This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2018) |
Overview | |
---|---|
Reporting mark | GCRR |
Locale | North Carolina |
Dates of operation | 1925–1970 |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Graham County Railroad was a logging railroad that began operations in 1925 and operated just over 15 miles of track. [1]
The Graham County Railroad was a logging railroad chartered in 1905 to connect Robbinsville, North Carolina, to the Southern Railway at Topton, North Carolina. Soon after the tracks were starting to be laid, the railroad purchased a used steam locomotive in need of repairs. The railroad sent the locomotive to Asheville, North Carolina, for repairs, but a flood hit the area and the locomotive was washed away and never found. The flood also washed away much of the existing track, halting all progress on the line. Then in 1925, the railroad finally became operational. Sometime in the 1960s, Shay #1926 lost its original number plate and it inherited the number plate from a scrapped narrow gauge Shay locomotive (serial number 3229). [2] The railroad began doing excursions in 1966 with shay #1926 while #1925 handled the freight traffic. In 1967, the Bemis Lumber Company mill burned to the ground and when it was rebuilt, the mill began using trucks. The railroad continued on with local freight. By this point, the railroad's track was in poor condition which caused a derailment at least every 3 days.
In late 1968, Shay #1925 was on a mixed train lost its air brakes and turned onto her engineer's side at Nantahala Gorge, damaging her cab and water tank. Over the winter, the railroad then took the cab and water tank of #1926 to repair #1925 [3] and the Bear Creek operations continued in 1969 with another Shay they bought, the #1923, a 2-Truck-Shay. This Shay formerly worked for the Conasauga River Lumber Company as their #112 until it was sold to the Bear Creek Scenic Railroad in 1966. [4] On August 14, 1970, with freight traffic dwindling and the carpet mill closing, the railroad ceased all operations.
In 1973, the railroad reopened when Burlington Industries bought the line. #1925 took over the excursion runs of the Bear Creek Scenic Railroad. [5] while a General Electric diesel handled most of the freight operations, [6] but also ceased operations in March 1975 when a flood washed out a bridge. [7] In May 1975, #1925 ran the last steam-powered revenue freight train. In 1982, the railroad re-opened operations with an EMD SW8 diesel locomotive that originally worked for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. [8] The line finally shut down in 1983 and the tracks were taken up in 1987.
The railroad operated two C class shay locomotives numbered 1925 and 1926, which they were numbered the same years they were built. The railroad also had one other steam locomotive numbered 1923. Steam locomotive # 2147 was used for display. The Railroad at one time also owned a 2-6-2 Prairie. [9]
Number/Name | Wheel Arrangement | Builder | Serial Number | Built | Retired | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 "Junaluska" | 2-6-2 Prairie | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 36045 | February 1911 | 1924 | Disposition unknown. Off the roster by 1925. |
1923 "Old Cliffhanger" | 2-Truck-Shay | Lima Locomotive Works | 3241 | October 17, 1923 | 1970 | Built as Frost-Johnson Lumber Company #112. Sold to the Louisiana and Pine Bluff Railroad in 1926. Sold to Frost Lumber Industries in 1935. Then sold to the Conasauga River Lumber Company in 1950. The engine was sold to the Bear Creek Scenic Railroad in 1966 as their #1923 "Old Cliffhanger". [10] Operated as #1926's replacement in 1969. It was then sold to the Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway in 1972. Sold to the Center for Transportation and Commerce in Galveston, Texas in 1978. Now at the Galveston Railroad Museum. |
1925 "Old Sidewinder" | 3-Truck-Shay | Lima Locomotive Works | 3256 | February 12, 1925 | May 1975 | Purchased new. Last ran in revenue service in May 1975. Donated to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in 1998, and was later restored to operation. Taken out of service in 2008 and currently on display. |
1926 | 3-Truck-Shay | Lima Locomotive Works | 3299 | February 27, 1926 | 1968 | Built as Tallassee Power Company #10 of Calderwood, Tennessee. Later sold to the Knoxville Power Company as their #10. Sold to the Graham County Railroad as their #1926 on September 16, 1940. Sometime around the 1960s, the engine lost its original number plate and ended up taking the number plate of a scrapped narrow gauge shay (serial number 3229). In 1966, it powered the Bear Creek Scenic Railroad excursion trains, painted up in a red livery and named "Ole Sidewander". In 1968, its cab and water tank was used to repair shay #1925. In 1988, the engine was sold to a railfan by the name of Michael J. Miller. It was then sold to the Cass Scenic Railroad in 2010 as a source of spare parts. It is currently awaiting restoration. |
2147 | 3-Truck-Shay | Lima Locomotive Works | 2147 | April 14, 1909 | 1966 | Built as Tellico River Lumber Company #2147 of Tellico Plains, Tennessee. The engine was later sold to the Babcock Lumber & Land Company. In 1927, Bond-Wold Lumber Company bought the shay. The unit was then sold to the Little River Lumber Company in 1932. Put up for sale in 1939 after the closure of the Little River Railroad. On July 31, 1940, the shay was sold to John J. Craig Company of Friendsville, Tennessee. In July 1960, the engine went to the Conasauga Lumber Company. In 1966, the locomotive was sold to the Graham County Railroad to be put on display at the Bear Creek Scenic Railroad as their #214. [11] In 1982, the locomotive was sold to the Little River Railroad and Lumber Company Museum and was christened "Dorothy". It is currently on display at Townsend, Tennessee on the museum property. |
102 | 70-tonner | General Electric | 31725 | April 1953 | unknown | Built as Georgia State Authority #102. Later became Savannah State Docks #102 and who sold it to Birmingham Rail & Locomotive in July 1973, who later sold it to the Graham County Railroad. Sold to the Gifford-Hill Company in 1982 and rebuilt in 1984. |
17 | SW8 | Electro-Motive Division | 15956 | March 1952 | unknown | Built as Atlantic Coast Line #57, later Seaboard Coast Line #57 in 1967. Sold to the Graham County Railroad in May 1982. Later sold to the Carolina Eastman Railroad #17 and then Atlantic Steel Corporation #17. Later to Armco Steel Corporation #17 and then Warren Consolidated Industries as their #830. |
The Shay locomotive is a geared steam locomotive that originated and was primarily used in North America. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a geared steam locomotive. Although the design of Ephraim Shay's early locomotives differed from later ones, there is a clear line of development that joins all Shays. Shay locomotives were especially suited to logging, mining and industrial operations and could operate successfully on steep or poor quality track.
The California Western Railroad, AKA Mendocino Railway popularly called the Skunk Train, is a rail freight and heritage railroad transport railway in Mendocino County, California, United States, running from the railroad's headquarters in the coastal town of Fort Bragg to the interchange with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at Willits.
The Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad is a 3 ft narrow-gauge tourist railroad in California that starts from the Roaring Camp depot in Felton, California and runs up steep grades through redwood forests to the top of nearby Bear Mountain, a distance of 3.25 miles.
Cass Scenic Railroad State Park is a state park and heritage railroad located in Cass, Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad (YMSPRR) is a historic 3 ft narrow gauge railroad with two operating steam train locomotives located near Fish Camp, California, in the Sierra National Forest near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Rudy Stauffer organized the YMSPRR in 1961, utilizing historic railroad track, rolling stock and locomotives to construct a tourist line along the historic route of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company.
The Midwest Central Railroad is a 3 ft narrow gauge heritage railroad operating within the confines of Mount Pleasant, Iowa's McMillan Park, site of the Midwest Old Thresher's Reunion. The railroad is a registered, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The mainline track is a 1 mile loop with traffic moving in a clockwise direction regulated by an electrically signaled block system. The mainline loop features two stations: at the north end, the original Hillsboro, Iowa, depot along with a Milwaukee Road signal tower; and at the south end, a newer wood frame/metal sided building.
The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a regional shortline railroad utilizing a 62 mi (100 km) stretch of the 271 mile mainline between Schellville and Windsor with freight and Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) commuter trains. Formerly, it was a regional railroad primarily used for logging that served the entire North Coast of California, with a main line running 271 miles (436 km) from Schellville to Eureka, along with an additional portion of the line running from the Ignacio Wye to the edge of San Rafael. The "Southern End" of the line, including Schellville to Willits and from Ignacio to San Rafael is owned by SMART, while the "Northern End" was formally owned and managed by the now-dissolved North Coast Railroad Authority but is now saved for use in California's 2018 Great Redwood Trail Act, which repurposes the unused railroad right-of-way from Eureka to Willits for future use as the Great Redwood Trail.
The Arcata and Mad River Railroad, founded in 1854, was the oldest working railroad in California. It operated on a unique narrow gauge until the 1940s when standard gauge rails were laid. Service ceased in 1983 due to landslides. It is California Historical Landmark #842.
B&H Rail Corporation, formerly the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad, is a Class III shortline railroad. Initially the line served the communities of Bath, New York and Hammondsport, New York. In Bath, the railroad connected with the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. In 1996, the railroad was leased by the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad.
The 5-mile (8.0 km) Reader Railroad was a tourist-only railroad operating in Hot Springs, Arkansas from 1973 to 1991. As a 23-mile (37 km) common carrier prior to May 1973, it was the last all steam locomotive-powered, mixed train railroad operating in North America. It operated trackage in Ouachita County and Nevada County, Arkansas. The five mile tourist railroad operated until 1991, when it could not meet the new federal safety regulations.
The Laurel Fork Railway was a small, standard-gauge logging railroad that operated entirely in Carter County, Tennessee from 1912 to 1927. Built by the Pittsburgh Lumber Company to serve a double-band sawmill at Braemar, in present-day Hampton, Tennessee.
The Crane Creek Lumber Company (CCLC) was the first major lumber company to operate in the Modoc National Forest. Its business was located at the mouth of the Crane Creek Canyon. In the 1920s the company moved to Lawson Creek and built the railroad spur in 1928. The spur was built as the result of Crane Creek's successful bid to the National Forest Service, in 1926, for 194 million board feet of timber in the Modoc National Forest's Fandango Logging Unit. Ponderosa Pine was a primary species that was logged. The company built a planing mill and box factory at Willow Creek near the NCO. In the 1930s a fire destroyed the Lawson Creek operations of the company.
The Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad was a short line freight railroad that operated in western Pennsylvania between the boroughs of Export and Trafford, where it connected to the Pittsburgh Line. The TCKR was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dura-Bond Corporation, a steel products company headquartered in Export. The company purchased the railroad from Conrail in 1982. For the next 27 years, three to five trains per week made the round trip along just over ten miles (16 km) of track, delivering materials such as steel pipe to the shortline's parent company in Export and lumber to lumber yards in neighboring Murrysville. In the shortline's heyday, trains of typically about four cars in length were hauled by one of the railroad's two 1940s era switch engines, operated by a two-man crew. The railroad was in service until 2009, when flash flooding of Turtle Creek severely damaged the TCKR's tracks which ran adjacent to the stream. After cessation of service, most of the right-of-way was sold to Westmoreland County to become part of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail.
The Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad was a railroad company that formerly operated in western and north central Pennsylvania and western New York. It was created in 1893 by the merger and consolidation of several smaller logging railroads. It operated independently until 1929, when a majority of its capital stock was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At the same time, the B&O also purchased control of the neighboring Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railway. The Baltimore and Ohio officially took over operations of both roads in 1932.
The Caspar, South Fork & Eastern Railroad provided transportation for the Caspar Lumber Company in Mendocino County, California. The railroad operated the first steam locomotive on the coast of Mendocino County in 1875. Caspar Lumber Company lands became Jackson Demonstration State Forest in 1955, named for Caspar Lumber Company founder, Jacob Green Jackson.
Meadow River Lumber Company No. 1 is a Shay locomotive at Steamtown National Historic Site, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This 2-truck Shay was built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1910. This type of locomotive was used primarily by lumber and mining companies. Some were used by other industries and on short lines. This is one of 77 Shay locomotives preserved in the United States.
Steamtown, U.S.A., was a steam locomotive museum that ran steam excursions out of North Walpole, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont, from the 1960s to 1983. The museum was founded by millionaire seafood industrialist F. Nelson Blount. The non-profit Steamtown Foundation took over operations following his death in 1967. Because of Vermont's air quality regulations restricting steam excursions, declining visitor attendance, and disputes over the use of track, some pieces of the collection were relocated to Scranton, Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s and the rest were auctioned off. After the move, Steamtown continued to operate in Scranton but failed to attract the expected 200,000–400,000 visitors. Within two years the tourist attraction was facing bankruptcy, and more pieces of the collection were sold to pay off debt.
The Yancey Railroad was an American Class III shortline railroad that operated for freight service from a connection with the Clinchfield Railroad at Kona, North Carolina, through Micaville, to Burnsville, 10.6 miles (17.1 km). A short branch ran from Micaville to Bowditch, North Carolina, 2.11 miles (3.40 km). Total mileage was 12.83 miles (20.65 km). Rail was 60–65 pounds and the maximum load limit was 75 tons. Traffic was feldspar, mica, fertilizer, building materials, livestock feed and steel spring wire.
Ralston is an unincorporated community in McIntyre Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located along Pennsylvania Route 14, 18.5 miles (29.8 km) north of Williamsport. Ralston has a post office with ZIP code 17763.
Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad No. 4 is a preserved 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive. It was constructed by Baldwin in 1926 as the only locomotive to be bought-new by the Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad. It served the railroad by pulling coal and lumber trains throughout Clay County, West Virginia until it was retired in 1965. No. 4 was restored to operating condition by the Quakertown and Eastern Railroad for excursion service in Pennsylvania, and it made its way to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in 1978. No. 4 was subsequently used to pull tourist trains across the museum's property in Spencer, North Carolina from when its multi-year overhaul was completed in 1986 to when its flue time expired in 2001. The locomotive spent fourteen years in storage, waiting for a rebuild that never came to fruition. In 2015, No. 4 was purchased by the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad, who moved it to their shops with the hopes of restoring it to run it on their trackage between Durbin and Cass, West Virginia.