Short line Railroads

  My favorite shortline is the Maryland and Pennsylvania, or "Ma & Pa", as it was affectionately known.  Are you familiar with it?  There was a book written about the Ma & Pa by George Hilton back in the early 1960's.  The book was updated in the early 1980s and again in 1999-the final edition was published by Johns Hopkins Press.  The road was 77 miles from Baltimore to York and had 476 curves.  The reason the road had so many curves was because it's predecessors were narrow gauge.  (The road was fully regauged to standard in 1900).   Because of the curves, the road stuck with small steam locomotives and dieselized with EMD switchers.

I'm hoping someday to build a shortline based on the Ma & Pa.  

There are certainly interesting sites on the Ma & Pa....if you go to York, and especially, if you also hit the Timonium show, you might wander off I-83 at Shrewsbury, Pa., turning east (just west is the town of Railroad which merits a

visit) and then north to a town (sorry, neither of these are showing up on my

road atlas) that has a Ma & Pa station, and then farther north to a a tiny town with

a mill, and a large restored general store/post office/railroad station on the Ma & Pa, that somebody ought to make a kit of. This is down in a creek valley and an idyllic location.

Discounting all the narrow gauge Otto Mears' roads, my favorite standard gauge

short line is the Great Western, in the NE Colorado plains, a one time sugar beet

hauler, that operated a combine coach (in the Colorado RR Museum at Golden) and

then cabooses, still carrying passengers, when that service had widely ended.  This

railroad's largest locomotive, a Decapod, rolls on, now on the Strasburg, as do, I

think, a couple of its Consolidations, on tourist roads around the country.

Indeed the former Great Western 60, a 2-8-0, is on the Black River & Western Railroad out of Ringoes, NJ. It's been reported the locomotive is close to a return to service.

Bob

  Before it became a tourist hauler, the Strasburg itself was a shortline railroad.  A similar road was the Stewartstown Railroad, which went from Stewartstown to New Freedom,PA, just above the Mason Dixon line and about 34 miles north of Baltimore.  The Stewartstown was considered a "farmers railroad" and used small locomotives-a K-line Plymouth or MTH 2-6-0 would be a good candidate for for a model of the Stewartstown, IMO. 

Stewartstown to New Freedom?  That must have connected with the Ma & Pa, and

was the RR that went through or connected with the RR that went through Railroad, Pa.?  Any published information on it, or interesting structures still standing?  Down

in that area somewhere is a railroad station that they were restoring, that was at

the (long gone) junction where Lincoln's train turned off for the Gettysburg Address.

Here are some Stewartstown Links:

http://www.stewartstownrailroad.com/

http://stewartstownrailroadcompany.com/

I think strasburg is still a short line railroad.  I believe they have one online industry that occasionally requires a car or two.

Rusty

54f100....Yes, I was aware of the Chesapeake Bay railroad built by Mears, but, that

is about all that is mentioned in books about Mears' Colorado roads, and about all I

know..and that and the fact that Mears was in the management of Mack Truck Co. in New York, too, indicated he had many skills.  Certainly that book on the CB and on many of these short lines would be interesting reading.

The Strasburg maintains team track facilities via which a variety of commodities are handled. Freight is received and/or shipped right in Strasburg Yard. You will often see freight cars spotted at the east end.

Here's the railroad's website page outlining the freight related services offered:

http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/freight-services.php

Bob

I'm planning a mining operation with a short line electric railroad though a canyon. It will service at least two mines and a small mining town. At least two of these brass locomotives will be working the overhead electric system. Don

I lived a number of years around Yakima, Washington. There was a little electric line that pulled refer cars in apple season. They had a box cab and a steeple cab electric. I not only got some shots of it but they gave me a ride on it once. Part of the system is still there as a museum. I loved that little line. Don