| Midland Beach Railway | |
|---|---|
 Miniature train for the Midland Beach Pier | |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 1,800 feet (549 m) |
| Track gauge | 12+5⁄8 in (321 mm) |
The Midland Beach Railway Company was the operator of a miniature railway at Midland Beach in Staten Island, New York City around 1903. The railroad operated along a pier jutting out from what is now the South Beach Boardwalk.
The track was laid on the pier at Midland Beach, which was 1,800 feet (549 m) in length, and its steam locomotive was designed to draw a train of nine cars. The gauge of the locomotive was a unique 12+5⁄8 in (321 mm), and it was built like a standard trunk line steam locomotive in every particular. Its length was 5 feet 4 inches (1,626 mm), its width 18 inches (457 mm), and its height 28 inches (711 mm) from the rail to the top of the smokestack. The passenger cars were 5 feet (1,524 mm) long and 22 inches (559 mm) wide, and the train ran on a track laid with 8 pounds per yard (3.97 kg/m) T-rails. [1]
The lilliputian locomotive was made by the Miniature Railway Company of New York. Their devices have proved profitable at street railway parks as well as at some of the fairs, like the Pan-American Exposition, at Buffalo, New York, and those at Omaha, Philadelphia and Charleston in the early 1900s. Some of the street railway parks at which these machines have been run in 1902 were those of the Oil City Railway Company, Oil City, Pennsylvania; the West Chicago Street Railway Company and the Richmond Beach Railway Company. [1]
The Panama Canal Railway is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. The route stretches 47.6 miles (76.6 km) across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa. Because of the difficult physical conditions of the route and state of technology, the construction was renowned as an international engineering achievement, one that cost US$8 million and the lives of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 workers. Opened in 1855, the railway preceded the Panama Canal by half a century; the railway was vital in assisting the construction of the canal in the early 1900s. With the opening of the canal, the railroad's route was changed as a result of the creation of Gatun Lake, which flooded part of the original route. Following World War II, the railroad's importance declined and much of it fell into a state of neglect until 1998, when a project to rebuild the railroad to haul intermodal traffic began; the new railroad opened in 2001.
The Chicago Tunnel Company was the builder and operator of a 2 ft narrow-gauge railway freight tunnel network under downtown Chicago, Illinois. This was regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission as an interurban even though it operated entirely under central Chicago, did not carry passengers, and was entirely underground. It inspired the construction of the London Post Office Railway.
The Mersey Railway was the first part of the passenger railway connecting the communities of Liverpool, Birkenhead, and now the rest of the Wirral Peninsula in England, which lie on opposite banks of the River Mersey, via the Mersey Railway Tunnel. The railway opened in 1886 with four stations using steam locomotives hauling unheated wooden carriages; in the next six years the line was extended and three more stations opened. Using the first tunnel under the Mersey the line is the world's oldest underground railway outside London.
4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and a lack of trailing wheels. Due to the large number of the type that were produced and used in the United States, the 4-4-0 is most commonly known as the American type, but the type subsequently also became popular in the United Kingdom, where large numbers were produced.
The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was the venue for the world's first passenger horsecar railway service, located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom.
The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, often called the Ninth Avenue Elevated or Ninth Avenue El, was the first elevated railway in New York City. It opened in July 1868 as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, as an experimental single-track cable-powered elevated railway from Battery Place, at the south end of Manhattan Island, northward up Greenwich Street to Cortlandt Street. By 1879 the line was extended to the Harlem River at 155th Street. It was electrified and taken over by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in 1903.
William Jones (1884–1968), a seasoned veteran of the steam era who established the Wildcat Railroad in Los Gatos, California, was born the son of a teamster in the town of Ben Lomond, California, USA.
The Metropolitan Railway A Class and B Class were 4-4-0T condensing steam locomotives built for the Metropolitan Railway by Beyer Peacock, first used in 1864. A total of 40 A Class and 26 of the slightly different B Class were delivered by 1885. Used underground, the locomotives condensed their steam, and coke or smokeless coal was burnt to reduce the smoke.
McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is a 30-acre (12 ha) railroad park located in Scottsdale, Arizona. It features a 15 in gauge railroad, a Magma Arizona Railroad locomotive, a railroad museum, three model railroad clubs and a 7+1⁄2 in gauge live steam railroad.
The Amtrak Railroad Anacostia Bridge is a railway bridge that crosses the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. It carries Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and MARC's Penn Line passenger rail traffic. The bridge was damaged by the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane, causing the famous "Crescent Limited wreck".
The Boynton Bicycle Railroad was a monorail in Brooklyn on Long Island, New York. It ran on a single load-bearing rail at ground level, but with a wooden overhead stabilising rail engaged by a pair of horizontally opposed wheels. The railway operated for only two years, but the design was adopted elsewhere.
The Eastlake Park Scenic Railway was a 984 m long miniature railway in the 1:3 scale with a gauge of 18 in, which operated from 19 May 1904 to 11 May 1905 in the Eastlake Park: Replaced by The Now Venice Miniature Railway! in Los Angeles in California.
The Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway was a profitable but short-lived miniature railway with the unusual gauge of 14+1⁄2 in, which operated from 1902 until 21 August 1903 at Long Beach in California.
The Urbita Lake Railway was a 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) long miniature railway with a gauge of 18 in, which operated from approximately 1910 to at least August 1915 at Urbita Hot Springs Park in San Bernardino, California.
John J. Coit was an experienced railroad engineer, who built and operated four miniature railways in California.
The Miniature Train at Monarch Park was a 15 in gauge miniature railway at Oil City, Pennsylvania around 1901.
The Miniature Railway at Silver Lake, Ohio was a 15 in gauge miniature railway inaugurated by the Lodge family in 1902 at Silver Lake, Ohio.
The electric railway of the White Knob Copper Co., Ltd. was operated by the White Knob Copper Co. at White Knob near Mackay, Idaho, in connection with its mines, having 7.1 miles (11.4 km) of railroad, two electric locomotives and 40 ore cars. The difference in level over the seven miles was 2,100 feet (640 m), an average of 6 per cent. Eighty tons of ore were handled by each train.
The Miniature Railway Company on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, operated their ridable miniature railways at four World Expositions around 1900 and delivered them to many parks throughout the world.