Not much of a story on mine. My area is filled with PRR, B&O, WM and others. With that in mind…
Alot of local wagons were wearing out the animals because of bad wheels. The Apple production suffered because it took alot of apples to just get what was left to market. The hard drinking team drivers realized that the supply of hard cider is finite and too costly to afford on the pay that was left after the cost of getting the animals to haul anything. Because of the problem, morale suffered among the drivers and prospects of a good commerce fell hard on the freighting companies. The town in turn suffered a little as there was not much … how shall we say it? Aha. Proper entertainment for the irate drivers and no adequate pastureland flat enough to feed the animals back to full rest.
I keep editing this thread trying to insert a line of thought here and there. I will have to find a way to tell the same story without using so many words.
A Group of Investors got together and formed a Ball Bearing Works. They built the place way over the hill and deep into a valley near the Catoctin Mountain Range. There was a attempt to maintain the freight by teams of mules and horses for a short time. The cranky animals; deprived of thier treats refused to perform reliably. So when the local sources of Apples were depleted, the Bearing Works found that thier logistics were not very good.
With the last of the Apples turned to hard cider and some Roast, they managed to host a visiting railroad MOW Group and late into the night got ahold of track, switches and ballast. The MOW was sent on thier way with large quanities of good Cider, Roast and other fixings, too well fed to worry too much about the sudden shortage of thier necessary track and supplies. Because there was no real town established yet, the MOW crew never really could explain to the Beano Railroad just where they lost or misplaced thier rails and ballast.
In the meantime, a railroad was laid promptly and extende
In 1918, the Nickel Plate Railroad built a branch on the coast of Lake Michigan. They owned that line for many years until the great flood of 1954. The date was August 16. The Berkshire #759 was pulling the last train of the day, when it started to rain heavily, so heavily, Lake Michigan overflooded, and washed out the tracks. Then, the train crashed. For 2 years, the branch was untouched. Until a wealthy buisness man named Jerry O’Rayal, invested his savings into the line. He bought the big mike #587, Bershires 759 and 765, and a former Northern Pacific RS-3. All of these locos, execpt the 759, run on that old branch, which is now called the Nickel Plate and Lake Michigan.
In 1899 Nikola Tesla came to Colorado Springs to develop his wireless electrical distribution system (truth). In 1901 the system was perfected and the laboratory was converted into the first functional power plant. As such the local power plant was no longer sufficient to provide the power necessary. Tesla built a new coal fired power plant just for his wireless system. The Tesla Pikes Peak railroad was started to bring the coal in from the local Santa Fe, D&RG, Colorado Midland, and Colorado Southern main lines. As railroads are granted constitutional rights in Colorado(another truth), the State granted the charter but included a clause that stated the railroad must also serve a couple small communities bypassed by the bigger railroads. The classification was raised from industrial to short line and name was changed to Tesla Pikes Peak & Fossil Creek. It began independent operation early 1902. The railroad utilizes unique wireless electric powered locomotives that do not require expensive overhead pantographs or dangerous third rails. They draw power directly from the Tesla Earth Pump power plant it serves.
As more plants were built so did the demand for more coal and other fuels. The railroad developed a massive fleet of hopper cars and high gondolas for transporting the coal over other railroads from the coal fields both in Colorado and the surrounding states, especially Wyoming.
As wireless electricity caught on, an entire support industry grew up around the plant. The railroad brings in supplies and out finished products for all of these research and manufacturing businesses.
This my version of the Brookfield & Western Railroad’s story. The name of the railroad originally came from my dad. He grew up in Brookfield Il suburb of Chicago along the former CB&Q now BNSF triple track speedway. He later married my mom and moved to another suburb of Chicago called Hillside. This is where I grew up and also where the Hillside Route slogan comes from. Hillside is located along the former ICG now CN and at one time Chicago Central mainline. My house was also less than a mile from the west end of C&NW’s Proviso yard and shared rigt of way for the Chicago & Great Western and The Chicago Aurora & Elgin ran just two blocks from my house. Sadly I am too young to remember trains running there I always knew it as a bike trail. My dad’s version of the B&W was heavily influenced by the CB&Q my version is more of a granger type rallroad that ran west from Chicago to Omaha and was one of the last if not the last new railroads to built west from Chicago. It’s history is somethig like this…
In waning years of 19th century railroad construction was booming in America. It seemed as though railraods were being built everywhere. In the midwest Chicago was the place it seemed every framer wanted to get his goods to and every factory in Chicago has produced something that those same farmers needed or wanted. The best way to get it there, build a railroad. That what a group of investors from the small suburb of Chicago called Brookfield decided to do.
The prototype’s line between San Jose, CA, San Francisco CA and Santa Cruz, CA and then on to a connection with the Coast Line at Watsonville Jct. was washed out in 1940, severing the line at Los Gatos. The segment betweenSanta Cruz and Watsonville Jct still exists under UP control.
In an alternate history, the SP decided to rebuild the line between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz, and while doing so, broadened some curves in the Santa Cruz Mountains, installed ABS signal system and diverted some traffic off the Coast and onto this bypass. Trains operating on the line included eight commute trains, two daily roundtrips to Santa Cruz, a Santa Cruz section of the Coast Mail and Santa Cruz sections of the famous “Overnights”. Coast freight No. 765 and 766 regualrly take this route. Local Service was provided by the Mountain Local and several sand haulers in the Olympia area.
Industry flourished in the mountains with Felton Empire Winery, Pacific Sand and Gravel and several other shippers prospering with rail service.
The line, rated only for 4-8-0’s as large power over the pass, now can handle everything from 2-8-0’s to AC-12 articulateds, although some of the larger power is speed restricted on some curves. New diesels are showing up in the years 1952 to 1956, and sets of F7’s, GP-9’s, SD-7’s, SD-9’s and even FM switchers are regularly showing up. Los Gatos to Santa Cruz is a helper district, although the use of helpers has been severely cut back since the larger power was permited on the route. An MK-5 2-8-2 or a C-9 2-8-0 will occasionally work out of San Jose to help a freight over the mountain.
This recreation will be a three deck layout with helix and is under construction now.
Mine is a freelanced regional operating in the State of Oregon. It was created by the merger of a whole bunch of other fictional shortlines: The Oregon Midland RR System of today was formed by the merger of a number of shortlines in Oregon and the Southwestern corner of Washington. The Bend and Corvallis, owned by K-Rail (KBC), the Newport Terminal, a small shortline serving the industries in Newport, and logs from the surrounding hills, The Oregon Midland, a larger shortline operating a secondhand line running between Portland and Douglas Junction, a town outside of Corvallis Oregon, and the Washington Pacific, a shortline serving industries alongthe Washington Side of the Columbia River. The new regional aquired trackage rights over the WPRR to Toledo, to Access the Newport Terminal, and Trackage rights over the BNSF to Kelso to reach the Washington Pacific. The larger system, connected the grain from the ex KBC trackage to Ports on the Columbia River, along the Washington Pacific. It also connected the forest products of the Oregon Midland and Newport Terminal to the Paper Mill along the Washington Pacific. The Merger streamlined these and other operations. The new company retained the Name Oregon Midland. The Oregon Midland acquired the locomotives of it’s predecessors: which ranged from secondhand SW1500s to SD45s. The line also purchased a few SD40-2s to help with the power shortage.
A long time ago, in a land far, far away, a narrow gauge logging railroad was built to traverse a certain scenic mountain landscape and retrieve the forest’s bounty. For many years the puffing and groaning of Shay locomotives was heard echoing over the mountains. Times were good and the forest was plentiful. But, as time passed and the world changed, the logging line’s business waned and the trains grew fewer.
The mighty Missouri Pacific purchased the short road and regauged it to standard trackage. Business surged as a coal mine opened on a spur which clung to the side of Wolf Mountain. But again, time marched on and the world changed. The coal mine’s traffic dwindled and it appeared that the end was near.
Around 1945 the road was again the property of a new owner. Armed with cost efficient 70 tonners and 44 tonners, the new owner coaxed the old businesses back and even tempted new ones to give the railroad a ride.
The time is now the early 1970’s. The Cedar Branch & Western has rebounded and business has surged. Fortune has smiled on this shortline. Two daily trains run the 47 miles through the Ozark Mountains. Once again the forest yields its bounty and the earth gives up it bl
The Illiana Railroad began life as the Joliet & Northern Indiana Traction company. Built in 1908, Joliet east to Chicago Heights, Hammond and ended in East Gary Indiana. It did decent enough business into the 20’s to invest in new heavy steel cars. It had a good freight business thanks to being built to steam road standards and to the brother of the lines president who headed the shipping department of the newly built Iroquis Steel in East Gary in 1925. Both companies barely survived the depression. Just before the outbreak of WW2, Iroquios steel built a new mill in Joliet. Never quite confident in the traction lines financial situation and always butting heads with other railroads over sporadic handling of the companys products to the outside world and the new mill by lines friendly to the competing steel mills, Iroquois Steel purchased the traction line and renamed it the Joliet & Northern Indiana Railway in March 1940. Local mayors and other prominent people demanded some passenger service keep running in order for their support of the new venture, otherwise they would seek to revoke the charters in their respective towns where the trackage was still in the city streets. The new owners agreed. The last interurban car ran on August 31, 1940. Second hand passenger equipment was purchased and began operating the next day.
The increase in freight traffic down city streets soon brought complaints from citizens and civic leaders in the respective towns that still had street running. The railroad needed to move it’s freight…something had to give. The railroad approached the New York Central to see if it would be willing to sell it’s little used Joliet branch in exchange for preferential shipping to eastern markets of the mills steel products. The lines basically ran parallel to each other for the entire route. To everyones delight, the big NYC agreed
The story of my line is completely silly, I’m afraid. It all stated back in high school when I began construction on my first real N-scale layout. I needed a name for my newly scratchbuilt passenger station. At the time I had a close friend with the last name Kelzenberg. Well, that was obvious; Kelzenberg became Kelzenburg. As it still is today. In retaliation, my friend named my Midwestern- based railroad. He called it the Stebby Central Union Managed RR - the SCUM RR.
The story of the SCUM, or as I prefer to refer to it the Stebby Central, is quite straight forward. Since two of the prominent features on my first layout were a mine, and an Atlas factory building, the story became a functional one of raw materials being shipped from mine to factory. Later on I added a second factory, which became the intermeadiate ore processing facility between mine and factory.
As the story developed, the SCUM RR was a short line formed on trackage abandoned by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific in the 1960’s. It was created out of necessity, to serve a single industry critical to the local economy. The SCUM mainatained connections with the CRI&P, as well as the Milwaukee Road. And what was the industry it served? The mine was a Framiscite mine, of course. The Framiscite was shipped to the processing plant, where the critical element Framiscinium was extracted. The Framiscinium was then shipped to the American Framis plant for the manufacturing of doohickeys, whatchamacallits, thingamajigs, and of course, framises.
Over the years my approach has become someone less whimiscal. The mine is gone completely from my current layout. The land where the Framisicinium refinery stood is now a power station, requiring periodic deliveries of coal. American Framis unfortunately was a victim of the global ecomomy. As you all well know, doohickeys, whatchamacallits, thingamaj
Back in 1999, a very wealthy group of bussinessmen started a railroad called Henderson Valley Lines. They bought one GP40 off Norfolk Southern in a conrail heritage. HVL bought four covered hoppers in the Penn Central heritage, they were soon patched out for the HVL. By 2002, they were servicing twelve industries, three major industries are, Henderson Paper Mill, Henderson Co-op Grain, and Hillside Lumber. Henderson Valley Lines started to build a small branch, called the Yellowood Branch. In 2006 Henderson Valley Lines had a total of four miles of trackage. Henderson Valley Lines interchanges with Norfolk Southern. Now, Henderson Valley Lines is a very sucessful shortline, and is in the process of building a small yard in Yellowood.
My fictional Autauga Creek Short Line exists in the prototypical town of Prattville, Alabama, circa 1968. It operates ten miles of former GM&O (nee L&N) tracks that serve the Continental Eagle cotton gin manufacturing company, and the Union Camp paper mill. It runs along Autauga Creek from the interchange with the GM&O, skirting Autauga Ridge to the paper mill. A stable of small switchers (GE 44 ton, 70 ton, and 45 ton, plus a former Southern RY SW-1) provide motive power for the small but busy operation.
Both Continental Eagle and Union Camp (now International Paper) are actual operations in Prattville. You can still see the remnants of street trackage along Court Street that once served Continental Eagle, though most of the track was pulled up in the late 1970’s. International Paper still receives rail service from CSX but those tracks never came through downtown. Alhough the Autauga Creek Short Line never existed, it is plausible that local businesses could have formed such a railroad.
The Emerald, Leemer and Southern was essentially an effort by three investors (J.Kevin Emerald, David Leemer and Phil Southern) to keep a branchline from being discontinued by the parent line CP. This branch line started out as a 67 mile run between Sceptre, SK and a tiny little place called Sims SK. In 1965 a further cut by CP led to the purchase of another 50 miles of track that brought the line to Emerson SK which sat on the border between Canada and the US. Guess what? CP did it again. In 1978 the Thompson Bridge- Frederic SK line was bought out hence creating a grangerline that also managed to create a viable passenger service through the sandhills!
As for industry we have wheat,oats and some hops(heeheehee[:-,]);Potash; wood products and a fledgling audiophile industry or two…[:-^]
The Flint Hills Northern Railway Company was first incorporated as the Kansas Flint Hills Railroad in 1885. Its primary service was to link the ranches of the western two thirds of Kansas and Oklahoma with the rail heads at Topeka, Dodge City, and Wichita, providing quicker service to the meat packing centers of Kansas City through connections with the AT&SF at those cities. This gave the ranchers a higher price for their beef than they might otherwise get, since the cattle would not have to be driven as far to the railheads, and would thus arrive fatter and in better condition.
The fortunes of the KFHRR went steadily downward after the turn of the century, as motor travel became more common, with the result that more ranchers preferred to ship their beef directly to the packers by truck. The great Depression caused the Company to go into receivership, and it was reorganized in 1937 under new management as the Flint Hills Northern Railway Company.
Its current (1953) goal is to provide general freight service to the Western Great Plains, with North-South interchange with the major transcontinental railroads, (which are generally oriented East to West.)
Motive Power and Equipment:
The primary form of motive power on the Railway is steam. While there is some limited use of diesel-electric power, notably in some of the passenger service still provided, the Company management feel
I hope this isn’t to long(and I hope you can understand it)[swg]
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 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. W
