairies to the British Columbia interior, then to Whitehorse in the Yukon and then on to Skagway Alaska on the northwest Pacific coast. The railway went bankrupt in 1914, having only reached Grizzly in the BC interior. The newly named Grizzly Northern was acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1916. Today (1930's/1940's era) the Grizzly Northern runs from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta to Kamloops, BC, with a branchline from Geiranger BC to Kingdom BC. Motive power is exclusively steam, with the exception of a lonely gas electric doodlebug.

As a touch of harsh reality, the Grizzly Northen actually operates on the flatlands of the West Island Modular Railroad Club in Dorval, Quebec.

I've completed the history of the railway (I think) but continue to have fun creating  tales and yarns about the railway and the colourful characters involved, people such as Horatio Heyerdahl Hardanger, Artemius Breukelyn VanDonkers, Angus Ranald Kirkcaldy and Hamish Quinbar McGeachy, to name a few.

You'll find it all on my blogspot.

[caldreamer]

The Golden State Railroad was formed in 1848  to serve the gold mining towns in the Sirra Nevada Mountains.  It ran from Stockton down to Modesto and the up the mountians to the mining towns.  After the gold ran out the railroad purchased a number of other small railroads, allowing it to connect to the San Francisco peninsula.  After the Southern Pacific had financial problems it purchased a number of lines from the SP as well as other short lines and expaned north to Medford Oregon.  The San Juan Cutoff with ts 1.5 percent grade was built in 1985 to accomodate the additional traffic . The Golden State Railroad is very profitable.  All rail traffic into and through northern California is handled by the railroad.  

[BRAKIE]

The Columbus & Hocking Valley Ry is owned and operated by the CDB Industries and is one of 7 short lines owned by CDBI.The C&HV came into existence in 1978 when CDBI bought the old Athens sub-division of the Chessie System.During this purchase 2 other short lines was bought,the Parkersburg & Ohio Valley RR that ran from Parkersburg WV to Athens Oh and the Ohio Midland Ry that ran from Jackson,Oh to Newark,Oh.These 2 roads was quickly merged into the new C&HV.The CDBI relaid the track from Nelsonville to Athens which had been removed by the C&O some years ago.The old Logan yards was rebuilt and upgraded during this time as it would serve as the home shops and the only major yard on the C&HV since it was centrally located on the line.The second yard would be located in the old C&O(nee CHV&T) Mound Street yard and would require trackage rights over the Chessie to reach..A agreement was struck with the Chessie for those rights.The former P&OV yard in Parkersburg was upgraded as was the OM yards at Jackson and Newark.

By the mid 80s the glory years was over as freight business started to decline.

In 1990 the track from Logan to Parkersburgh was mothballed and removed in '94.The Newark Branch was abandon and removed in '94.The Jackson yard was downsized from 9 tracks to three due to the closing of 2 mines and Jackson Steel..In '95 the Raccoon Creek Branch was abandon and removed due to the closure of TriRiver  Mining  mine  #4.

The Mound St yard was closed and removed in 94 and all trains returned to Logan after leaving or picking up interchange cars in Columbus.

Commodities haul: Grain,Lumber,food stuffs,sand,glass,corn sweetener,corn starch,vegetable oils,scrap,pipe,chemicals,paints,news print,pulpwood and Farm implements.

Total cars handle:3,600/year.

Motive power consists of  2 GP 15-1.

The C&HV connects with the following roads in Columbus:

CSX NS.

----------------

CDBI owns the following roads.
Cumberland,Dickersonville & Bristol Ry.Cumberland to Bristol VA.The CD&B is the flagship road.The CDB in CDB Industries is the same.
Kentucky Central.Cumberland Ky to Maysville Ky.
Artemus-Jellico Artemus,Ky to Jellico TN.
Toledo & Southwestern. Maumee Oh to Fort Wayne IN.

Cincinnati & Lake Erie.Cincinnati to Toledo.
Detroit Connecting.Detroit MI.
Columbus & Hocking Valley Ry.
Huron River.Huron,Oh to Barberton,Oh

 

 

[tbdanny]

A Brief History of the Bradford Valley Lumber Company

In 1893, the Bradford Valley Lumber Company was formed to log the Bradford Valley, located in the Klamath Mountains in south-west Oregon.  Camp A was established in April 1894.  By 1898, the area immediately around Camp A had been logged out, and the BVLC needed to expand operations further down the valley.  Unfortunately, the only access was by river, the same river used to float the logs down to the company's sawmill at the head of the valley.

It was decided that a new camp, Camp B, would be set up further down the valley, where the valley narrowed.  To provide access, a 30" gauge railway line was to be built linking Camp B to the Camp A.  BVLC #1, a 2-6-2 Porter built tank engine, was shipped down the river on a barge and put on the tracks that had been built on the dock.  #1 was used to construct the line between Camp A and Camp B, which was completed in late autumn 1899.  Logging from Camp B began in spring 1900, and it became apparent that a second engine was needed.  Shay #2 was brought in, and operations ran smoothly until 1910, with logging at camps A and B contributing to the company's profits.

In 1910, it became apparent that the 2-6-2 was having trouble on the barely-maintained track of the logging line, and so it was put on a storage track and left there.  At least, until 1912 when #2 was involved in an accident which took it into the water, damaging both it and the dock.  A new dock was built, and #1 was brought out of retirement to temporarily handle the workload, however the track conditions hadn't improved and the tracking issues were still a problem.  Another engine was needed quickly, and the only one the owners were able to obtain was a short, 2-4-0 tender engine, which became #3. Shortly after this, #2 was rebuilt and returned to service.

In 1921, the logging surrounding Camp A was completely depleted, and it became purely a base of operations, where the trains of logs were brought to be unloaded and rafted to be sent to the sawmill.  #1 was brought out of storage again, this time to act as a switcher and general maintenance engine.

In 1926, as Camp B began to approach being logged out, the BVLC decided to bridge a nearby creek and establish a Camp C, higher up the valley.  A trestle was built and Camp C was established.  By this point, #1 and #2 were getting old, and #4, a Climax was brought in to help with the workload.

My layout models Camps A and C as they would appear in 1928.  Staging is on-layout, in sidings and a turntable located at Camp A.

[CTValleyRR]

My railroad isn't fictitious, but it's history is.

The Hurricane of 1955 caused extensive damage to the Shore Line between Old Saybrook and New Haven.  Large sections of trackage were washed away, especially where it crossed salt marshes, and much of the railroad's diesel and electric fleet was damaged.  The old Valley Line, being protected from the worst of the damage by the low hills along the river, and the fact that the storm surge generally went up the river rather than over the right of way, fared much better.

When the New Haven began repairs on the Shore Line, several environmental groups filed suit to prevent the railroad from restoring the fill in the ecologically sensitive salt marshes, and restoration efforts were tied up in legal battles.  Unable to accept the loss of service, the New Haven quickly double-tracked the Valley Line to Middletown and the line from there to Cedar Hill yard outside the city of New Haven.  The old Valley Railroad round house site at Saybrook Point was rehabilitated into a passenger terminal and maintenance yard, and  the additional rail traffic caused an economic boom in Middletown, which further increased demand for rail service along the Valley Line.

To deal with the increased demand, the NH brought a number of newer steam locomotives out of retirement, retaining them in revenue service until 1961 (my layout is set in 1956-57, at the height of the post hurricane boom).

[Texas Zepher]

caballorr

Does any one written history on their freelance rr , if  you have what is the history?

Many members have stories for their model railroads that they have shared with us through the years.  Some are rather elaborate.  Here are a few of the threads with those stories in them.    Mine is the 5th post in the second thread.

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/74469.aspx

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/140372.aspx

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/190235.aspx

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/5585.aspx

 

[Mike Kieran]

The Port Able Railroad is a short line located on the Connecticut shoreline that took over an abandoned branch of the Atlantic Lines in 1937. The end of passenger service after the closure of Neptune Park Amusement Park in 1935 and low freight traffic due to the closure of the Port Able Shipbuilding Company, spelled doom for the Port Able Branch.

The line was originally 7 miles long, but it was cut back to 5 miles (8 miles total) where the line's remaining freight customers were located. An interesting feature of the railroad is that it has no runaround track. Since trains came from the nearby Northside Yard and up the branch and no longer had access to the runaround track in the ship yard, trains went up the branch to Port Able locomotive first and returned to the interchange at Twain Street caboose first.

Fearing that shutting down the rail line would put them out of business in an already depressed economy, the three remaining freight customers on the line, Regina Manufacturing, Whist Building Supply, and the Nemo Fish Company purchased the branch from the Atlantic Lines. Along with the purchase were an 0-4-0 tank engine and an old wood caboose.

The railroad has 8 miles of  trackage (5 route miles) and still serves the original 3 customers. Car loadings are about 1100 cars per year and trains run once a day Monday to Friday.

The Port Able Railway has only 3 customers remaining: Regina Manufacturing Corp., Whist Building Supply Inc., and Nemo Fish Co. Regina Manufacturing receives up to 10 cars (hardware, parts, and packaging) and ships out up to 5cars per week (mostly.box cars).Whist Building Supply receives up to 10 cars per week. They are covered hoppers of cement & sand: hoppers of aggregate: and assorted cars of lumber, building products, & hardware.The Nemo Fish Company ships out up to 10 reefers of Fish from the nearby dock.

The engine house has its fuel delivered by a local fuel company and pumped straight into the locomotive’s fuel tanks.

The layout is basically going to be a 76 inch by 38 inch loop of Atlas Code 83 track with 3 Snap Track turnouts. Trains will be between 2 to 4 cars long plus the engine and caboose.

I'm modeling the summer of 1979 because I love the short line Incentive Per Diem box cars that were all over American rails during the 1970's. I plan to letter some IPD box cars for the Port Able Railway. I also have a few steam switchers around (I love those Varney diecast Lil Joes), so I can switch to a steam era with very few changes.

[rogertra]

In my world, the GER was owned by the CPR and CNR, running from south of Montreal to New Brunswick, with lines running to other Quebec cities. The modeled line ran south from Montreal to interchanges with the New York Central in upstate New York.  The line saw 16 trains per day, a round trip NYC freight, a round trip B&M freight, a round trip CV+D&H freight, a round trip CNR freight and round trip CPR freight, a round trip way freight, a round trip passenger train, and a round trip "Paper" train down the to the Lecky Paper mill.

All in the dumpster since April 2010.

[BroadwayLion]

LION's PREVIOUS layout was the Eregion Railroad serving all of Middle Earth. The layout centered on Bree, with lines north to Fornost, south to Gondor, east to the Blue Mountains and west to the Lonely Mountain. A variety of passenger trains ran system-wide, regional, and local services. Connections in the south were with the Gondor and Southern, and in the west with Iron Hill & Red Water Railroad.

I had made some really nice timetables for this railroad, with 108 daily trains through Bree.

The King's Express (Fornost to Gondor) and the North Star Express (Blue Mountain to Lonely Mountain) were the long distance trains. They all arrived in Bree at 1200 and left at 1300 so connections could be made to any place in middle earth. Most of these destinations were 'off stage' but the trains did appear at their correct times in Bree. The King's Express was pulled through Bree with a pair of PA1s which were switched out for a faster E-60 at Hollin, since the diesels would not travel under the Misty Mountains and through Khazad Dum. Once past Lothlorien, they made good time through Rohan to Gondor, but it was still a two day journey.

The routes all followed what trade patterns were suggested in the Lord of the Rings.

The remains of that web site, and the story of the ERR can be found here.

 

ROAR

[CSX_road_slug]

The Iron Belt is a tiny remnant of a former Class I line, officially listed as the Chicago & Lake Erie, whose fortunes rose and fell along with the once-mighty iron and steel industry of the Eastern United States; hence its nickname. As of 1990, its remaining right-of-way [between Conneaut, OH and New Castle, PA] has been acquired by CSX, which wanted access to the Eastern Lake Erie port cities.  A handful of locomotives are still sporting Iron Belt paint and road numbers.

[E-L man tom]

My Toledo Erie Central Railroad is a piece of old N&W/PRR/B&O right-of-way (owned by the N&W with trackage rights given the latter two when it was still active). It is situated near Toledo to the east and was abandoned when the tumultuous 60's and 70's brought on the establishment of Conrail and the abandonment of many lines with the bankruptcy of many eastern railroads. This piece of railroad (only about 10-15 miles of it) was rescued by the local industries along it that still wished to be served by rail. They bought the line and purchased an old SW-9 from the nearby Erie Lackawanna, bought a caboose from the N&W (nee Wabash) and that is their entire roster. The businesses collectively own the line, which is based out of the fictitous town of West Sandusky, Ohio. A couple of Class I railroads, namely the Chessie System and Erie Lackawanna, interchange cars with this railroad as it serves the industries along this corridor.  

[caballorr]

This is full history of Fictional Inter county railway or ICR.  The ICR can trace it's roots back to 1888 when a short line was build from the town of Sparta NM to  Phillipsburg NM 90 miles away from Sparta the railway was called the Sparta Creekdale and Phillipsburg  Railroad. or S.C &.P RR. The  S.C &.P RR served the mining towns of Phillipsburg  and Creekdale NM  . Ore .passengers and freight were hauled from Pillipsburg and Creekdale  to Railroad interchange with  Atchison ,Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad in Sparta .  The S.C & P RR thrived from 1888 to about 1921  when a road was built from Sparta to Phillipsburg  and three other ones from other county's so Phillipsburg  was not so append on the S.C &.P RR. The S.C &.P RR took a  further blow when in when the great depression hit .By 1960 the  S.C &.P RR had hit the end of the line . the mines closed and the last train pulled into Sparta on June sixth 1960 the S.C &.P RR was abandoned.    
          In the 1985 the Atchison ,Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad  sold  it shops and yard in Sparta to a company called Desert land development.  which in 1990 sold it to Mr Thomas Falls a wealthy businessman form Albuquerque NM . He saw a need for a railroad to serve the counties of Chickasaw  Hazzard Range  & Sweet water  with   Atchison ,Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad  just passing through the counties  . With  in two  years of working with the  Atchison ,Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad   the local,state and federal government . Mr Falls got tracks rights  Finance backing  and equipment  on DEC 1 1992  ICR  ran its first train. Ten year later the ICR was on the brink of bankruptcy  that when Mr Falls step down as president of the ICR  Mr Mark Paso  took the over . When its Parent company White out Industries bought ICR IN 2004 it has did a 360 Since then   .  Aside from picking up and dropping rail cars from tri counties business then Interchanging them with BNSF  .They rebuild and restore locomotives , freight and passengers cars .  As most other railroads in this economic times in  US it  has  felt it too but being crafty ICR has stayed in the black and without laying off no one . Mr Paso took a 40 % pay cut as long with other three in  management  the ICR has stayed in the game .   With ICR being in all most 20 years of business it is working on starting  passenger  serves and reopening the line to  Phillipsburg. ICR  future looks bright         

       

[UncBob]

My history can can be seen by clicking on the ME&O link in my sig and then clicking on BACKGROUND

[twcenterprises]

The Gainesville Northwestern ran from Gainesville, GA, to Cleveland, GA and on up to (actually just beyond) Helen, GA.  About halfway, in Clermont, a branch split and ran to a mining town called Chestatee.  The real line went bust around the 1920's-30's.  Some sources say the Southern Railway almost bought the line, but didn't.  This is where reality ends and my story picks up.

The Southern Railway merged the line after all.  There was an asbestos mine on the line, which was used (among other things) for boiler jackets.  There was a lumber mill just above Helen which was the northern terminus of the line.  A contract for raw cross-ties and bridge/trestle timbers was signed.

WWII broke out and the copper mine in Chestatee ran full production.  The covered bridge halfway along the line was upgraded just enough to keep the line in use until after the war.  Tonnage limits on the bridge meant the use of lighter equipment, which was fine, given the 70 pound rail the line still had.  Southern couldn't justify upgrading the line for just one customer, and after the war, the line to the mine, along with a number of 55 ton hoppers, was sold off.  The mine company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and would have folded had it not been for the discovery of a nearby vein of gold, which was profitable enough to keep the company afloat and rail service in operation.

Now it's 1957, and Southern runs one or two trains a day, dependent primarily on traffic from the mine.  If there's heavy traffic from the mine, or a lot of empties headed back, they'll run 2 trains.  Otherwise an out-and-back peddler will run.  Passenger service is almost non-existent, with the exception of an occasional excursion or passenger extra.  Typically the mine will haul loads with their 0-6-0 to Clermont for interchange, and haul the empties back.  Occasionally Southern's diesels will tread the light trackage, but axle weights on some of the heavier units preclude their crossing the covered bridge.  A "borrowed" SD9 from CofG might venture this far north, or one of the Gainesville Midland's 2-10-0 "Russians" can handle the task.

Brad

[ssgauge]

My S scale Gulf Harbor Terminal Railway is set in April 1947 in a small Texas port city of the same name.  As the name suggests, it handles terminal and wharf switching.  It connects with the fictional Texas Coast RR, which runs between Houston and Brownsville, with a branch to San Antonio.  Until "last year" (1946) the GHTR had three aging steam locomotives;  two of these have been replaced by an NW-2 diesel purchased used from a Class 1 railroad.  The third steam loco, an 0-6-0, remains in service (and will until 1954).  These two locos can handle the job, because the diesel has higher availability than the two engines it replaced, and traffic is somewhat reduced from wartime levels.

[caldreamer]

HISTORY OF THE GOLDEN STATE RAILROAD

When the Southern Pacific announced that it was going to abandon a number of its lines, the transcontinental line from Auburn to Truckee over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Mococco Line from Pleaosnton to Stockton and nine short lines were purchased to create the Golden State Railroad. Running from San Jose in the south to Medford, Oregon in the north the 458 mile railroad connects with seven class I, one class II and twelve short lines, handling all traffic through northern California. The Mococco Line allows double stack trains to move from the Port of Stockton directly to their west coast destinations. The ex Nevada County Narrow gauge line with its easier 1.5% grade was converted to standard gauge and double tracked and became the San Juan Cutoff. This now allows as many as six trains to run on the Sierra Division simultaneously.

The company is implementing a program to modernize its locomotive fleet. This will be accomplished by selling its first generation cab units and purchasing SD40, SD40T-2, SD45 and SD50 six axle locomotives from other railroads. The new locomotives will have advanced technologic capabilities and safety in each unit.

Every system and component on the locomotive has been reviewed to determine if the components used on new locomotives would be an improvement in the performance, reliability, and maintainability of the locomotive.The improvements will yield 3,000 to 3,600 horsepower, six-axle locomotives making them capable of doing the work of more modern high-horsepower units in all types of freight service including intermodal and coal at a fraction of the cost of a new locomotive. The rebuilding work is being done in our Modesto, Ca., Locomotive Shop.

The distinguishing features of these units are the air conditioning units and extended cab roofs.

 

[rogerhensley]

Normal 0

East Central Indiana
HO Scale Railroad

Like many model railroads, the ECI has been built and rebuilt several times. There have also been those times when there has been no movement at all. Indeed, now the railroad has begun to move back in time to be able to run NYC, PRR and PC cars.

The ECI is a 1970 short line operating out of Anderson in North Central Indiana southward over the ex-New York Central (CCC&StL) Michigan Division/PC North Vernon Secondary purchased from Penn Central. The ECI runs through Emporia, Rushville, and Greensburg, teminating in the Southern Indiana town of Westport.

Connections are made with the Central Indiana & Western (CIW) at Anderson, the Chicago, Emporia & Evansville (CEE) at Emporia, and the Chessie System at Rushville. The ECI and CEE share trackage between Anderson and Westport under control of the ECI Dispatcher working out of the South Anderson Yards.

The majority of customers are small industrial companies (pipes, plastics, autoparts, etc.) as well as several heavy grain operations and one small stone quarry sending occasional shipments off line to dealers nationwide from their quarry near Westport.

Although the line is not truly prosperous, it is making money and has outstanding Service Facilities with a maintenance crew devoted to rebuild and maintenance with tender loving care. This is attested to by the E7 ex-NYC Unit that has been placed into service pulling an Excursion Train consisting of refurbished passenger cars running from Anderson to Westport monthly during summer months and the NYC GP7 and rebuilt 0-8-0 that now do the major freight work on ECI trackage. ECI's GP38-2 is handling the grain operation at Westport.

With its small but dedicated staff of employees, the ECI tends to reflect the sense of optimism found in its headquarters city of Anderson as to a solid future in providing high quality service to its clients as well as presenting rail service in a favorable light to more people.

 

 

[chutton01]

My History was easy:

ConRail in the 1980s under Stanley Crane was abandoning and selling off trackage; eventually it sold off a cluster in Philadelphia, PA off to one of those new-fangled Regional Railroads - Penn-Delaware Rail Holding, Inc.

The Philadelphia Delware Terminal (reporting marks - PDT, and I have exactly one MOW gondola lettered for that) was formed over trackage that in OTL ("our time line" - i.e. the real world) would be owned by Conrail and CSAO for much longer - PDT also retains trackage rights along the Northeast Corridor, and Philly also retained more industry and distribution centers than it did in real life (although I  considered it strongely, I eventually gave up on modeling American Street trackage early on, so that trackage was abandoned as it is in OTL).  Engine service is based out of the real-world Ann Street engine house, which I will model in a few years...

In OTL, eventually East Penn RR followed my idea and now operates a section of the Bustletown Branch, interchanging w/ CSAO - IMO they just aren't bold enough to operate all of North Philly like the PDT does (or will, when I get the layouts modules together).  Hmm, regionals interchanging freight w/ short lines...apparently the East Penn has 11 locos, can't seem to find out which is handling Philly...

[gabeusmc]

MINRail

Northern Branches

Lakeforest Spur

 

     Minnesota Rail’s, or MINRail, is a newly formed short line in Mid Minnesota. After BNSF abandon its line in 2010 from Mann Lake to Cripple Creek it isolated two small short lines, The Grain Belt (GBRR) and the Lakeforest Central (LC). These two short lines banded with the Mann Lake Southern (MLS) and bought the branch line and continue to operate it. MINRail interchanges with the BNSF in Mann Lake and Cold Springs (southern terminus of the Mann lake Southern)and the CN in Ashton.

     The Northern Branches were two small short line railroads that were owned by the grain elevators that they served. The Lakeforest Central ran from Lakeforest where it served a grain elevator and a fertilizer dealer. It ran to Cripple Creek to interchange with BNSF. Then the Grain Belt that ran from Cripple Creek to Lewiston to Wexford. When these two railroads merged with the MLS they were labeled the northern branches, the Grain Belt the Wexford spur and the Lakeforest Central the Lakeforest spur.

     Like the Wexford spur, the Lakeforest spur started as a Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroad branch lines. There was a small interchange yard in Lakeforest. When the two railroads merged in the 70’s to form the Burlington Northern, the Great Northern’s branch was dropped due to the redundancy of the line. Part of the Great Northern branch was kept in Lakeforest in order to serve the grain elevator in town. In 1987 a fertilizer company was built in Lakeforest and in 1990 the branch line was abandoned past Lakeforest. When the Santa Fe railroad and Burlington Northern merged in 1995 they abandoned the branch (the same fate came to the Wexford branch). The next year the Grain elevator rented a locomotive and the abandoned branch and operated the line for the harvest season. It returned the locomotive in December 1996. They continued this operation until 2000

     Then in 2001 the Fertilizer Company, CENEX, wanted to have rail service to their company. They, in agreement with the grain elevator, created a small short line to serve their companies.  They leased a GP-15 locomotive from EMD leasing in fall 2001. They had as needed service, usually running a train twice a week till harvest season when the train ran 5 times a week. At one time there was a building supply company that the line served, but they stopped receiving by rail after the housing bubble burst. The Lakeforest Central merged with Mann Lake Southern and the Grain Belt in 2010 and bought a soon to be abandoned BNSF branch line.

      The Lakeforest spur and Wexford spur, as MINRail labeled them, were in great disrepair when they merged. Over grown tracks characterized most of the two lines. In fall of 2011 MINRail spent some money revitalizing the two lines. A fill over Cripple creek was rebuilt, a switch in Lakeforest was replaced and some of the connecting track in Cripple Creek was rebuilt because it was in such disrepair.

     Operations on the lines are done on demand. A train usually runs from Mann Lake to the interchange with the CN in Ashton, Minnesota, just south of Cripple Creek. In the winter, spring and early summer months a train travels up to Lakeforest, Cripple Creek or the Wexford spur, one to three times a week. During the harvest season, late summer and fall, trains traverse up the line anywhere from three to six times a week. Speeds on these lines are usually about 10 miles per hour due to the poor track, but the company does not have that much money to spend on locomotive repairs and maintain more used track let alone these two lightly used Branches.

      The future is up for these lines, and for that matter MINRail. The railroad is attracting new customers, and with the high demand for corn and wheat (which comprise 80% of traffic) this short line railroad ought to be around for a long time.

 

 

 

 

[chatanuga]

From my website:

"The Wagner Lines RR was originally a successful bridge route connecting Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, running somewhat parallel to the former New York Central route owned by Conrail. While on a small scale, the company prospered by hauling overflow traffic from Conrail's congested route with the increase in freight traffic. In 1990, Conrail was looking to spin off some of its trackage, retaining trackage rights over some routes. As a result of this, Wagner Lines acquired two new routes. The first was Conrail's Toledo-Columbus route. The second was the Chicago-Pittsburgh route with Conrail retaining trackage rights east of Alliance, Ohio. West of Crestline, the Chicago line was rebuilt and re-doubletracked. In the process of acquiring the new routes, Wagner Lines also got trackage rights over Norfolk Southern from Columbus to Portsmouth, Ohio and over Conrail from Columbus to Dayton/Cincinnati as well as to Charleston, West Virginia. Since the mid-1980s, Amtrak has operated trains on the Cleveland-Columbus line with their Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati service. Since acquiring the Chicago-Pittsburgh line, Amtrak has also brought the Broadway Limited back to its original route, favoring it over CSX's congested route, as well as extending the Pennsylvanian's route west to Chicago."

Kevin

[Darth Santa Fe]

My Central Illinois Logging, or CIL, railroad was started in the 1900s when a large, dense forest popped up out of no-where in central Illinois. The logging alone kept them going for a short while, but then they decided it would be best to expand the business into mining when a large mine was found. With such a large numbers of loggers and miners working oddly enough in one area, the population and traffic got to be pretty dense. It was then that the CIL started a small passenger service. A powerful electric locomotive of their own design for this and occasional freight is in the works, and they hope to have it ready fairly soon. The mechanics for the railroad are so good that all of the original equipment is still in use to this day.

[caballorr]

Does any one written history on their freelance rr , if  you have what is the history ?  My freelance railroad is Inter county railroad  ( ICR )   set in the 2010s  in southwest New Mexico .  ICR  bought up a old Santa Fe yard  and   Trackage rights in the 2000  from BNSF . The ICR   serves  one factory a quarry .AT  the ICR  main yard they rebuilt   locomotives  , passenger cars and freight cars for other railroads .  Right  now the ICR is starting to run a commuter train .