On December 27, 2010, Fort Worth and Western named Thomas Schlosser as president and CEO, who took over from Steven George, who had held the position since 2000; the company's vice president and COO is Richard Green. The company employs around 85 people. The company also operates the Grapevine Vintage Railroad, a tourist train that runs between downtown Grapevine, Texas and the Fort Worth Stockyards


As of January of 2019, the Fort Worth and Western's locomotive fleet (past and present) consists of the following:


New York New Jersey Rail, LLC is a switching and terminal railroad that operates the only car float operation across Upper New York Bay between Jersey City, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York. Since mid-November 2008, it has been owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which acquired it for about $16 million as a step in a process that might see a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel completed.


Since freight trains are not allowed in Amtrak's North River Tunnels, and the Poughkeepsie Bridge was closed in 1974, the ferry is the only freight crossing of the Hudson River south of the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge, to the north of New York City, in a process known as the Selkirk hurdle.


It is the last remaining car float operation in the Port of New York and New Jersey.


NYNJ leases approximately of land at Conrail's Greenville Yard in Greenville, Jersey City, where it connects with Class I railroads CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway, which jointly operate Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area. On the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn end, the Bush Terminal Yard and the 65th Street Yard connect to the Long Island Rail Road's freight-only Bay Ridge Branch, which is operated by the New York and Atlantic Railway, and the New York City Transit Authority's South Brooklyn Railway. The 2.5 mile barge trip across the harbor takes approximately 45 minutes. The equivalent trip by truck is 35-50 miles.


As of 2012, the NYNJ system moves approximately 1,500 rail cars across the harbor per year. Port Authority officials suggested that the system can transport as many as 25,000 cars annually. NYNJ replaced two EMD GP38-2 with three low-emission locomotives from Knoxville Locomotive Works in Tennessee for $5 million. As of July 2015, the system had moved about 4900 rail cars year-to-date.


From 1983 to 2006, the operation was known as the New York Cross Harbor Railroad . Earlier predecessors include the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Company, Bush Terminal Railroad, New York Dock Railway, and New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad operations at Bay Ridge and Greenville.


In 1999 the city of New York rehabilitated the larger 65th Street Yard for car float operations with two lift bridges. It was not turned over to NYCH because of a dispute over money owed the city. NYCH continued to use the single lift bridge at Bush Terminal instead. In 2002, New York Cross Harbor Railroad revenues from railroad operations were $1,685,899. It had 48 active customers, with shipments of cocoa from docks in Brooklyn as its largest line of business. It also operated a trucking service and offered shipside and dockside service for receipt or delivery of various types of cargo, such as oversized steel beams.


NYCH ceased to exist in 2006; a new company, Mid-Atlantic New England Rail, LLC of West Seneca, New York, bought the railroad and renamed it New York New Jersey Rail, LLC (NYNJ). The city of New York purchased the company two years later.


The Port Authority began working with government agencies in New York and New Jersey to bring NYNJ to a state of good repair. This includes emergency work to stabilize the transfer bridge structure in Greenville, repairs to the float bridge and track infrastructure in Brooklyn, and procurement of ultra-low emissions locomotives and a new 30-car rail barge. In May 2010 the Port Authority announced that it would purchase Greenville Yard and build a new barge-to-rail facility there, as well as improving the existing rail car float system. The barge-to-rail facility is expected to handle an estimated 60,000 to 90,000 containers of solid waste per year from New York City, eliminating up to 360,000 trash truck trips a year. The authority's board authorized $118.1 million for the overall project.


In November 2011 the Port Authority hired HDR, Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska to rehabilitate Greenville Yard. Work included rehabilitating the railyard and waterfront structures, including a rail barge and transfer bridge, demolishing two other bridges, designing a new barge and two new bridges, and adding 10,000 feet of track. In July 2012 NYNJ began operating out of the 65th Street Yard. Initial cargo included apples, home heating oil, new automobiles, and scrap metal. The railroad north along First Avenue was refurbished and new tracks laid to support operations at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, including an automobile import pier and a new municipal recycling plant.


On October 29, 2012 Hurricane Sandy caused major damage to the Greenville facility, undermining the float bridge gantries and sinking one of the car floats. The 81-year-old gantry structures were ultimately demolished. The working float bridge at Bush Terminal was transferred by barge to Greenville, where it was re-designated the Greenville Pontoon Bridge. Service was restored in late December, after 52 days of intensive reconstruction.


In July 2017, the Port Authority announced a $35 million study to build a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel, suitable for freight. If built, the tunnel would eliminate the need for the NYNJ ferry.


In 2019, American PetroLog's President & CEO, Jeff Colonna announced that the company executed an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and the NYNJR to establish a rail-to-truck transload and storage facility at the 65th Street Railyard, with a focus on renewable energy, basic chemicals, non-perishable food and building supplies. This facility is the only one of its kind that is 'for hire' within the 5 boros in New York.


The Appanoose County Community Railroad was based out of Centerville, Iowa. It was a shortline running to the community of Albia, Iowa, where it distributed cars from Centerville to be put on the BNSF Railway's trains.


The railroad was hit hard when the local Rubbermaid plant in Centerville (APNC's premier customer) closed its doors on September 15, 2006. At least 75% of the cargo hauled by the shortline was from Rubbermaid. The railroad was partly operated by the county. In 2016, a new railroad, the Iowa Southern Railway (ISRY), took over operations on the line. It is one of the short-line railroads operated by Progressive Rail Incorporated.


Every July, the APNC Railroad offered train rides from Moravia, Iowa. The train traveled from Moravia to Albia. Several different trains were operated each day, and one of the two GP7s pulled them.


The APNC railroad, now Iowa Southern, passes through four Iowa towns: Centerville, Udell, Moravia and Albia.


The Cimarron Valley Railroad was built c. 1912 and purchased from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad in February 1996. It runs over former C.V. and Manter Subdivisions of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad tracks in Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas. One line runs from Dodge City, KS to Boise City, OK, the other from Satanta, KS to Springfield, CO. It runs a total of 254 miles of track primarily hauling agricultural commodities (such as wheat, corn, and milo), along with sand, cement, poles, pipe, and fertilizers. CVR was one of several short-line railroads operated by The Western Group of Ogden, Utah.


As of November 2009, the Kansas Department of Transportation and partners are planning a renovation and upgrade of the line.


On November 1, 2020, The Cimarron Valley Railroad was purchased by Jaguar Transport Holdings, LLC.


The Portland Terminal Company was a terminal railroad notable for its control of switching (shunting) activity for the Maine Central Railroad (MEC) and Boston & Maine (B&M) railroads in the Maine cities of Portland, South Portland, and Westbrook.


The Maine Central Railroad (MEC) came under the control of the Boston & Maine Railroad (B&M) in 1884. The New Haven Railroad secured control of the B&M in 1907, and the Portland Terminal Company was formed in 1911 as part of the New Haven's consolidation of New England transportation facilities. Portland Terminal Company became a subsidiary of MEC while B&M was in financial difficulty in 1914.


PTM's activities were vital to Portland's role as a winter seaport receiving Canadian products from the Grand Trunk Railway for export to Europe. Shipping from Portland declined sharply as Canadian exports were routed via the Maritime ports of Saint John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia following nationalization of the Grand Trunk in 1923. Exports from Portland declined from per year in the early 1920s to per year during the worst year of the following depression. In the decade following World War II, PTM operated on of main lines and branch tracks, of yard tracks, and of industry-owned tracks. PTM was acquired by Guilford Transportation Industries in 1981, and continues as a subsidiary of Pan Am Railways.


Portland occupies an Atlantic coast peninsula between Back Cove to the north and the Fore River estuary to the south. The peninsula is protected from North Atlantic swells by the islands of Casco Bay. Back Cove was too shallow for 20th century ocean commerce. Portland Harbor is the seaward portion of the Fore River estuary.


South Portland occupies the southern shore of the Fore River estuary.


Westbrook is inland of Portland where the pre-railroad Cumberland and Oxford Canal provided transportation for mills using water power of the Presumpscot River.


Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal entered Portland from the north via a long trestle over the mouth of Back Cove. The Grand Trunk yard and wharves occupied the seaward end of the Portland Harbor waterfront along the north shore of the Fore River estuary. This line became the Berlin Subdivision of the Canadian National Railway when the Grand Trunk was nationalized in 1923. Access to the Portland waterfront ended when the Back Cove trestle burned in 1984; and the line to Montreal was sold to a short line operator in 1989.


Maine Central Railroad Portland Division from Bangor, Maine entered Portland from the north inland of Back Cove.


Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division from St. Johnsbury, Vermont entered Westbrook from the northwest paralleling the old canal along the Presumpscot River. The Mountain Division was abandoned in 1983.


Boston and Maine Railroad Worcester, Nashua and Portland Division from Rochester, New Hampshire entered Westbrook from the west. The Boston & Maine discontinued passenger service in 1932 and through-freight service in 1934. The line operated as the Sanford and Eastern Railroad from 1949 until abandonment in 1961.


Boston and Maine Railroad Portland Division Eastern Route from Boston entered South Portland from the south, and was dismantled in 1945.


Boston and Maine Railroad Portland Division Western Route from Boston entered South Portland from the south.


Union Station had eastern and western yards along the Boston to Bangor main line between Rigby Yard and Yard 11. The PTM assembled trains in these yards and added mail and express cars to through trains. Following a 1933 joint operating agreement between the Maine Central and the Boston & Maine, passenger trains from Bangor and points east to Boston or Worcester, Massachusetts, and points south ran through Union Station with pooled equipment like the "Gull" and the "Flying Yankee". Other Maine Central and Boston & Maine passenger trains originated or terminated at Union Station. Grand Trunk trains originated or terminated about east of Union Station without using Union Station. Union Station was razed in 1961.


Yard 1 served PTM Wharf 1 on the Portland Harbor waterfront along the north shore of the Fore River estuary upstream of Yard 2 and downstream of yard 8. Wharf 1 had water frontage of and included a warehouse for handling package cargo interchanged with ships of up to draught.


Yard 2 served Portland Harbor waterfront wharves along the north shore of the Fore River estuary upstream of the Grand Trunk wharves and downstream of Wharf 1. Yard 2 became the local interchange with the Grand Trunk Railway after 1947.


Yard 3 along the original Boston & Maine eastern route served the South Portland waterfront of the Fore River estuary including PTM Wharf 4, the New England Shipbuilding Corporation and the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line terminal.


Yard 4 team tracks and less-than-carload (LCL) transfer facilities inland of Yard 1 and Yard 2.


Yard 5 car storage inland of Yard 8.


Yard 6 served petroleum bulk plants in South Portland north of Rigby Yard.


Yard 7 served distribution warehouses and light industries along the south shore of Back Cove. Yard 7 was the interchange with the Grand Trunk Railway until the Portland Junction connection was severed during construction of a highway bridge over the mouth of Back Cove in 1947.


Yard 8 served PTM Wharf 3 on the Portland Harbor waterfront along the north shore of the Fore River estuary upstream of Yard 1. Wharf 3 had water frontage of designed for handling bulk commodities from ships and barges of up to draught. PTM #1601-1800 30-foot USRA hopper cars carried coal from this wharf to local industries. The wharf included a storage shed for 4000 tons of china clay transported to the Westbrook paper mill in PTM box cars. Maine Central 35000-series USRA 50-ton, , single-sheathed box cars were repainted PTM #2001-2150 in 1956. Maine Central 4000-series steel box cars were repainted PTM #50-54 in 1966. Wharf 3 was closed about 1970. Yard 8 included the first piggyback ramp served by the Maine Central Railroad.


Yard 9 was the old Fore River Yard on the Mountain Division adjacent to the north shore of the Fore River estuary upstream of the dredged channel. Rigby Yard was enlarged to eliminate most activity in Yard 9.


Yard 10 served PTM's Thompson Point shops adjacent to the Mountain Division upstream of Yard 9. Thompson Point shops built 49 flat cars, 40 box cars, 3 cabooses, a baggage-RPO and a RPO-smoking car for the gauge Bridgton and Saco River Railroad and Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad between 1912 and 1917.


Yard 11 served large grocery distribution warehouses at Deering Junction where the Boston & Maine WN&P division joined the Maine Central main line to Bangor.


Yard 12 served the city of Westbrook including the S. D. Warren Paper Mill. 7,500 carloads originated or terminated in Westbrook in 1973.


Rigby Yard (Yard 13) was built in 1922 at the South Portland junction of the eastern and western routes of Boston & Maine's Portland division. Rigby became the busiest New England rail yard north of Boston as car storage and locomotive servicing facilities were eliminated from older yards in Portland. Maine Central and Boston & Maine freight trains originated or terminated in Rigby Yard. Yard 12 became the interchange point for Sanford and Eastern trains.


Blue Rock Quarry was on the Mountain Division between Westbrook and Portland. Bethlehem Steel delivered 70-ton, 40-foot PTM hopper cars #101-150 in 1956 to replace the old USRA hoppers for coal loading. These cars were used for ballast service as heating oil minimized coal demand. Cars #101-122 were fitted with side extensions for off-line wood-chip loading on the Maine Central Railroad.


The Albany Port Railroad operates industrial trackage at the Port of Albany-Rensselaer located to the south of downtown Albany, NY along the Hudson River. Customers include a large Cargill grain facility. The operation is jointly owned by CSX and Canadian Pacific Railway.


The Alabama Warrior Railway is a terminal railroad in Birmingham, Alabama. The railroad operates within the confines of Walter Industries in North Birmingham. It began operations on August 7, 2009, and is owned and operated by Watco Companies of Pittsburg, Kansas.


The ABWR operates of railroad. Its route dates back to the Marylee Railroad, which was founded in 1895. The Jefferson Warrior Railroad had operated it since 1985. The ABWR began operating on August 7, 2009. The railroad hauls approximately 9,000 carloads annually and interchanges with the CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and BNSF Railway. On June 24, 2014, Caleb Bankston, a former contestant on reality series "" and employee of the railroad, was killed by a derailment in Birmingham.


The Delta Valley and Southern Railway is a short-line railroad headquartered in Wilson, Arkansas.


DVS operates a two-mile line in Arkansas near Wilson with one switch engine.


The line is the former St. Louis-San Francisco Railway branch from Elkins to Deckerville. All but from Delpro to Elkins was abandoned in 1947.


, the railroad operated from its enginehouse at the present end of the line to a connection with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) south of Wilson. The line served one cotton processing plant. Motive power was a GE 45-tonner side-rod locomotive, purchased new in May 1954, GE s/n 32129. The locomotive, DV&S 50, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The locomotive was housed in a single stall engine house built right over the main line of this short railroad, at the end of the line. However, that locomotive was sold in 2009.


Corporate headquarters are located in the company town of Wilson, Arkansas. The corporate office is on the south side of the central business district in Wilson.


No. 73 is a 2-6-0 “Mogul” built by Baldwin in 1916. It has 19" cylinders and 49-1/2" driving wheels. Numbered as 34 by the Jonesboro, Lake City and Eastern Railroad before that line was sold to the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway ("Frisco") in 1925, the locomotive was renumbered to 73 and kept by the Frisco until sold on September 19, 1945 to the Delta Valley and Southern. It is preserved on the Lee Wesson Plantation in Victoria, Arkansas under the Delta Valley & Southern Locomotive No. 73 name with no visible numbers on the cab or tender, but with the original Frisco raccoon-skin-shaped number board and “73” on its nose.


Indiana Southwestern Railway is a subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp, operator of several short-line railroad companies. The ISW is a Class III railroad, and operated on 17 miles of track from Evansville, Indiana, northward to Cynthiana, Indiana. That track is currently out of service but switching still occurs in ISW's yard and surrounding industries.


The line was originally operated as part of an Illinois Central Railroad line that ran all the way to Newton, Illinois. Illinois Central sold off the line south of Browns, Illinois, to Indiana Hi-Rail Corporation; the line went through a succession of operators, all of which had to contend with the line's ancient bridge over the Wabash River near Grayville, Illinois. The bridge suffered damage from floods on more than one occasion, and one span finally collapsed completely around 1999.


Pioneer bought the line and its Evansville shops in 2000 from the Evansville Terminal Railway. However, when Pioneer stopped shipping grain, the track had to be dismantled and salvaged at the close of 2011. Only the small stretch from the interchange northwest of Evansville to just north of their yard is still used, a distance of about 4 miles.


The dates back to 1881 as part of the Evansville and Peoria Railroad, which then became part of the Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway through a series of purchases. The PD&E became part of Illinois Central in 1900. The ISW is currently the only remaining in-service segment of the PD&E south of Mattoon, Illinois.


Birmingham Terminal Railway is a subsidiary of Watco Companies, operator of several short-line railroad companies. The BHRR operates on of track providing switching services in the Birmingham, Alabama area. It began operating in 2012 after acquiring the assets of the Birmingham Southern Railroad.


The Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad is a shortline railroad that operates in southwestern Pennsylvania. The SWP uses rail branches that were acquired from CSX Transportation (originally the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) and Conrail (originally the Pennsylvania Railroad). All of the track used by the SWP is in either Fayette or Westmoreland counties. SWP provides local service to many customers in the area, connecting them to the outside world via interchanges with Norfolk Southern, Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad, and CSX. SWP has been vital in the location of several new industries to Fayette and Westmoreland Counties in recent years.


The main line of the SWP railroad runs as far north as Radebaugh in Hempfield Township. It then passes Greensburg and Scottdale (the location of the railyard) to an interchange with NS and W&LE in Everson. The SWP mainline passes through the coal towns of Owensdale and Broadford, before reaching a junction with CSX. It operates over CSX tracks through Connellsville, where it leaves CSX to run south through Dunbar and Mt Braddock to Uniontown. The route ends after passing through Fairchance and Smithfield. Near the end of the line in Smithfield is a new large fracking-sand facility owned by Hi-Crush Partners, which receives 40 ft covered hoppers.


The railroad features several branch lines. One travels to Yukon (in South Huntingdon Township) to serve a box and packaging facility. Another branch runs from Everson to Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania and New Stanton. Here, the Westmoreland Rail Freight Terminal, a large bulk transload facility, is served. This location also has a new ethanol plant under construction. The Bullskin Branch serves a small coal loadout named Bullskin Tipple which actually is in Connellsville Township, Pennsylvania. It is only used occasionally. Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad's operational headquarters are located in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. The SWP is operated by Carload Express, Inc., which also operates three other shortline railroads: The Allegheny Valley Railroad (AVR) serving the Pittsburgh area, the Ohio Terminal Railway, and the Delmarva Central Railroad.


The current SWP roster consists of SWP 4006 GP40-2 mated with SWP 406 slug, which in combination are referred to as an HD40-2 by Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad. This combination has 3000 HP, 8 powered axles and two fuel tanks. SWP 4006 was repainted and SWP 406 was rebuilt by Metro East Industries, Inc. of St. Louis, Ill in 2015. Other locomotives from sister railroad AVR are lent to SWP from time to time as needed.


The Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad began operations in June 1995 when Trimax (now Carload Express) was selected to operate of railroad by the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation and the Fay-Penn Industrial Development Corporation. In May 2000, the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad started service to the Westmoreland Rail Freight terminal near New Stanton. The railroad began service to the Hunter Panels plant in the Fayette Business Park in Fairchance in 2006. In 2011, the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad commenced service to the Fayette Rail Freight terminal in Smithfield. This facility is now operated by Hi-Crush Partners and serves unit trains of sand for hydraulic fracturing.


The Michigan Southern Railroad , founded in 1989 and owned by Pioneer Railcorp since 1999, operates a portion of the former Michigan Southern Railroad (1846-1855) between White Pigeon and Sturgis, Michigan, United States. At White Pigeon, the line connects with the Grand Elk. Until 2012, the line connected with the Indiana Northeastern Railroad in Sturgis, when Indiana Northeastern abandoned a portion of their line between Batavia and Sturgis.


The main commodities hauled on the line include scrap, paper, coal, lumber, sand, and soybean oil.


The Minnesota Commercial Railway is a short line railroad in the United States.


This railroad operates out of the St. Paul area with service to Minneapolis, Bayport, Hugo, Fridley and New Brighton. It is considered a switching and terminal railroad. It is based out of a roundhouse on Cleveland Ave. in St. Paul just blocks south of the former Amtrak station and its main yard is just to the north of the station.


Its lines consist of one to Fridley, with an interchange with Canadian National Railway and a small yard in New Brighton. The railroad also runs to Hugo and Bayport on trackage rights. It interchanges with BNSF Railway at Northtown yard. It also serves east Minneapolis' grain elevators by the University of Minnesota as well as the grain elevators on Minnesota State Highway 55 adjacent to the METRO Blue Line.


The Minnesota Commercial connects with all major railroads in the Twin Cities including: Canadian National Railway, BNSF Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, Union Pacific Railway, Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad, and Twin Cities and Western Railroad.


The MNNR's roster consists of mainly Alco and GE locomotives. With over two dozen locomotives, including one from Hamersley Iron in Australia, the roster is diverse and meets the switching and road freight needs. Most units wear a red paint scheme much like that of the Green Bay and Western Railroad.


The line was formerly known as the Minnesota Transfer Railroad. It was privately owned by the major railroads serving the Twin Cities area.


The Minnesota Transfer was purchased by the Minnesota Commercial on February 1, 1987. At the time Minnesota Commercial purchased Minnesota Transfer, the railroad was down to 8,000 revenue units a year. By 2008, the Minnesota Commercial was handling over 46,000 revenue units.


The Kiski Junction Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates in Western Pennsylvania near the city of Pittsburgh. The railroad is based in the small community of Schenley which is situated at the point where the Kiskiminetas River flows into the Allegheny River. The KJR functions as both a freight hauler and a tourist railroad. The railroad is currently mothballed, having suspended all rail operations after the 2016 season.


The name for the railroad is taken from a point on the Pennsylvania Railroad where the PRR's Conemaugh Line (the former Western Pennsylvania Railroad) and Allegheny Branch (former Allegheny Valley Railroad) met. This point was at the south end of the Kiski Junction Railroad's bridge, where the KJR would interchange with Norfolk Southern.


The section of the Kiski Junction Railroad's line that runs from the former Kiski Junction, across the bridge over the mouth of the Kiskiminetas River, and along the Allegheny River, was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's line from Pittsburgh to Oil City, Pennsylvania. There's also a branch line that runs southeast towards Bagdad, Pennsylvania. Portions of that line were built over the former Western Division of the Pennsylvania Canal. With the exception of the Bagdad Branch and about a mile of former mainline track, Conrail abandoned the line in the late 1980s, and removed the rails in 1992. The line north of Schenley was purchased by the Armstrong Trail Association, and converted into the Armstrong rail trail. The trail is part of the proposed Erie to Pittsburgh Trail.


In 2008, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell announced that the Kiski Junction would be awarded a state grant of $4 million to extend the line 9 miles north of Schenley to the mouth of Crooked Creek. The line was extended to serve the Logansport Mine (operated by Rosebud Mining Co.) in Logansport. Construction commenced in 2010 and ended in 2011. The line ends just 2 miles south of Ford City. The railroad sees potential in Ford City and hopes to one day link up with the borough.


KJR #7135 is the main locomotive of the railroad. An Alco S-1 type locomotive, 7135 was built for the US Army in 1943. It served military facilities at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (World War II), and Fort Dix before being turned over to the South Branch Valley Railroad. The KJR purchased the 7135 in 1995.


In 2013 the KJR purchased former Lehigh Valley Railroad #126, an EMD SW900 class locomotive which was being used at Rosebud Mining's Lady Jane Mine near Penfield, PA. After the LV dissolved in 1976 the locomotive served many years as Conrail #8653. When Conrail itself dissolved twenty years later, 8653 found work at the Lady Jane mine where it was repainted but kept its CR number. When the KJR gained ownership of the locomotive, it was given back its original LV number and was repainted back to a "retro style" LV paint scheme while still retaining KJR reporting marks.


The Kiski Junction used modern Norfolk Southern locomotives to haul coal from the Logansport Mine since the train would be later interchanged to NS after returning to Schenley. Plus, the coal train could have been anywhere from 100 to 150 carloads which would have been too great of power for the much older 7135 and 126.


The Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad was the owner of Dearborn Station in Chicago and the trackage leading to it. It was owned equally by five of the railroads using it to reach the terminal, and kept those companies from needing their own lines into the city. With the closure of Dearborn Station in 1971 and the Calumet steel mills in 1985, the railroad was gradually downgraded until 1994 when it became a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Corporation.


Connections were immediately provided with the newly built Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway at 74th Street and Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway at 49th Street, which, along with the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad connection at the south end at Dolton, were the three initial lessees of the line.


The branches to Cragin and South Chicago (the latter east of Hammond Junction only) were leased in 1883 to the newly formed Belt Railway of Chicago, which was also given trackage rights over the C&WI's main line and branch to Hammond Junction. The C&WI continued to operate its main line from Dearborn Station south to 87th Street, where it split into two lines to Dolton and Hammond.


The modest commuter service between Chicago and Dolton was discontinued on July 26, 1963. However, the railroad remained the terminal switcher for the remaining carriers using Dearborn Station.


Dearborn Station closed in 1971 when Amtrak consolidated all long-distance passenger service to Chicago Union Station. All station tracks had been removed and only the headhouse remained by May 1976. The land was later redeveloped as an urban park, and the station was redeveloped as a commercial space. The old C&WI from Alton Junction as far south the junction with Norfolk Southern Railway at 74th Street is now owned by Metra and used by their SouthWest Service. This service is the successor to the single pair of suburban trains operated by the Wabash (and later Norfolk and Western Railroad) over the C&WI. The service moved from the Dearborn Station annex to Union Station in 1976 via a connection at Alton Junction (21st Street) interlocking.


Centralized traffic control was introduced in 1973, combining 40th Street and 47th Street, later 59th Street and 74th Street, a four-tower combination was operated by the train dispatcher located at 47th Street tower after their relocation from Dearborn station. The C&WI also had their own police department, and their officers were designated special agents and police-certified through the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement. The C&WI was one of the first railroads in the late 1940s to completely switch over to diesel locomotives.


From 80th Street to Dolton, the line is now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, which also has the former Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad south from Dolton. The former Main Line segment from 81st Street to 110th Street is owned and operated by Norfolk Southern. NS also relocated the former NKP main tracks to the old C&WI right of way from 130th Street to Burnham when the Mixing Center for Ford Motor Company was built on the former NKP right of way. The rest has been abandoned, except for a short piece in South Deering now used by the Chicago Rail Link, and the part used by the Belt Railway of Chicago, now owned by the BRC.


The Massena Terminal Railroad is a Class III terminal railroad operating in the U.S. state of New York. It operates over of track from the CSX Transportation yard in Massena north to the Alcoa plant, the railroad's only customer. It was built in the early 20th century, beginning operations in 1900.


In 2005, the railroad was purchased by holding company RailAmerica.


It was announced on 1 September 2019 Canadian National Railroad had entered into an Agreement to purchase the line from CSX Corporation.


The railroad's traffic comes mainly from aluminum and petroleum products. The MSTR hauled around 4,300 carloads in 2008.


Dutchtown Southern Railroad, L.L.C. is a standard gauge switching railroad in Geismar, Louisiana controlled by Watco Holdings, Inc. that operates a line leased from Illinois Central Railroad Company, part of Canadian National Railway (CN). It interchanges at Geismar with CN.


The Fordyce and Princeton Railroad Company is a short-line railroad headquartered in Crossett, Arkansas.


F&P operates of line from Fordyce, Arkansas (where it interchanges with Union Pacific), to an interchange with Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi Railroad at Crossett.


F&P traffic generally consists of lumber and paper products.


F&P incorporated on February 25, 1890 as a line between Fordyce and Toan, Arkansas. The railroad expanded, then downsized to a mere of switching track near Fordyce. After the liquidation of Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, F&P acquired the line between Fordyce and Crossett, via Banks, Craney, Hermitage, Ingalls, Vick, Broad, Emery, and Whitlow.


F&P was owned by Georgia Pacific from 1963 until March 2004, when it was sold to Genesee and Wyoming.


The Chicago Rail Link is a shortline railroad in Illinois. It owns and operates more than 72 miles of track on the South Side of Chicago. It is owned by OmniTRAX.


The Buffalo Southern Railroad is a class III railroad operating in western New York.


The BSOR is locally owned and operates in the Buffalo area. It should not be confused with the South Buffalo Railway which is a separate railroad.


The BSOR operates on 32 miles of track owned by Erie County, New York and leased from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency. The line runs south from Buffalo, New York to Gowanda, New York servicing the villages of Hamburg and North Collins along the way.


It interchanges with Norfolk Southern Railway, CSX Transportation, Canadian Pacific Railway, Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad and the New York and Lake Erie Railroad. The rail line intersects Norfolk Southern at a diamond in the village of Blasdell near Lake Avenue.


BSOR traffic includes animal feed, fertilizer, propane, lumber, scrap metal, cement, aggregates, brick, and paper. The annual tonnage hauled is 50,046 using 556 carloads per year. Trains operate on demand, typically several times per week.


The company offers services such as car switching, car unloading, and locomotive leasing and servicing. It operates the Buffalo Creek yard in Eden, New York and has locomotive maintenance facilities in Hamburg, New York.


BSOR locomotives are painted green with yellow trim.


The Augusta and Summerville Railroad is a railroad in Georgia.


It was chartered in 1866 and operated until 1888 using horses to pull rail cars over a 7-mile route. Eventually the horses were retired and the A&S ended up operating a 3-mile railroad to provide connections between other railroads.


Between 1897 and 1900, the A&S was sold jointly to the Southern Railway, the Central of Georgia Railway, the Charleston and Western Carolina Railway and the Georgia Railroad.


The A&S is currently operated as a switching line jointly owned by CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.


Founding and acquisition by Pennsylvania RR: 1886-1982.


At its peak the Turtle Creek Branch extended from Westinghouse's facilities in Trafford all the way through Saltsburg, and its primary cargo was not gas but coal. Passenger service to and from Pittsburgh and points west was also popular, first served by steam engine trains and later by a single car diesel vehicle known as the Doodlebug. Vehicles made stops in North Trafford, Blackburn, Saunders, Murrysville, Newlonsburg and Export. At its peak, an average of 1000 passengers each weekend would ride this rail line down to Pittsburgh, but passenger service eventually declined, ultimately ending in 1936. Coal shipments declined as well as mines closed, and businesses located along Old and New William Penn Highway became the railroad's only customers.


In 1968 the owner of the Turtle Creek Branch, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, merged with New York Central Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad to form Penn Central, which declared bankruptcy only two years later. A new company, Conrail, was formed to take over the freight lines of the short-lived Penn Central; it renamed its "Branches" as "Industrial Tracks", giving the Turtle Creek railroad its penultimate name: The Turtle Creek Industrial Track. In 1980, Congress passed the Staggers Rail Act which deregulated the rail industry, permitting carriers to sell-off unprofitable lines. Subsequently, Conrail announced that it was looking to was looking to abandon several lines, and its Turtle Creek Industrial Track was among them.


To defray some of the start up costs, Dura-Bond received a $313,240 grant from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Governor Dick Thornburgh, who traveled to Export for the newly acquired railroad's opening ceremony, justified the grant, remarking that the rail service would preserve more than 700 industrial jobs in Westmoreland County. The Westmoreland County Industrial Development Authority also backed the project with low interest revenue bonds. The purchase price of the line would be $125,000, but this relatively low number reflected something all of the parties in the deal knew: the track was in very poor condition. Dura-Bond secured a bank loan to help pay the additional costs that it knew would soon come.


A Norris family engineer summarized the company's key to its plan for turning the railroad to profitability, "Conrail needed a seven man crew to run the line. We do it with two men and a dog." In addition to the engineer's pit-bull, the TCKR employed 4 people, nominally two engineers and two brakemen. These employees would do everything including driving the trains, keeping the railroad's 1940s era locomotives running and maintaining the track. They also had the skills and equipment to re-rail minor derailments, as well as replace damaged rail ties using only hand tools if need be.


End of service and conversion to rail-trail: 2009-2019.


A few sections of TCKR track remained in place after this rail trail section was completed. About of the railroad track was not part of the original sale to Westmoreland county. A portion of this lies at the end of the line in Export, where Dura-Bond maintains its facilities. The other major segment is of track at the beginning of the line in Trafford; this portion of track was not owned by Dura-Bond but was retained by Conrail, which handed it down to one of its successors, Norfolk Southern. Westmoreland County has expressed interest in acquiring a portion of this track to extend the rail-trail to the Trafford business district.


Data logged with the Federal Railroad Administration showed that service on the Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad was steady from 1987 through 2008. (Data prior to 1987 are incomplete.) Given that the track distance between Trafford and Export is in each direction, the total train miles reported per year are consistent with the "three to five trains per week" cited in the 1991 documentary. The drop-off in miles logged as a result of the June 2009 flood is apparent. Regular train service halted in June 2009, and after a three-month pause, a final 64 train miles were recorded in October. Employee work hours continued to be logged each month through July 2010.


The Flats Industrial Railroad is a Class III railroad that provides short-line commercial/industrial switching service in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, primarily with CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.


Trains have run in the Cuyahoga Valley since the 1880s. In 1880, the Valley Railway began operations, transporting coal to Cleveland, Akron, and Canton from the Tuscarawas River Valley and providing passenger service along the way. After a decade of operation, the Valley Railway became part of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In the 20th century, competition from automobiles, trucks, and buses caused the decline of both freight and passenger service.


Right-of-way ownership shifted over the years from Valley Railway to the Cleveland Terminal & Valley Railway (CT&V), to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, to the Chessie System.


Flats Industrial Railroad acquired its rails and right-of-way within the Flats District (Cleveland) from former Conrail. As of 2009, the Class III Short Line railroad operates as the Flats Industrial Railroad Company (FIR/FIRS). . The railroad operates on weekdays, reportedly around 7:00 to 10:00AM in the morning. At one time, they used to have a sand trans-loading business to keep themselves busy while not switching at Cleveland's Cereal Food Processors elevator. They also used to serve fatty oils and synthetic esters producer, "Werner G. Smith." They interchange with the Norfolk Southern in a yard between Fulton Road and W.41 Street in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cloggsville Line, operated by Norfolk Southern, serves that yard. Company (FIR/FIRS).


As recently as 2014, FIR had only two employees.


Flats Industrial Railroad initially operated one switching locomotive, later adding a second locomotive.


All locations are in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio:


In 2005, FIR reported a single Highway-Rail Crossing incident, no other accidents, and no one killed or injured. In 2004, FIR did not report any accidents (train, highway-rail crossing, other incidents).


Conrail Shared Assets Operations or CSAO is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail (reporting mark CRCX). Conrail is an American railroad company. It operates three networks—the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Areas, where it serves as a contract local carrier and switching company for its owners, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. When most of the former Conrail's track was split between these two railroads, the three shared assets areas (a total of about 1,200 miles of track) were kept separate to avoid giving one railroad an advantage in those areas. The company operates using its own employees and infrastructure, but owns no equipment outside MOW equipment.


Passaic and Harsimus Line "P&HL" - formerly Northeast Corridor at Waverly, New Jersey, now Oak Island Yard to Jersey City


The New Jersey Department of Transportation anticipated in 2010 increased freight activity in South Jersey that has led to capital improvement and expansion projects for this designated area.


The South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets Area is operated out of Pavonia Yard in Camden, New Jersey, with smaller yards in Marcus Hook, Paulsboro, Millville, Morrisville, Frankford Junction, Burlington, Port Richmond and South Philadelphia.


The south track at the Delair Lift Bridge (part of the Delair Branch) is used by Conrail; the north track is used by New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line.


The Detroit Shared Assets Area consists of:


CP-West Detroit, Delray, CP-YD, and River Rouge Yard lie close to each other on the Utica/MP 20 line, giving the whole a rough K-shape. Various spurs and industrial tracks branch off from this trackage. Mileage in both directions is measured from the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel.


Conrail Shared Assets utilizes the following types of locomotives, all supplied by CSX and Norfolk Southern.


The Manufacturers Railway Company is a defunct railway company in St. Louis, Missouri. It was owned by Anheuser-Busch.


The railway company was founded in 1887 by Adolphus Busch, the President of Anheuser-Busch. By 1906, Busch was still President while William D. Orthwein was Vice President.


The company's line connected with the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and the Alton and Southern Railroad in East St. Louis, Illinois. The MRS accessed the Alton and Southern Railroad using trackage rights over the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis via the MacArthur Bridge. MRS owned railroad cars used to transport Anheuser-Busch's products. It also provided locomotive maintenance and painting services to other companies.


On March 25, 2011, it was announced that Anheuser-Busch had applied to shut down the MRS, after the brewery began shipping outbound products via truck instead of rail. However, on April 8, Foster Townsend Rail Logistics (reporting marks: FTRL) announced that it planned to take over operations of the line once Manufacturers Railway ceased operations. On October 2, 2011, FTRL Railway began providing rail switching services at Anheuser Busch's St. Louis brewery.


The Little Rock Port Authority Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.


LRPA operates of switching line at the Port of Little Rock Industrial Park, and interchanges with Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway near the Little Rock National Airport.


The line is owned by the Port of Little Rock.


The NASA Railroad is a Class III industrial short-line railroad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The railroad consists of of track connecting the mainline of the Florida East Coast Railway and trackage at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.


NASA uses the railroad to transport equipment which could not be transported over the road to and from other NASA locations. Rail transportation also offers cost savings over transporting bulky and heavy cargo via barge or aircraft. Prior to its shutdown, much of the rail traffic was devoted to sending segments of the reusable solid rocket boosters (SRB) from the Thiokol plant in Utah back again for refurbishment after Space Shuttle launches and recovery. A total of 24 cars were devoted to transporting the SRBs.


In 2020, NASA reopened the railroad to support the new Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle.


The railroad took delivery of a train loaded segments of the two shuttle-derived solid fuel rocket boosters that will be used on the initial flights of the SLS. Each booster will provide 3.6 million pounds of thrust by adding one additional solid fuel propellant segment to the modified shuttle boosters (5 sections for the SLS vs. 4 for the STS). This SLS booster will be the largest, most powerful solid propellant boosters ever built. The boosters will once again be manufactured by Orbital ATK in Utah and shipped cross country by rail.


The NASA Railroad operates three SW1500 switcher locomotives, each former Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway units and 75 rolling stock cars. The fleet is maintained by the NASA Railroad shop, which also maintains locomotives and cars for the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.


The New York and Brighton Beach Railway or short N.Y.&B.B. Railway (NY&BB) was a 3-mile-long (4.8 km) standard gauge railway line in Brooklyn on Long Island, New York. It started at Locust Grove in New Utrecht and terminated at Brighton Beach on Coney Island.


The NY&BB was opened for passenger services on August 5, 1880 and operated until September 19, 1880, when the season closed. According to the 1881 report to the NY State Railroad Commission it resumed service in 1881 but carried only 4,867 passengers, earning only $2,726 against $17,602 of expenses.


In the early morning of July 27, 1881 the Brighton Beach terminal was completely destroyed by a fire of incendiary origin with a loss of $35,000 which were only partially covered by insurance. Half of the rolling stock, seven cars at an estimated value of $16,000, were also destroyed. The track was sold in 1884 and renamed in 1886 to Sea Beach & Brighton Railway. It was subsequently used by the Boynton Bicycle Railroad for two years starting in the summer of 1890.


The MET handles 24,000 cars per year (1996 estimate).


The MET was incorporated on October 7, 1911 by Mr. T. K. Beard. On November 1, 1911 it leased the electrified Modesto Interurban Railway (MIR). Passenger service was the primary service for the railroad when it started in November 1911, but only lasted until 1917. The MET went to diesel-only operation in March 1952.


The Modesto Interurban Railway was incorporated on March 23, 1909 with plans to build of track from Modesto along McHenry Avenue and then directly to Riverbank. The railway was envisioned because only the Southern Pacific served Modesto; the Santa Fe bypassed Modesto by to the east at Empire. The Modesto Interurban Railway linked the Santa Fe with Modesto. On April 12, 1909 the grading commenced. Just days before the Modesto & Empire Traction began taking over the railroad, the Modesto Interurban Railway completed construction and operated its first train. By November 1, 1911 the Modesto & Empire Traction was leasing the railway.


The Central Indiana and Western Railroad is a short-line switching and terminal railroad in southwestern Madison County in Indiana. It branches off a CSX line near the city of Anderson and runs approximately seven miles west-southwest, terminating at Lapel near the western border of the county. About three miles of operation are on CSX. The primary traffic is glass-making materials and cullet shipped from South Anderson Yard to Lapel and some grain traffic generated in Lapel is shipped to the South Anderson Yard along the CI&W. The line was formerly part of the Central Indiana Railway, jointly owned by the New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad.


The Decatur Central Railroad (reporting mark DCC) is an American railroad that operates in central Illinois. It was founded in August 2016 as a joint venture between short-line railroad operator OmniTrax, which operates the railroad, and grain cooperative Topflight Grain, which owns the right-of-way and trackage. The route, which runs between Cisco and Decatur, was previously operated by the Decatur Junction Railway. The railroad began operation in January 2017.


The railroad's primary market is local grain transportation, though it also serves an intermodal facility and can interchange traffic with the Canadian National Railway in Decatur.


The Ozark Valley Railroad is a 27-mile shortline railroad connecting Mexico, Missouri, and Fulton, Missouri.


The Kansas City Southern Railway links to the Ozark Valley Railroad at Mexico, Missouri.


The Adrian and Blissfield Rail Road Company is a Class III short line railroad which operates of railroad track between Adrian and Riga, in Lenawee County, Michigan. It was incorporated February 6, 1991, with company headquarters in Westland, Michigan. It also operates Lapeer Industrial Railroad, Charlotte Southern Railroad, Detroit Connecting Railroad, and Jackson and Lansing Railroad.


ADBF's railroad line is one of the oldest operating in the United States, having been originally built in 1834 by the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad.


ADBF also operates a dinner train known as "The Old Road Dinner Train" in Blissfield, and a sister company operates in Charlotte.


The ADBF fleet, as of January 2021, consists of the following 7 locomotives:


The Oakland Terminal Railway was a terminal railroad in West Oakland, California. The OTR was jointly acquired in 1943 by the Western Pacific Railroad and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to take over the Key System's freight railroad known as the Oakland Terminal "Railroad". Today, the OTR is now the West Oakland Pacific Railroad that operates on 10 miles of track. OTR was jointly owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway. The railroad operated in the industrial area around the Oakland Army Base.


The OTR interchanged with the ATSF near the Southern Pacific 16th Street Station in Oakland. The OTR also interchanged with the Western Pacific via trackage rights over the Key System from Emeryville to the Sacramento Northern (a WP subsidiary) terminal at 40th and Shafter Streets in Oakland. It is no longer in service.


The Oakland Terminal "Railroad" was the predecessor of the Oakland Terminal Railway. The Railroad was formed in 1935 by the Railway Realty & Equipment Company, Ltd. to handle the Key System's freight customers. The Railroad operated over Key System's A, B and C lines and the Key Systems freight-only tracks on 26th Street and along the waterfront. In 1943 the Key System sold the Oakland Terminal Railroad to the Western Pacific and the Santa Fe Railway. The Oakland Terminal Railroad was renamed the Oakland Terminal Railway. Because it operated over some of the Key System, some of the switching was performed by electric locomotives.


The Garden City Western Railway is a railroad operating in the U.S. state of Kansas. GCW was organized in 1916, first owned by The Garden City Sugar and Land Company and then owned by the Garden City Coop, Inc. The GCW is located in southwest Kansas and totals of operating railroad and interchanges with BNSF Railway. GCW was purchased by Pioneer Railcorp on April 29, 1999. The primary commodities include grain, frozen beef, fertilizer, farm implements, feed products and utility poles.


The Garden City Sugar and Land Company, at Garden City, Kansas, built a railroad known as the Garden City Western Railway, constructed in 1915. This railroad extends from the Sugar Factory at Garden City in a northwesterly direction about through farm lands, held by the Garden City Sugar and Land Company. Road built to take care of products of Garden City Sugar and Land Company's holdings in land.


The Nebraska, Kansas and Southern Railway track was laid out from Garden City and was never operational. The rail, fastenings and ties from this railroad were sold in 1915 at a Sheriff's auction to the Garden City Western Railway Company, a subsidiary of the Garden City Sugar and Land Company.


On 1 September 1991 the Garden City Northern Railway (GCNR) merged with the Garden City Western Railway.


A GCW steam locomotive is currently on static display at the Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City, located behind the Snack/Gift Shop and across the Drive-In Entrance/Kiosk.


The Golden Isles Terminal Railroad is a terminal railroad that began operations in 1998, taking over from the Colonel's Island Railroad. It operates 33 miles of track in and around the port at Brunswick, GA. Starting in 1998, it is owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.


The Iowa River Railroad (IARR) operates freight service from Ackley, Iowa to end of track 1.4 miles south of U.S. Highway 20, north of Steamboat Rock, Iowa, for a distance of about 9 miles. With its office located in Steamboat Rock, Iowa, IARR carries corn byproducts and ethanol from Pine Lake Corn Processors to the interchange with the Canadian National Railroad in Ackley, Iowa.


In June 2006, the IARR purchased from the UP and started operations of the Marshalltown Industrial Lead from Marshalltown, Iowa to Steamboat Rock, Iowa. In June 2006, the IARR also purchased from North Central Railway Association a rail line running between Steamboat Rock and Ackley, Iowa, which needed rehabilitation prior to operating over. Rehabilitation has been completed and that portion of the line is currently in use.


In 2012, the Iowa River Railroad filed to abandonment of line running from Steamboat Rock to Marshalltown with the Surface Transportation Board.


The same year, a request for imposition of a public use condition and issuance of an interim trail use for the line was filed on behalf of the conservation boards of both Marshall and Hardin Counties, as well as the cities of Marshalltown, Union, Steamboat Rock, Liscomb, Eldora and Albion and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. The action was approved by the Surface Transportation Board.


The abandoned line will be turned into the Iowa River Rail Trail.


The IARR connects with the Canadian National (formerly Illinois Central) at Ackley. Before abandonment the line also connected with the Union Pacific Railroad at Marshalltown.


Current motive power had consisted of a single GP30, #3004, but has gained a recent addition GP38M, #3802.


The American Railroad Company (ARR) owned and operated a railroad in Puerto Rico.


The ARR was set up in 1902 to take-over of railroad tracks that existed, when the United States invaded Puerto Rico in 1898. It was reorganized in 1947 as Puerto Rico Railroad & Transport Co. It discontinued passenger service in 1953 and ended all rail operations in 1957.


Hacienda Mercedita was a sugarcane plantation in Ponce, Puerto Rico, founded in 1861, by Juan Serrallés Colón. Today Hacienda Mercedita no longer grows sugarcane and its lands are instead used for growing mangoes, grasses, landscape plants and palms, coconut palms, bananas, and seeds.


In 1865, Juan Serrallés Colon experimented with rum production at the Hacienda, producing his first casks of rum. He perfected his rum formula and the rum business grew rapidly. By 1890, Hacienda Mercedita produced over of rum-making sugarcane.


For some time the Serrallés operation produced various local rum brands, most of which were short-lived. Inspired by the success of other rum producers in the island, the family decided to launch a refined brand with the intention of exporting it elsewhere. In 1932, the Ron Don Q brand was born and became popular with locals who considered rival Bacardi either harsher in taste or a foreign brand, as it was made in Cuba. In the 1930s, with money pouring in, Juan Serralles built a spacious new home for his family in his estate in Ponce, today called the Serralles Castle.


By 1953, the rum business had become highly successful and the Serrallés family built a new refinery incorporating modern equipment. By February 21, 1953, as the Hacienda was no longer a mostly residential facility, but had taken on more of an administrative role, its sugar cane corporation, Central Mercedita, Inc., was the center of most activity, purchasing sugarcane from local farmers and milling and processing it into cane sugar. Central Mercedita Inc. and its sister company, Puerto Rican Sugar Refinery, Inc., together engaged in Puerto Rico cane sugar production during this period. In the fall of 1971, these enterprises were doing business as Central Mercedita Co. and as Puerto Rico American Refinery, Inc.


In the 1950s, both the sugar cane and rum business stabilized and the Hacienda ran two parallel operations, one producing, packaging, selling, and distributing cane sugar under the "Snow White" brand and the other producing, packaging, selling, and distributing rum under the "Don Q" label. For the rum side of the house, Serralles incorporated a new company, Destilería Serrallés Inc.


In 1973, the government of Puerto Rico created the Corporacion Azucarera de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Sugar Corporation, also known as Sugar Corporation of Puerto Rico) in an attempt to save the sugar industry, which for the previous two decades had been decaying. The new Corporation oversaw the operations of the remaining 13 sugarcane mills, including Central Mercedita, and those of the Snow White Sugar Refinery, the only sugar refinery left in the Island. The Puerto Rico Land Authority had ownership of the "Snow White" sugar refinery itself.


However, for a number of reasons, the new government corporation "immediately bled money." Ten years later, in 1983, the price of Mercedita's "Snow White" brand sugar was frozen by law in an attempt "to keep the voters happy." On 31 December 1994, Central Mercedita stopped the milling of sugarcane, but continued its sugar refining operations to accommodate other sugar cane mills in Puerto Rico that depended on it for their milling operations. However, 1994 is generally considered the closing date for the sugar mill. Shortly afterwards, sugar refining at Mercedita stopped altogether with the closing of the remaining sugarcane farms in the island. In 1998, the Government of Puerto Rico gave title to the homes and associated land to the remaining residents of the old Mercedita plantation.


In the fall of 2001, Sugar Corporation of Puerto Rico which owned the Mercedita sugar refinery and the "Snow White" sugar brand was contemplating the building of a sugar plant large enough to supply all 50,000 tons of sugar consumed each year in Puerto Rico.


The municipality of Ponce is attempting to acquire the grounds of the old Central Mercedita to convert it into a city park.


The community where the old Central Mercedita operated continues still stands. It too goes by the name "Central Mercedita". The main access road is PR-5506.


In June 2020, the hacienda served as a backdrop for an educational photoshoot of the traditional Puerto Rican Bomba dance.


Following is a timeline listing the principal events, and their dates, in the life of Hacienda Mercedita.


The following is a list of railroads operating in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.


The event of World War II, the creation of the San Juan-Santurce Omnibus Line, the White Star Bus Line and the San Felipe (1928) and San Ciprián cyclones in 1932 caused serious damages to this transit system.


Passenger travel began to flourish in 1902 when the American Railroad Company from New York acquired the system. In 1904, a southern line was constructed between Hormigueros and Yauco. The northern line was expanded towards the west of San Juan to include the towns of Arecibo and Aguadilla. One of the most significant projects of this line was linking the main rail line through Quebradillas and Isabela, requiring the construction of tunnels and tall bridges, including the Guajataca Tunnel completed in 1904. In 1907, the northern line of San Juan was connected to the southern line of Ponce, finally connecting the northern and southern portions of the island.


On the early morning hours of November 7, 1944, the American Railroad Company of Puerto Rico suffered the most violent accident in its history. Train No. 3 was traveling from San Juan to Ponce carrying passengers to their different hometowns for the island general elections to be held that same day. It stopped at the Jimenez Station in Aguadilla for a routine engineer and fireman exchange with Train No. 4 which was heading towards San Juan. The engineer assigned to Train No. 3's ride from Jimenez Station to Ponce was Jose Antonio Roman, an experienced freight train engineer, but who had never worked in passenger travel. When the train left the station at 2:00am, it was hauling 6 passenger cars with hundreds of commuters and two freight cars.


The last remaining part of the system used in operations was a small rail line located in the town of Arroyo, which was used exclusively for tourism purposes until 2005. The rest of the system was either torn down to make room for new development, recycled (rails were melted and recycled and certain rail bridges were converted into road bridges), or simply abandoned. Remnants of the main system and lines can still be seen in some parts of Puerto Rico, such as:


The Tren Urbano is a heavy-rail commuter metro system serving the cities of Bayamón, Guaynabo and San Juan. It is the only active rail system serving the general public in Puerto Rico, with 16 stations along a route. It is electrified by third rail at 750 V, d.c.. The line's construction started in July 1996 with the purpose of relieving traffic congestion in the San Juan metropolitan area, and was inaugurated January 2005 to mixed reactions. With a final estimated cost of $2.25 billion, nearly $1 billion more than original estimates, the project has been criticized by government watchdogs, especially for its low passenger use of approximately 24,000 daily passengers (2005 est.), compared with original projections of 80,000.


Upon its inaugural opening, there were initial plans to extend the Tren Urbano rail system to outlying suburbs of the San Juan metro area, including a light interurban rail system from San Juan to Caguas originally scheduled to be completed in 2010. However, these designs have not been finalized and no construction work has commenced yet. The proposed Caguas rail project remains postponed as of September 2019.


The Chemex Railroad (a.k.a. Port of Ponce Railroad) was a short, industrial railroad located in the southern city of Ponce and was the last remaining operational freight railroad on the entire island until it ceased operations sometime in 2010. It first began operations in 1988 under the control of CHEMEX Corporation's predecessor PharmaChem, a supplier of chemicals to Puerto Rico’s pharmaceutical industry, which primarily used the railroad to ship inbound chemical products via a railroad ferry connection from Mobile, Alabama in the U.S. mainland to the marine terminal within the Puerto de Las Américas.


The entire rail system consisted of an eight-track railroad yard, a railroad ferry terminal, and two diesel switcher locomotives. The two engines, an EMD SW1 and EMD SW9, made up the primary locomotive roster to assist in most of its switching activities and the loading of rail cars onto barges. About twice each month from the Port of Mobile, the railroad ferry service transported an average of 24 tank cars throughout each voyage, delivering and receiving both loaded and unloaded cars from the terminal to the rest of the national U.S. rail network.


The Train of the South was an historic, narrow gauge plantation line dedicated exclusively for tourism in Arroyo. Several passenger wagons pulled by a Plymouth WDT 40-ton diesel locomotive transported visitors on an hour-long guided tour along old sugar cane fields. This line has been temporarily closed in 2005, but there are petitions to revive and extend the system.


El Parque del Tren was a little train within a park dedicated exclusively for park attendees. It was also the last remaining rail line open to the general public until the inauguration of the "Tren Urbano". It consisted of a locomotive with various passenger cars which would carry visitors around a large recreational park in Bayamón. As part of early 2000s reconstruction efforts, the park was demolished to make way for the "Tren Urbano".


The Train of the South — or Tren del Sur in Spanish — is a historic narrow gauge heritage railroad operating within the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico in Arroyo. It was formed in 1984 to preserve the last surviving sugar cane plantation line still in existence on the entire island, which was part of a large railroad system that operated around Puerto Rico prior to the 1950s.<ref name="Railroads of Puerto Rico / Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico by Roger Aponte">Railroads of Puerto Rico (a list)</ref>


The railroad took passengers and sightseers across Arroyo's old sugar cane fields on a fifty-minute long guided tour that explained the industry and other historic aspects of it. Most of the original railroad right-of-way is former Ponce & Guayama trackage, which was in regular use up until 1990; a short segment was later revived as the Tren del Sur in 1984. Much of the original equipment abandoned on site also served as historic props along the route.


After a temporary shutdown in 1988, former Arroyo's mayor Reinaldo Pirela obtained funds from Puerto Rico's government to refit tracks and the transfer of eight Plymouth locomotives from Central Aguirre's stock to restart successful operations in 1996. In 2005, the railroad was temporarily shutdown pending a major restoration project; although all work has been halted in recent years afterwards for unknown reasons. However, the Department of the Interior has plans to re-commission the railroad and extend the system further sometime in the near future. For enforce legal protection of the Tren del Sur, the Puerto Rico Legislative Branch approved first the Law 118-1995 and later the Law 212-2014 that superseded the 1995 law but both laws failed to keep the train running.


The Mount Adams Incline was a funicular, or inclined railway, located in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Mount Adams. Completed in 1872, it was the longest-running of the city's five inclines, closing in 1948. It has since been demolished.


The incline was long and carried streetcars and automobiles.


The Castle Shannon Incline was a funicular railroad in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally part of the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad route to the suburb of Castle Shannon. It replaced an earlier incline dating to 1825 that brought coal down from a mine in Mount Washington.


Initially opened on August 26, 1890, the incline operated for only a few days before breaking down, the original machinery being unable to bear the strain of the large freight and passenger cars. After a second abortive run in October, it was decided that the machinery had to be replaced. The refitted incline opened on March 7, 1891. It ran from Bailey Avenue west of Haberman Avenue down to Carson Street just west of Arlington Avenue.


The incline's large cars were able to carry both passengers and wagons, and later automobiles. In 1909, steam railroad passenger service on the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad was replaced by electric cars of the Pittsburgh Railways that ran through the Mount Washington tunnel (still in use today). No longer part of a through route, Incline No. 2 soon became superfluous, but development of a residential area on top of Mount Washington kept Incline No. 1 in business. Originally steam powered, it was converted to electrical operation in 1918 by the Otis Elevator Company. Following much deliberation in the 1950s, the incline was closed June 21, 1964.


The site of the bottom of the incline is still visible as a gravel slope next to Carson Street where the bus lane joins. Up from there, it passes under existing bridges carrying a railroad, East Sycamore Street, and the P. J. McArdle Roadway. Farther up, Cola Street ends at the incline site. The bottom is near the now-popular Station Square.


The Fort Pitt Incline was a gauge funicular railroad in the Bluff neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Opened in 1882, the incline ran from 2nd Avenue to Bluff Street, a distance of , and a vertical distance of . The designer was Samuel Diescher.


The incline was abandoned on 7 November 1900, and afterward sat idle for about three years before fire destroyed it.


Marking the former path of the incline are public steps which ascend from the south portal of the Armstrong Tunnel (at the South Tenth Street Bridge) to the Boulevard of the Allies next to the Duquesne University campus.


The Prospect Park Incline Railway was a funicular railway in the city of Niagara Falls, New York, United States. It was built in 1845 on the United States side of the Niagara Falls at Prospect Point Park. An accident in 1907 claimed a single life and lead to the closure of this line.


The incline railway was covered and consisted of two parallel rail tracks leading from the top of the gorge to the bottom, with each track carrying an open railcar with a capacity of 15-20 passengers. The line was originally on water counterbalance principals, but was later converted to electrical operation.


Following the 1907 accident, the funicular railway was removed in 1908. In 1910, it was replaced with elevators, which operated in separate shafts drilled through the rock and opened out to a building at the base of the gorge. In 1960 the elevators were closed due to a rock fall. The elevators were replaced with the current Prospect Point Observation Tower in 1961.


The Mill Mountain Incline was a 0.37 mi (0.60 km) funicular, or inclined plane, located on Mill Mountain in Roanoke, Virginia that operated between 1910–1929. Costing $40,000 to complete, the incline took visitors from the base of the mountain where the present-day Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital is located to the summit in the area where the Mill Mountain Star is now located.


Today, the former location of the incline is visible in the form of a cleft in the trees on Mill Mountain, immediately behind the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.


The idea of an incline being developed for Mill Mountain was initially proposed in 1892, but was formally organized in November 1909 by a group of twenty-five local investors calling themselves the Mill Mountain Incline, Inc. For the investors, the incline was viewed as a major attraction for the burgeoning city.


In late 1909, a pair of counterbalanced incline cars were ordered from the John Stephenson Company, and were delivered in summer 1910. The incline celebrated its inaugural voyage on August 10, 1910, and saw 1,500 passengers on opening day. The roundtrip ride cost $.25 and took four minutes to complete each way.


A July 2007 proposal was introduced by Roanoke City Councilmen to revive the Incline as an economic redevelopment tool. The new incline would be in the form of an automated people mover.


The Nunnery Hill Incline was a funicular in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in what is now the Fineview neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Designed by Samuel Diescher, it operated from 1888 until 1895 between its base station on Federal Street to its upper station on the currently named Meadville Street. It was one of a few inclines with a curve in the track. The name of the hill derived from a short-lived settlement of Poor Clares earlier in the century.


The incline suspended operations without warning on 13 September 1895, to the consternation of many of the hill's residents. It did not resume business. By 1901, it was being dismantled.


Remnants of the incline, namely the red brick lower station and a stone retaining wall along Henderson Street, have been subject to preservation efforts. Both structures received City of Pittsburgh historic designations in 2011.


The Island Mountain Railway (Santa Catalina Island Incline Railway, or Angel's Flight) was a funicular railway at the resort town of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of California. The railway was unique because it not only ran from Avalon's amphitheater to the top of a nearby mountain but it also ran down the mountain's other side to Lovers' Cove. At the time of the railroad's operation Santa Catalina Island was a popular seaside destination. The railway opened in 1904 and closed in 1918, reopening in 1921 and closing again in 1923.


A single car carried passengers up from the amphitheater in Avalon to the top of the hill overlooking Avalon. A second car ran down the other side of the hill to Pebble Beach, in Lover's Cove.


Castle Shannon Incline Number 2 was an inclined cable railway in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally designed by Samuel Diescher, and opened in 1892 as part of the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad as a means of transporting passenger traffic over Mt. Washington in concert with the Castle Shannon Incline (called Incline No. 1 while this one was still in service). From the top station at Bailey Street, adjacent to the Castle Shannon Incline top station, No. 2 ran down hill west of Haberman Avenue, ending at Warrington Avenue.


Pittsburgh Railways, a trolley system, took over the Castle Shannon passenger service in 1909 and routed their cars through the Mount Washington tunnel that is still in use today. The inclines were no longer part of a through route. Cars continued to run on No. 2 incline for a few years, but it was closed in 1914, with one daily trip being made for franchise purposes until 1919. An undated photograph shows a car with a body like a streetcar on the incline.


The Norwood Incline was a funicular railway located just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It operated from 1901 to 1923 between its lower station on Island Avenue, McKees Rocks, and its upper station in Norwood Place, Stowe Township. Originally free to ride, it got the nickname "Penny Incline" after it started charging a one-cent fare. Its two narrow-gauge tracks were formed by only three rails, the middle rail being shared by both tracks, except at mid-slope where the tracks separated to allow the upbound and downbound cars to pass each other.


Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company


The Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company was a railroad and coal transportation company, founded in 1899 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was formed by merging more than 80 independent coal mines and river transportation businesses, both in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Initially, it had an agreement with the Pittsburgh Coal Company to ship its coal only by water, and not to compete with it by using rail transport, but the agreement was ended in 1902. It merged with the Pittsburgh Coal Company on 24 December 1915.


The company had a railroad and mine along Becks Run. The railroad was originally opened in 1878 (the same year that the mine opened) as a narrow gauge line by the H.B. Hays and Brothers Coal Railroad.


One important part of the business was the riverboat "Sprague", nicknamed "Big Mama", a steam powered sternwheeler towboat capable of pushing 56 coal barges at once. A model of the "Sprague" is in the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa.


The Seventh Avenue West Incline ran in Duluth, Minnesota, from 1891 until 1939, when the tracks were sold for scrap for the war effort.


There have been several different incline railways built at the Niagara Falls, on the border between Canada and the United States.


The Mount Beacon Incline Railway was a narrow gauge incline railway up Beacon Mountain near Beacon, New York. A popular local tourist attraction, it operated for much of the 20th century, providing sweeping views of the Hudson River Valley. Efforts to restore it continue today.


The Otis Elevator Company and Mohawk Construction opened the 2,200' gauge railway on Memorial Day, 1902. Sixty thousand fares were sold in its first year; two decades later that had almost doubled. Riders were often day visitors from New York City who came up the Hudson River by steamboat to Newburgh and then took the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry across the river. After a trolley trip to the base station on Wolcott Avenue (today NY 9D), the railway would take them up to the northern summit via an average gradient of 65% (33°) and a maximum gradient of 74% (36.5°), the steepest in existence while the railroad operated.


Thanks to the automobile replacing historic mass transit to the area - which had brought passengers en masse up the river in excursion boats, via the railroad, and thence trolley right to the base of the lift - recreational patterns changed and the Beacon attraction never regained its popularity. Financial problems and more fires plagued the concern, which was unable to maintain necessary maintenance on either the railway or the summit attractions.


In 1978 the railway ceased operations. In 1982 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. A fire attributed to vandalism the next year completely destroyed the trackway and consumed the lower station, following which the only remaining structure at the top, the powerhouse, was raised. The route still remains and is visible from much of the city. The Mount Beacon Incline Railway Restoration Society is working to rebuild the railroad and restore service.


The Clifton Incline was a funicular that operated from 1889 to 1905 in what is now the Perry Hilltop neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It extended from its base at Sarah Street (now Strauss Street) at the intersection with Myrtle Street (now the closed Metcalf Street) to its top landing at Clifton Park near the end of Clifton Street (now Chautauqua Street).


Businessman William McCreery co-founded the incline to facilitate access to a residential neighborhood developed from his former estate. The Clifton Avenue Incline Plane Company, formed for the purpose of erecting and operating the incline, was chartered on June 25, 1888. Within a year of that date, McCreery offered free incline rides to property auctions on the hill.


There were two cars, only one of which carried passengers, the other one being a dummy car serving as a counterweight. A single operator performed the duties of engineer, conductor, and fireman.


The incline closed after an accident on November 10, 1905, in which the passenger car—empty at the time—broke loose, hurtled down the track, plowed through the waiting room on Sarah Street and smashed into the front steps of a house.


On October 7, 1953 a boy, Alan Schiller, hanging from a car was killed. While it is commonly reported that Pittsburgh inclines recorded no fatalities, this, along with an incident on the St. Clair Incline, provide the only blemishes on the safety record of inclines in Pittsburgh. None of the fatalities occurred with paying passengers who had not jumped from cars.


The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads in America created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originally incorporated by Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe as the Pasadena & Mt. Wilson Railroad Co., existed from 1893 until its official abandonment in 1938, and had the distinction of being the only scenic mountain, electric traction (overhead electric trolley) railroad ever built in the United States. Lowe's partner and engineer was David J. Macpherson, a civil engineer graduate of Cornell University. The Mount Lowe Railway was a fulfillment of 19th century Pasadenans' desire to have a scenic mountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains.


The Railway opened on July 4, 1893, and consisted of nearly seven miles (11.2 km) of track starting in Altadena, California, at a station called Mountain Junction. Atop Echo stood the magnificent 70-room Victorian hotel, the Echo Mountain House. Only a few hundred feet away stood the 40-room Echo Chalet which was ready for opening day. The complement of buildings on Echo included an astronomical observatory, car barns, dormitories and repair facilities, a casino and dance hall, and a menagerie of local fauna.


For the seven years during which Lowe owned and operated the railway, it constantly ran into hard times, eventually being sold off. A series of natural disasters ate away at the facilities, the first of which was a kitchen fire that destroyed the Echo Mountain House in 1900. Further fires and floods eventually destroyed any remaining facilities, and the railway was officially abandoned in 1938 after a flood washed most everything off the mountain sides. Today, the ruins of Mount Lowe Railway remain as a monument to a once-ever experienced enterprise. It was placed on the National Register of Historical Places on January 6, 1993, a listing that was enlarged in January 2015.


The railway terminal, called Mountain Junction, was located at the corner of Lake Avenue and Calaveras Street in the unincorporated community of Altadena. The line was divided into 3 divisions: the Mountain Division, the Great Incline, and the Alpine Division. The mode of locomotion was electric traction railway, and a cable driven incline funicular. Electrical power for the railway consisted of several power generating stations equipped with either gas engines or Pelton wheels, depending on the availability of mountain water.


From this platform passengers could transfer to a narrow gauge, three-railed inclined plane railway, the "Great Incline," and ascend Echo Mountain (elev. ). The Incline powering mechanism was designed by San Francisco cable car inventor Andrew Smith Hallidie. It boasted grades as steep as 62% and as slight as 48%, and gained in elevation. The Great Incline was the first of its kind built with three rails and featuring a four-railed passing track at the halfway point. A particular feature on the Incline was the Macpherson Trestle named by Lowe for his engineer, David J. Macpherson, as was custom, and noted for its exceptional design in crossing a granite chasm over deep.


The Mount Lowe Railway was born from a desire of the Pasadena Pioneers to have a scenic mountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains. There was already established a trail to the peak of Mount Wilson, but that trip was arduous and ofttimes required more than a day to travel up and down. Several proposals were floated to establish some sort of mechanical transportation to the summits, but they all lacked funding.


David J. Macpherson (b. 1854, Ontario, Canada), a civil engineer from Cornell University and a newcomer to Pasadena (1885), proposed a steam driven cog wheel train to reach the crest via Mount Wilson. It wasn't until he was introduced to the millionaire Thaddeus S. C. Lowe (arrived in Pasadena 1890) that a fully funded plan could be put into action. The two men visited Colorado to view the mountain railway to Pike's Peak. Lowe was impressed with the trolley car systems in the city and thought that should be the way to go. This would make the Mount Lowe Railway the only electric traction rail line ever to be put into scenic mountain railway service.


The two men incorporated the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railroad Co. in 1891 with intentions to build the railroad to Mount Wilson. Unable to obtain rights of way to Mt. Wilson, Macpherson suggested an alternate route, toward Oak Mountain, a high peak to the west of Mount Wilson. They hired electrical engineer, Almarian W. Decker, who had contrived all the mathematical possibilities of an electric line and the funicular which would be required to ascend the Echo Mountain Promontory.


Blasting into the Rubio Canyon began in September 1892, three months before the establishment of the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve (now Angeles National Forest). A terminal was built at the corner of Calaveras Street and Lake Avenue in Altadena adjacent to the L. A. Terminal Railway station, and a narrow gauge line was laid up the 8% grade to a point near Las Flores Street where it turned eastward traversing the Poppyfields district and headed into Rubio Canyon.


At the Rubio division terminus was built a broad platform to span the Canyon which included the Rubio Pavilion, a 12-room hotel, with dining facilities and other amenities. The pavilion also consisted of power generating facilities with the use of gas engines and Pelton waterwheels. Water was made available from reservoirs built in the canyon's streams, though water was not always plentiful year round. As part of the entertainment experience, Lowe had a series of stairways and bridges built over the streams and waterfalls that emanated from the canyon. The eleven waterfalls were individually named and today exist as local historical landmarks.


A great feat of engineering was realized with a trestle that was built to negotiate a granite chasm across of track on a 62% grade. The trestle was named, as was customary in railroad constructions, for the chief engineer, David Macpherson, thus, the Macpherson Trestle.


The Great Incline cable mechanism was engineered by Andrew Smith Hallidie of San Francisco cable car fame. It climbed with approximately of cable spliced into a complete loop which raised and lowered the cars of the Incline. At the Echo summit an incline powerhouse was erected to house the winding motor and gear works which powered the grip wheel. The wheel consisted of 72 clamping "finger" mechanisms which bit down on the cable creating a smooth, non-slip actuation of the winding cable.


The cable was a -inch (41.275 mm) steel cable spliced in two spots, one below each of the incline passenger cars and looped in a continuous strand around the grip wheel at the top of the incline and a tension wheel at the bottom.


The incline grade changed three times from a steep 62% grade at the base to a gentler 48% grade at the top, but the cars were designed to comfortably adjust to the differences in grade. The incline was also equipped with a safety cable which ran through an emergency braking mechanism under each car and provided an emergency stopping of the cars within should a failure of the main cable occur.


The Echo Mountain site was ready for opening day, July 4, 1893, with the 40-room "Echo Chalet." By November 1894 the 80-room Victorian "Echo Mountain House" was completed as a luxury facility to rival the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego.


Prof. Lowe's success was greatly drawn from his nationally renowned process of generating large amounts of hydrogen gas (see water gas). He had built a gas plant in Pasadena and had piped the gas some eight miles (13 km) to the top of Echo where there was a storage container seen in several earlier photographs. The technology, mainly used for heating and lighting, was soon replaced by electricity.


Echo Mountain also sported a menagerie (zoo) which housed several species of local fauna: lynxes, raccoons, snakes, squirrels, and even a black bear. Alongside the zoo was a dormitory and shop facility for maintenance of the trains.


Lowe purchased a three million candlepower searchlight from the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. The light was installed on Echo in 1894. So powerful was the light, that a claim by Lowe's publicist, George Wharton James, stated that he could read a newspaper by the beam of the light coming through his hotel window on Catalina Island. Exaggeration or not, the beam from the light did have a projection. Residents announcing their birthdays could have the light shone on their homes in the evening. It was also known to stir up a corral of horses, invade lovers’ privacy, and interrupt an evening's revival meeting. By the 1930s the light was considered a public nuisance and was shut off permanently.


A third division, the Alpine Division, was begun in 1894 and took a lengthy stretch of narrow gauge track across three canyons to the foot of Mount Lowe (formerly Oak Mountain). The line ran from alongside the incline landing where passengers could transfer directly to the next trolley. There were three trains available on this line, but the limited electrical power only allowed one at a time to travel. The line set out across the broad Las Flores Canyon which gave a tremendous panorama of the Los Angeles area below. At one point a tall trestle was required to bridge a broad and deep chasm with a bridge so named High Bridge.


This spot marked the end of the line, nearly 7 miles (11.2 km) from its starting point at Mountain Junction.


The Mount Lowe Railway opened officially on July 4, 1893. Folks amassed themselves at the remote Mountain Junction. Up to this point there was only one means of public transportation from the valleys below to the hillside community of Altadena. It was the Los Angeles Terminal Railway which by this time was running from Terminal Island in San Pedro to Mountain Junction. The trains ran twice a day, and very irregularly at that, so the only sure means of getting to Altadena on time was by your own horse and buggy. This lack of transportation, coupled with Lowe's inability to establish any at all, would be in part the downfall of the railway.


Nevertheless, over its 45 years of existence, it is estimated that some 3 million people had ridden the railway, many coming from all parts of the country and the world. In its own inimitable way, it was a Disneyland of the day. Lowe had two favorite days of the year, Independence Day and Christmas, during which he would mark special events of his lifetime. A publication which emanated from the Tavern daily was the "Echo", a preprinted newspaper with a blank page that had the names and home states of the daily arrivals surprinted. The four-page tabloid had three pages of biographical information on the railroad and other announcements of daily events.


At the top of the incline was perched Charles Lawrence, the official photographer, on a special scaffold from which he would take pictures of the arriving visitors. For 25 cents, visitors could purchase a souvenir photo of their arrival on the incline car, with everyone else aboard, of course. George Wharton James, Lowe's publicist, had his own publication which touted the railway in its conception, construction, and operation.


Megaphones, called "echophones", were installed on Mount Echo through which visitors could bellow into the back canyons and receive a number of echoes. The "sweet spot" where the most repeaters could be heard had at least nine reverberations of anything that was shouted loud enough. The study of the sweet spot has even been used as boy scout projects.


Along the way in Millard Canyon, a special station stop was made at Dawn Station above the Dawn Mines, an old gold mining operation. The mines were deep in the canyon and visitors stopping off to see the digs spent an exorbitant amount of time getting back to the train. A false adit was dug just a hundred feet below the track to trick people into thinking they had visited the mine and were shortly ready to return to the train.


The mountain itself offered a grand display of nature and hiking trails, plus a mule ride, the "Mount Lowe Eight," that transported guests around a trail. This trail made a large figure eight traverse of Mt. Lowe and Mount Echo, starting and ending at the Alpine Tavert without ever traversing the same terrain twice.


In 1922 Henry Ford visited the Mount Lowe Railway and returned with a Hollywood filming crew who made a silent film documentary of the trip with the camera mounted on the various cars, including the Great Incline. of this historic film is available at the Library of Congress.


In 1900, the Echo Mountain House burned down. It was grossly underinsured and was never rebuilt. Later, the astronomer Dr. Swift went blind and was forced to leave his post at the observatory. A second astronomer, Prof. Edgar Lucien Larkin (1847–1925), was hired to oversee the observatory. Though he was not as prominent as Prof. Swift, he did stay with the Mount Lowe Observatory until his sudden death in 1925. Disenchanted, Peyton sold the railway to Henry E. Huntington, after which it became part of the Pacific Electric Railway (PE), of the famed Los Angeles Red Car system.


Part of the P&E improvements included a "casino" on Echo Mountain. The building appears in a few rare photos and was described as a dance hall, not a gambling facility. Most historians believe that the casino was built only a few months before the fire of 1905. The blaze began when a forceful wind blew the roof from the casino onto the power generating station across the track, setting a fire that razed everything on Echo except the observatory and the astronomer's cabin. The only part of the Echo operation that was restored was the Incline Powerhouse in 1906. Other improvements were made to the railway, such as the replacement of rock pile footings under each trestle with reinforced concrete pilings.


In 1909, an unseasonable electrical storm and flash flood destroyed the Rubio Pavilion and buried one of the caretakers’ children in the mud. The injured parents spent years in the hospital recuperating from the devastation that left them trapped in the rubble of the Pavilion. Three of the children, who knew how to move the incline cars, escaped to the top of the incline.


In 1928 a strong Santa Ana Wind blew down the observatory. Its curator at the time, Mt. Lowe photographer Charles Lawrence, escaped the collapse within an inch of his life. Fortunately, he had the foresight to pack up the expensive lens pieces ahead of time. The instrument has since been reinstalled at Santa Clara University.


In 1925 a large block brick annex was added to "Ye Alpine Tavern" and the facility was renamed "Mount Lowe Tavern." In September 1936 the tavern burned to the ground from an electrical fire. The P&E was officially out of business, but left train operators on the line, so as not to abandon the railway. Though there was a slight consideration to rebuild, lack of water, poor area for relocation, and the financial burden of construction and insurance left the P&E all but giving up on the Mount Lowe Railway.


In December, 1937, the Railroad Booster's Club, enthusiasts of the P&E Railroad, requested a final paid excursion on the line for photos and memorabilia. A few months later, in March, 1938 a three-day deluge of rain destroyed what was left of the railway and stranded the caretakers on Echo for 17 days. Following this disaster, the railway was officially abandoned.


The Red Car line ran into Altadena until 1941. At the onset of World War II, the dismantling of the Mount Lowe Railway was contracted to a scrapper who stripped the railway of all salvageable materials. In 1959 the Forestry service began dynamiting the remains of buildings as "hazardous nuisances." In 1962 the Incline Powerhouse was dynamited, but the gear mechanism was placed as a monument to the enterprise.


In 2005 Stacey Camp began an archaeological dig on a section of Mount Echo where there once stood a barrack for workers. The dig is part of Camp's Doctoral thesis and has come about by a grant from Stanford University and is also being coordinated with the Forestry Service.


The Duluth Beltline Railway, also known as the "West Duluth Incline" or the "Bay View Incline", was first operated in 1889 and operated as a one-car operation until 1892. The Duluth News Tribune wrote an article on May 8, 1890 and called the railway "the longest of its kind in the world." The line had several stations along the route including between Bayview Heights and the Marinette/Iron Bay Works, and on Central Avenue where it met the streetcar tracks.


The Western State Normal Railroad, also known as the Normal Railroad or Western Trolley, was a funicular which operated on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the United States from 1908–1949. It is the only known example of a private railroad operated by a university.


In the early 1900s the primary campus of Western Michigan University, then known as Western State Normal School, was located on Prospect Hill (this area is now known as East Campus). To reach the buildings students and faculty faced a forbidding 150 step-climb, often in inclement weather. In an effort to address this problem, the school constructed a funicular along the northeast corner of the hill. The base of the line was at Davis Street, while the summit lay between East Hall and North Hall. There were two tracks, each with a cable-hauled car.


At its peak the railroad carried 2,280 passengers daily, but rising maintenance costs combined with the growing popularity of the automobile hastened its demise, and it carried its last passenger in 1949.


In 2002 four senior engineering majors at WMU embarked on a project to build a replica of one of the trolleys. This proved no easy task: following the closure of the railroad in 1949, no effort was made to preserve the cars. The only physical remnant was a bench saved by a faculty member; while there were sketches and photographs for reference, no actual blueprints had survived. Commenting on the situation a WMU official remarked that "back then was a period in history so intent on the future, that everyone started forgetting about the past."