New Mexico Rail Runner Express

The New Mexico Rail Runner Express (AAR reporting mark NMRX) is a commuter rail system serving the metropolitan areas of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is administered by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) and the Rio Metro Regional Transit District (Rio Metro), a regional transportation agency, while Herzog Transit Services currently holds the contract for the operation and maintenance of the line & equipment. Phase I of the system, operating on an existing right-of-way from Belen to Bernalillo that NMDOT purchased from BNSF Railway, opened in July 2006. Phase II, the extension of the line to Santa Fe, opened in December 2008. Daily ridership, as of February 2019, was 2,200 trips per day.
Rail Runner service was suspended from March 2020 until March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the suspension, Rio Metro continued to run empty trains along the route in order to maintain readiness of the vehicles and crew. Weekday service resumed March 8, 2021.
History.
The concept of passenger rail serving the Central New Mexico corridor had been discussed for decades, but it wasn't until August 2003, when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced that his administration was going to pursue the implementation of commuter rail service, that a serious effort got underway. Later that same year, grants were given to NMDOT and MRCOG to begin the effort, and the New Mexico State Legislature passed Governor Richardson's Investment Partnership (GRIP), a transportation improvement package with the Rail Runner included as one of the bill's projects.
Over the next few years, NMDOT and the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG) developed a strategy for implementing the rail service. In 2005, a name and a branding scheme was chosen. The name “Rail Runner” is a play on the name of New Mexico's state bird, the roadrunner. The cars and locomotives were received throughout the year of 2005 and groundbreaking for the first Rail Runner station took place on October 31, 2005. During this time the state also conducted negotiations with BNSF over the use of the railroad track. After assessing the needs of the track, the state of New Mexico committed to purchasing the railroad corridor from Belen to the New Mexico-Colorado border from BNSF (although, thus far only the portion between Belen and Lamy, NM has been purchased), to ensure that commuter trains would always get the right-of-way and have priority over freight trains in the corridor. While the engines are capable of , the track limits the maximum speed to .
The Rail Runner officially went into service on July 14, 2006, serving the Downtown Albuquerque, Los Ranchos, and Sandoval County stations. On December 11, 2006, the Los Lunas station opened, and on February 2, 2007, the Belen station opened, extending the line to its southern end. In April 2007, two more stations opened: Bernalillo County/International Sunport on the 20th and Downtown Bernalillo on the 27th. On December 17, 2008, the Isleta Pueblo station opened.
Phase II, the extension of the line to Santa Fe, opened for service on December 17, 2008. Using the existing Santa Fe Southern Railway track from Lamy to Santa Fe, which is filled with sharp curves, would have required the train to slow to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) in some places, so new tracks were laid to allow travel times comparable to the automobile. The route uses previously existing track from Bernalillo to the base of La Bajada, a hill south of Santa Fe. It then runs on newly built track on a new right-of-way from CP Madrid, for five miles and then in the I-25 median into Santa Fe, at CP Hondo, where it uses an improved Santa Fe Southern Railway track from I-25 to the terminal at the Santa Fe Railyard. Two of the planned stations for the Phase II extension opened on December 17: the South Capitol and the Santa Fe Depot stations. A third station at the NM 599/I-25 interchange in Santa Fe County opened on August 1, 2009.
After the opening of the Phase II stations, several more stations opened. Sandia Pueblo station, serving Sandia Pueblo, opened on August 29, 2011. The last planned station in Bernalillo County, the Montaño station, officially opened on April 7, 2014. Kewa Pueblo station, serving Santo Domingo Pueblo, opened on March 22, 2010. It is the first station beyond the original 13 planned stations to reach the construction stage and was built using stimulus funds. On September 12, 2009, a special events platform opened for Lobo games service only.
At the end of March in 2014, the Rail Runner added security officers to the system. Officers are charged with protecting the trains, inspecting fares, and addressing issues at the stations and parking lots. The wearing and use of lapel cameras during incidents is also required.
Construction of the platform at the Zia Road station, the last of the four planned stations for Phase II, was completed several years in advance of the station's opening in April 2017.
Criticism.
The cost of the Rail Runner system was $135 million for the first phase and around $250 million for the second phase. Preliminary estimates indicated that the service would operate at a deficit, requiring up to $10 million in government funding annually. In late 2007, the Rail Runner was the subject of more criticism as a transportation funding shortfall left many state road projects stalled. State officials said the rising cost of construction materials and decreased federal support were the cause, but some lawmakers cited the cost of the Rail Runner as a contributing factor for the shortfall. Supporters of Rail Runner funding note that roadways and other infrastructure for passenger cars also operate at a deficit, requiring government funding for construction, operation, and maintenance.
Funding.
The capital costs of the Rail Runner project were covered by state and local funds. Funding for operations of the system in its first few years was covered largely by federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program funds, along with ticket revenues and some state and local funds. Operational costs were expected to rise from $10 million for the first phase to $20 million after completion of the second phase.
Federal funding for the Rail Runner was expected to stop in 2009. Two separate gross receipts taxes for regional transit were approved by voters in central and north-central New Mexico in November 2008 to cover a large portion of the operational funds of the Rail Runner. Additional funds also come from bond revenue and money appropriated by the New Mexico State Legislature.
Proposed expansion.
The Environmental Assessment for Phase II considered placement of a station between Cerrillos Road and Richards Avenue in the I-25 median; it concluded that there was not yet enough demand, but recommended that it be considered for the future. A station near the Las Soleras development was studied in 2010.
An extension northward to Taos was proposed in the state legislature in 2009. An extension south to Las Cruces and El Paso has also been proposed. A memorandum to study the feasibility of such service was introduced in the state legislature in 2009, and was amended to study Las Cruces-El Paso service, but failed to pass in the New Mexico Legislature. A federal house resolution was introduced by Congressman Harry Teague in May 2009 to study the concept, but did not get out of committee.
Ridership.
On service between Albuquerque and Bernalillo, fares were initially free to attract ridership. On its first day of service, the Rail Runner carried 4,122 passengers. During the initial free period, ridership averaged 4,000 to 4,500 riders per day with a one-day peak of 6,000 riders. Ridership gradually declined during the weeks of free service. Ridership averaged 2,500 to 3,000 riders per day in August 2006, and 2,100 to 2,500 riders per day in September 2006.
In November 2006, free service ended on the line's Sandoval section, and ridership fell to 1,000 passengers per day. When the Los Lunas and Belen stations opened with free service, ridership rose to around 1,800 passengers per day. Free service on the Belen section of the line ended April 1, 2007, and a new zone fare structure went into effect. During the summer of 2007, ridership averaged 2,500 passengers per day. By April 2008, weekly ridership was 9,600.
On December 17, 2008, service to Santa Fe started with a three-month period of free service for Santa Fe County residents and three weekends of free service for the whole system. The original 2005 projected ridership for a slightly different (but similar speed) Phase II route to Santa Fe was 2,954 daily riders. During the first full week of train service between the two cities, more than 33,000 passengers boarded. On the second Saturday of service to Santa Fe, nearly 12,000 people boarded trains between Belen and Santa Fe. Weekend service, which was to be discontinued after the first three weekends of service to Santa Fe, was instead partly retained, with permanent Saturday service. Ridership for the first few weeks of Santa Fe service averaged about 5,000 riders per day, then dropped to an average of around 4,000 riders per day for the month of January 2009.
For four months in 2009, Rail Runner operated game-day trains to sporting events to Lobo Special Events Platform station. After a cumulative total of 227 passengers made use of Lobo, the game-day train service was discontinued and the station abandoned.
Ridership continued to increase through 2010, reaching a peak of 1.24 million passengers annually (4,000 on an average weekday). Since then, passenger numbers have continued to decline year-over-year to a low of under 750,000 in 2019. Government analysts blamed the drop in ridership on low gas prices, infrequent service, and long travel times, and recommended that the state focus on making the service more competitive with car travel. It was also suggested that service to the Downtown Bernalillo station be reduced or eliminated due to low ridership.
Service.
Normal weekday service has eleven round trips: four Santa Fe–Belen round trips (one express), four Albuquerque–Belen round trips, and three Santa Fe–Albuquerque round trips. Saturday service has five northbound trips (four Belen–Santa Fe and one Belen–Albuquerque) and six southbound trips (three Santa Fe–Belen, two Albuquerque–Belen, and one Santa Fe–Albuquerque). Sunday service has three northbound trips (all Belen–Santa Fe) and four southbound trips (two Santa Fe–Belen, one Albuquerque–Belen, and one Santa Fe–Albuquerque). Additional service is provided for some events like the New Mexico Wine Festival; connecting bus shuttles run for the Balloon Fiesta. The cost of Rail Runner tickets is distance-based, with six fare zones.
Route.
The Rail Runner operates on a north–south corridor, which parallels Interstate 25. The southern from Belen through Albuquerque to CP Rael (northwest of Los Cerrillos) was formerly the BNSF Glorieta Subdivision and is shared with BNSF freight trains. The from CP Rael to CP Blewett (south of Santa Fe) largely runs in the median of Interstate 25. The northern into downtown Santa Fe is shared with the Santa Fe Southern Railway.
Rail Runner has 15 active stations: ten in the Sante Fe metro area, two serving Kewa Pueblo and rural areas of Santa Fe County, and three in Santa Fe. All have single side platforms 260 feet (3 cars) to 500 feet long except for South Capitol (which has two side platforms) and Downtown Albuquerque (which has longer island platforms for the Amtrak "Southwest Chief"). An additional station, Lobo Special Events Platform station, is unused.
Bus connections.
Most stations have bus connections, including NMDOT Park and Ride shuttles (at Downtown Albuquerque, NM 599, and South Capitol), ABQRide at four stations (including Albuquerque Rapid Transit at Downtown Albuquerque), and Santa Fe Trails at the two Santa Fe stations. There are also a number of smaller shuttle services serving the Rail Runner: a shuttle to Socorro and through Belen serves the Belen station, Los Lunas Public Transportation serves the Los Lunas station, the Sandoval Easy Express serves the two stations in Bernalillo, the University of New Mexico has a dedicated shuttle connecting its main campus to the Downtown Albuquerque station, a shuttle to Taos serves the Santa Fe Depot and South Capitol stations, and Santa Ana Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, and Pojoaque Pueblo each operate shuttles connecting their casinos to the nearest Rail Runner station.
Rolling stock.
The Rail Runner power includes nine MotivePower MPI MP36PH-3C diesel-electric locomotives, thirteen Bombardier BiLevel Coaches and nine Bombardier BiLevel Cab cars. Coach cars have a seating capacity of 151 passengers while cab cars have a seating capacity of 141 passengers, The livery of the New Mexico Rail Runner depicts a stylistic roadrunner on the locomotive and trailing tailfeathers on the coaches. The "door closing" tones resemble the signature “Beep-Beep” of the Warner Bros. Road Runner cartoon character. Trains operate in a push-pull configuration, with the locomotive always facing south. When not in use, the vehicles are stored in a rail yard in downtown Albuquerque near the Alvarado Transportation Center.


Delaware Water Gap

The Delaware Water Gap is a water gap on the border of the U.S. states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania where the Delaware River cuts through a large ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. The gap constitutes the southern portion of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, which is used primarily for recreational purposes, such as rafting, canoeing, swimming, fishing, hiking, and rock climbing.
Geology.
A water gap is a geological feature where a river cuts through a mountain ridge. The Delaware Water Gap began to form 500 million years ago when quartz pebbles from mountains in the area were deposited in a shallow sea. The Martinsburg Shale on the eastern side of what was to be Kittatinny Mountain was uplifted 450 million years ago when a chain of volcanic islands collided with proto-North America. These islands slid over the North American plate, and deposited rock on top of plate, forming the Highlands and Kittatinny Valley.
About 400 million years ago, a small, narrow continent collided with proto-North America. The heat from the pressure melted the quartzite, which allowed it to bend the quartz pebbles and Silurian Shawangunk Conglomerate. This layer was then uplifted and cracked over thousands of years. During this period, the Delaware River slowly cut its path down through the shattered and cracked quartzite. If the quartzite had not been cracked, the river would not have been able to cut its path through the mountain to form the gap.
Millions of years of rain, ice, snow, and wind erosion shaped the area. The Wisconsin glaciation, which occurred between 21,000 B.C. and 13,000 B.C., covered the entire Kittatinny Ridge and ended near Belvidere. When the glaciers retreated, the existing gap assumed its present form.
The mountain consists of Silurian Shawangunk conglomerate. This is gray quartzite, which makes the mountain highly resistant to weathering. The Silurian High Fall formation of sandstone is on the western side of the gap near the base. The eastern side of the gap has Ordovician Martinsburg shale. Sedimentary rock is along the river. The Bloomsburg Red Beds, a red shale, are at the gap under Dunsfield Creek.
The Delaware Water Gap is about across at river level and wide at the top. The river through the gap is 290 feet above sea level.
The ridge of the Appalachians that the Delaware crosses is called the Blue Mountains in Pennsylvania and the Kittatinny Ridge in New Jersey. This is the first major ridge of the Appalachian mountains. The New Jersey mountain is Mount Tammany, named after the Native American Chief Tamanend. The Pennsylvania mountain is Mount Minsi, named after the Native American tribe of the area. The summit of Tammany is above sea level.
Flora and fauna.
In 1739, America's first botanist, John Bartram of Philadelphia, followed the course of the Delaware River in his search for American trees, evergreens and shrubs to supply new species that were formerly unknown to British naturalists. These gardeners waited months for shipments of saplings, seeds, and pinecones to be sent by sea that were then introduced into English gardens. Using Native American trails , Bartram rode on horseback through the Water Gap, which allowed entry to the lands beyond.
A northern deciduous forest cloaks the slopes of the Delaware Water Gap. Hardwood species comprising the forest include various oaks, hickories, maples, ash, elm, cherry, walnut, birch, sycamore, and beech. Coniferous species include Eastern White Pine, Pitch Pine, Eastern Red Cedar, and Eastern Hemlock.
Black bear, whitetailed deer, gray squirrels, red squirrels, raccoons, gray fox, fisher, and chipmunks are some of the forest species of the area.
Shad migrate up the river through the gap in the spring. Other fish include bass, trout, carp, and walleye.
Timber rattlesnakes and copperheads also inhabit the rocky areas of the mountain. Salamanders are found in the moist areas of the forest. Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus also grows on the mountain near the red dot trail on the south eastern facing slope halfway up the mountain.
Transportation.
Steep rock walls prohibited foot travel through the gap until a road was built on the Pennsylvania side of the river in 1793. In 1830 a road was built on the New Jersey side through the gap and north toward Pahaquarry. Interstate 80 passes through the gap on the New Jersey side as of the early 1970s via the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge. The Pennsylvania portion of the New Jersey Cut-Off mainline of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad comes into Slateford, PA. The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority owns the trackage in the Water Gap area and is operated by the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad. Pennsylvania Route 611, which is adjacent to the railroad for most of way through the gap, occupies the right-of-way of a former trolley line. Interstate 80 occupies the former right-of-way of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway.
Tocks Island and the National Park Service.
In 1962, Congress authorized the building of a dam across the Delaware River at Tocks Island, upstream of the water gap. Meant to control hurricane-related flooding, it was never built. The land for the proposed reservoir, which had already been purchased, was used to create the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in 1965.
There are two visitor centers, one in New Jersey near the Delaware River bridge and the other in Dingman's Ferry, Pennsylvania. Headquarters is located on River Road in Pennsylvania. The New Jersey side of the gap is also protected within Worthington State Forest, a New Jersey State Forest wholly contained within the recreation area.
Hiking trails.
The Red Dot Trail is a 1.2 mile hike up 1200 vertical feet to the top of Mt Tammany which has commanding views of the Mt. Minsi in Pennsylvania (the other side of the gap). The Blue Trail also goes to the top of Mt Tammany from the Appalachian Trail. It is about a 3-mile hike that is less steep than the red dot. The popular route is to hike up the Red Dot Trail and down the Blue Trail.
The Dunfield Creek Trail has green blazes follows this pretty creek and eventually connects to the Appalachian Trail at Sunfish Pond.
The Appalachian Trail which goes from Georgia to Maine enters the Delaware Water Gap at the Delaware River on the Route 80 Bridge and goes to Sunfish Pond and continues northeast to Stokes State Forest. The trail crosses Route 206 and continues along the ridgeline of the Kittatinny Mountains to High Point State Park and eventually goes into New York State.
There are many other hiking trails in the area for all levels of hiking. It is best to use a guide book or stop into the Delaware Water Gap visitor center for more information.
Rock climbing.
The gap is a popular place to rock-climb in New Jersey. The climbs are , climbing on Silurian Shawagunk conglomerate, which is quartzite, with bands of shale from a half inch to four inches thick. Most climbing is done on the New Jersey side due to easier access. There are about one hundred climbs on the New Jersey side. Climbs range from 5.1 to 5.14 on the Yosemite Decimal System scale. Climbers follow the gray dot trail along route 80, then passing the large rock face on route 80. They then go up the path to the route they choose.
In recent years, the Pennsylvania side has been closed to climbing during the nesting season for peregrine falcons; this has resulted in overgrowth of trails and climbing routes, providing an experience closer to the natural state than is found at more popular climbing destinations.
Boy Scout camps.
The Easton Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America operated Weygadt Scout Reservation in the Delaware Water Gap at the base of Mount Tammany from 1931 until 1968. The Reservation was originally home to two Scout camps—the Easton Council's Camp Weygadt on the southern part of the reservation and the Bethlehem Area Council's Camp Minsi on the northern section of the reservation. In the later part of the 1930s, the Bethlehem Council moved their camp to the Poconos, and the entire reservation in the Water Gap became Camp Weygadt. Camp Minsi is now located in Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania, on the shores of Stillwater Lake.
Pahaquarra Boy Scout Camp was located on the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap on Old Mine Road at the abandoned Pahaquarry Copper Mine. The camp served Boy Scouts from the George Washington Council. Just north of this camp was Camp Cowaw Boy Scout Camp which served Raritan Council Boy Scouts.


John McHugh Sr.

John McHugh Sr. (6 March 1924 – 21 July 2019) was an American World War II veteran who participated in the D Day invasion, the Battle of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. He was in the 1st Infantry Division and was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star. The State of New York placed him in its Veterans Hall of Fame. His hometown Whitestone, New York has co-named a street after him.
Military service.
After high school graduation in 1942 McHugh was drafted and completed basic training at Fort McClellan in Alabama. After basic training he went to New York and was transported on the Queen Elizabeth to the United Kingdom. McHugh was in the 1st Infantry Division which landed at Normandy on D-Day and went on to fight at the Battle of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. The State of New York placed him in its Veterans Hall of Fame.
D-Day Invasion.
McHugh and the First Infantry Division (also known as Big Red One) arrived in landing craft at Omaha Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944, at 7:30am. McHugh and roughly 10 soldiers disembarked. As soon as they exited the landing craft, it was destroyed by a German shell. McHugh had been assigned to carry a tripod for a machine gun, however the soldier carrying the machine gun was killed in action so McHugh began crawling up the beach without a weapon. He spent the day in the sand avoiding German gunfire.
Referring to his own experience on D-day, McHugh said, "It's hell day, it really is a hell day. Scared stiff, petrified and running like hell… It was a lot of bodies around, I didn't want to be one of them.” His experience has been cited as emblematic of the dire experiences and vanishing memories of D-Day vets. McHugh sent the money that he earned in the army to his mother (Catherine); his father John was deceased.
Post war.
When the war ended, he was in the Army of Occupation. After seven months he was honorably discharged with the rank of corporal.
Later life and death.
After the war, McHugh worked as a Transit Authority conductor and a private investigator for a security firm.
McHugh died in his sleep 21 July 2019 at his home in Whitestone, New York. His hometown Whitestone New York approved a street co-named in honor of McHugh in 2019.
Personal life.
McHugh was a first generation American, born in Union City, New Jersey; his parents were Irish immigrants. He came from a long line of soldiers. His father (John McHugh) fought heroically in World War I and was shot six times in the Battle of the Argonne forest, and also gassed. McHugh's grandfather fought in the American Civil War.
After World War II ended, John McHugh Sr. returned to the United States and married his childhood sweetheart Rosie McGee on 16 August 1947. Together they had three sons: John, Brian and Tim. He had three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.


Galloping Goose (railcar)

Galloping Goose is the popular name given to a series of seven railcars (officially designated as "motors" by the railroad), built in the 1930s by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad (RGS) and operated until the end of service on the line in the early 1950s. They were derived from full-sized automobiles.
Originally running steam locomotives on narrow gauge railways, the perpetually struggling RGS developed the first of the "geese" as a way to keep its contract to run mail into towns in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. There was not enough passenger or cargo income to justify continuing the expensive steam train service at then-current levels, but it was believed that a downsized railway would return to profitability. The steam trains would transport heavy cargo and peak passenger loads, but motors would handle lighter loads.
Motors were not only less expensive to operate, but were also significantly lighter, thus reducing impact on the rails and roadbeds. This cost saving meant that the first Goose was paid off and making a profit within three weeks of going into service. RGS built more Geese, and operated them until the company abandoned their right-of-way in 1952.
History.
The RGS built its first motor in 1913, as a track maintenance crew vehicle. This was wrecked in 1925, but inspired the idea of using motors for scheduled service.
All of the "geese" were built in the railroad's shops at Ridgway, Colorado. The first was built in 1931 from the body of a Buick "Master Six" four-door sedan. It was more conventional in its construction than the later geese, though it had a two-axle truck in place of the front axle. Part of the rear of the car was replaced by a truck stake-bed for carrying freight and mail; this was later enclosed and partially fitted with seating. It was used for two years to carry passengers, US Mail, and light freight before being scrapped. A second "goose" was built in the same year from another Buick, but later versions used Pierce-Arrow bodies except for #6, which was constructed partly out of parts taken from the scrapped #1.
No. 2 and No. 6 were constructed with two trucks, with the rear truck powered on both axles. #2 had an enclosed freight compartment (like a very short boxcar), while #6 had an open bed similar to #1 (but larger). It was used only for work train service. The other four had three trucks and were articulated in the same manner as a tractor-trailer truck. In these, the second truck was powered, and the freight compartment was essentially a conventional boxcar.
Initially, the "geese" were painted in black and dark green. In 1935 they were all painted in a silver scheme which they retain to this day, though the style of lettering and heralds changed over the years. In 1945, #3, #4, and #5 were rebuilt with Wayne bus bodies (at least the front half) replacing the old Pierce-Arrow bodies. This provided more passenger seating and comfort. A year later they also received new war surplus GMC engines.
In 1950, when the railroad finally lost its mail contract (in favor of highway mail carriers), #3, #4, #5, and #7 were converted for tourist operations, and the "Galloping Goose" name was officially recognized by the railroad. Large windows were cut in the sides of the freight compartments, and seating was added. A figure of a running goose and the words "Galloping Goose" were added to the carbody doors. This service lasted only two years, and the last work of the "geese" on their home line was to take up the rails.
It is unclear exactly where the name "Galloping Goose" comes from. It is mostly commonly suggested that it referred to the way the carbody and the freight compartment tended to rock back and forth on the line's sometimes precarious track. It is also suggested, though, that the name arose because the "geese" were equipped with air horns rather than the whistles of the steam locomotives. The name was used informally for years before the tourist operations, though the railroad officially referred to the units as "motors".
A similar unit was built for the San Cristobal Railroad, and was rebuilt by RGS in 1934–35. When the San Christobal folded in 1939, this unit was returned to the RGS railroad and dismantled, with some parts going to rebuild and maintain Goose No. 2.
The Galloping Goose Regional Trail on Vancouver Island was named after a similar unit that ran on the Vancouver Island section of the Canadian National Railway from 1922 to 1931.
Galloping Goose #5 (along with many local landmarks) was popularized in C. W. McCall's song, "Gallopin' Goose".
Surviving units.
Of the seven "geese", only #1 does not survive; it was scrapped in 1933. However, a replica was built in 2000 for the Ridgway Railroad Museum and is operational today. The other six are located as follows:


San Jose Steam Railroad Museum

The San Jose Steam Railroad Museum is a planned railroad museum within Santa Clara County that has been under development by California Trolley and Railroad Corporation since 1992. This project was originally intended to be located at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, California; however in 2002, the Board of Supervisors voted to rescind support of the proposed railroad museum at that location. Since then, CTRC has been actively working with various public agencies for a suitable alternate site. The proposed location is near downtown San Jose.
Lenzen Roundhouse.
The Lenzen Roundhouse consists of the six stall San Jose Roundhouse, turntable, water tower and herder's shack. The roundhouse was donated to the CRTC by Southern Pacific Railroad. The roundhouse was disassembled and moved to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds for storage until a site is found for the museum.


9 (Los Angeles Railway)

9 was a streetcar line in Los Angeles, California. It was operated by the Los Angeles Railway from 1932 to 1955.
History.
When the M Line was split up in 1932, the segments on 48th and 54th Streets were spun off into their own service: the 9 car. It ran from 48th and Crenshaw to 54th and Crenshaw, in a "U" shaped routing via Downtown.
The service was rerouted in 1934, with the outbound terminal remaining at 48th and Crenshaw and cars running to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's La Grande Station on tracks used by the 7. (Former tracks were taken over by 8 service.) The line ran from 3rd Street and Santa Fe Avenue to 48th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard, by way of 3rd Street, 2nd Street Broadway, Pico Boulevard, Grand Avenue, Santa Barbara Avenue, Hoover Street, and 48th Street.
The line was again rerouted in 1939 as the 48th Street segment of the old 9 was combined with portions of the former 2 and 10 cars. At the intersection of Pasadena and Broadway, the line split into two branches: one to Montecito Drive and one to Mission Road. With the recent opening of Union Station and closure of La Grande Station, the segment of Los Angeles Railway tracks leading to the old facility also abandoned. The branch to Montecito Drive via Griffin Avenue was abandoned in April 1948. Service on the whole line ended after May 22, 1955 when the line was converted to bus operations.


Cincinnati Subdivision

The Cincinnati Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of Kentucky. The line runs from South Shore, Kentucky to Silver Grove, Kentucky for a total of . At its south end the line continues north from the Northern Subdivision and at its north end the line continues north as the Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision.


Joseph Lapsley Wilson

Joseph Lapsley Wilson (September 17, 1844 in Philadelphia – April 12, 1928 in Merion, Pennsylvania) was an American railroad executive, author and horticulturalist. A Civil War veteran, he wrote two histories of Philadelphia's First City Troop.
Son of William Wilson, a merchant, he was educated at West Chester Academy in West Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1862 he enlisted in the Union Army, becoming a member of C Company Grays Reserves. He saw fire in July 1863 at Carlisle, Pennsylvania (north of Gettysburg). At discharge, he held the rank of sergeant.
Following the war, he became secretary of the Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company, a division of the Reading Railroad, which transported anthracite from Northeastern Pennsylvania's coal region. He worked for the company for 38 years.
In 1867, he was elected to the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, the oldest continually-active military unit in the United States. Part of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, he served as the troop's captain, 1889-1894, and wrote its centennial history in 1875. Forty years later, he revised and updated the history: "Book of the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry, 1774-1914" (1915).
He was a director of the Commercial Bank of Philadelphia, a member of the Union League of Philadelphia and of the National Republican League. He advocated for civil rights for Native Americans, and opposed American imperialism.
In the late 1870s, he bought land in Merion, Pennsylvania, just over the Philadelphia city line. He built a mansion, "Red Slates", and turned the grounds into an arboretum, collecting more than 200 specimens of trees. In 1901, he married Caroline Alice Yates.
In 1922, he sold the estate to Dr. Albert C. Barnes, and he and his wife moved to a smaller house on the property. Barnes demolished the mansion to build his art gallery, but preserved the arboretum. Wilson served as the arboretum's first director and as a Barnes Foundation trustee, until his death.
Some of Wilson's trees still survive at the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation.


Dans Run, West Virginia

Dans Run is an unincorporated community in Mineral County, West Virginia. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Dans Run is located along the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (now CSX) at the confluence of Dans Run and the North Branch Potomac River.


Cumberland Valley Subdivision

The Cumberland Valley Subdivision (also CV Subdivision) is a railroad line owned and operated by the CSX Railroad (CSX Transportation) in the U.S. states of Kentucky and Virginia. The line runs from Corbin, Kentucky, east to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, along a former Louisville and Nashville Railroad line.
At its west end, the CC Subdivision heads north to Cincinnati, Ohio, and the KD Subdivision heads south to Etowah, Tennessee. The east end is at an interchange with the Norfolk Southern Railway Appalachia District, where CSX trains can proceed south to the Kingsport Subdivision at Frisco, Tennessee, via trackage rights.
The original L&N line crossed the Cumberland Mountains at Cumberland Gap. The main line was moved east to use the Hagans Tunnel around 1930.


Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway

The Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway is a Class II railroad owned by Genesee & Wyoming. It operates of track from the Pensacola, Florida export terminals, west of downtown, north to Columbus, Mississippi, with trackage rights along BNSF Railway to Amory, Mississippi. A branch uses trackage rights along Norfolk Southern from Kimbrough, Alabama west and south to Mobile, Alabama, with separate trackage at the end of the line in Mobile.
History.
Predecessor lines.
The current AGR is composed of numerous lines built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which were gradually consolidated into a system that was purchased by the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway and remained under that railroad or its successor's control until 1997, when it was spun off into an independent company.
Pre-1922.
The earliest ancestor of the AGR was the Pensacola and Mobile Railroad and Manufacturing Company, which in 1861 constructed of track between Muscogee, Florida and Cantonment, Florida. This line was dismantled by Confederate forces during the Civil War so that the iron rails could be used elsewhere. The railroad was not rebuilt until 1877. In 1874, the company took control of the Pensacola and Perdido Railroad, which ran west from Pensacola about five miles to a lumber mill at Millview, Florida on Perdido Bay. In 1892, the system merged with the Pensacola, Alabama and Tennessee Railroad, which connected the Millview and Muscogee branches. Shortly thereafter, the railroad was renamed the Gulf Ports Terminal Railway.
In 1910, the Gulf Ports Terminal Railway was acquired by Southern States Lumber, which operated of track to move lumber from forests in Baldwin County, Alabama, to its large mill at Muscogee, and on to the port of Pensacola for export. The combined system had a total length of around .
In 1911, the railroad was acquired by the Gulf, Florida, and Alabama Railway. Soon after, construction of a line from Cantonment to Pensacola was begun, being completed in 1913. Almost immediately following the completion of this line, another, much longer line was begun, this one from Cantonment north via Atmore and Frisco City, Alabama to an interchange with the Southern Railway at Kimbrough, Alabama. The line, including a large bridge over the Alabama River, was completed in 1915.
1922-1997.
In 1922, the Gulf, Florida, and Alabama Railway was acquired by the Muscle Shoals, Birmingham and Pensacola Railroad (MSB&P), which only three years later was bought by the Frisco (St. Louis – San Francisco Railway). After the acquisition, the Frisco constructed a line from Aberdeen, Mississippi to Kimbrough, connecting the former MSB&P with the rest of the Frisco's system. This line was completed in 1928.
During the middle of the 20th century, the railroad operated as part of the Frisco, moving bulk products south to Pensacola for export and produce products north, although chemical and paper products took on increased importance by the 1970s. Passenger service over the line continued until 1955, when the "Sunnyland", operating between Pensacola and Kansas City, Missouri, via Amory, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee, was discontinued.
In 1980, the Frisco was acquired by the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN), itself a product of a merger of several railroads in 1970. In 1995, the BN merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form the BNSF Railway.
Current railroad.
In 1997, when BNSF spun off the route between Kimbrough and Pensacola, the Alabama and Gulf Coast was formed to take over operations. In 2003, BNSF sold additional trackage to the AGR: a line between Kimbrough and Columbus, Mississippi, as well as isolated trackage near Mobile, Alabama formerly part of the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad. As part of this deal, the AGR gained trackage rights on BNSF between Columbus and Amory and on the Norfolk Southern Railway between Mobile and Kimbrough.
In 2002, the AGR, which had been formerly owned by States Rail, Inc., a short-line holding company, was acquired by RailAmerica. In late 2012, Genesee & Wyoming acquired the railroad as part of its acquisition of RailAmerica.
Fleet.
As of December 2020, the AGR fleet consisted of the following:
Route Maps.
The AGR operates on a total of 339 miles of owned and leased trackage in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Its also runs via trackage rights over BNSF Railway between Columbus and Amory, MS and Norfolk Southern Railway between Kimbrough and Mobile, AL. The AGR is separated into the following four subdivisions.
The following route maps were created using actual track charts, timetables and maps with satellite imagery.
Traffic.
The railroad's traffic comes mainly from chemicals and plastics, lumber and forest products, metals, pulp and paper. The AGR hauled around 61,000 carloads in 2008.


Thomas Dickson (industrialist)

Thomas Dickson (1824 – July 31, 1884) was an English-American industrialist who manufactured steam engines, boilers and locomotives, and was the President of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.
Early life.
Thomas Dickson was born in Leeds, England in 1824, and died in Morristown, New Jersey.
Dickson and his family immigrated to Nova Scotia in 1835. In 1836, Dickson's family moved to Carbondale, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a mule driver for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.
Early career.
In 1855, Thomas Dickson joined his brothers John and George and friends Maurice and Charles Wurts, and opened a small machine shop and foundry under the name of "Dickson & Co". In 1856, George Scranton persuaded the company to relocate to the newly incorporated Scranton, Pennsylvania. In 1862, The company incorporated as the Dickson Manufacturing Company. Thomas was president from 1856 though 1867.
Later life.
In 1859, Dickson was appointed the superintendent of coal for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. He quickly rose through the ranks and in 1869, Dickson resigned from the Dickson Manufacturing Company and became president of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. He remained in the position until his death in 1884.
Dickson was listed as the director for at least 24 companies during his life.
The borough of Dickson City, Pennsylvania, is named after Thomas Dickson.


Merchants Despatch

The Merchants Despatch Transportation Company (MDT, also known as the Merchants Despatch Refrigerator Line) was established in 1857 or 1858 by the American Express Company of New York (then a freight forwarding service). The entity was reformed as a joint stock trading company on June 1, 1869, with ownership divided among the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway (CCC&I), the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, and the New York Central Railroad (NYC), all part of the Cornelius Vanderbilt rail empire.
The MDT entered the refrigerated transit business around 1880, and within five years had 1,900 reefers in service, making it one of the largest such concerns in the United States. Historian and author John H. White describes MDT as "the oldest corporate name connected with refrigerated transit to survive into modern times." The company began manufacturing cars on a small scale in 1883, and in spring of 1887 constructed a large manufacturing facility near Rochester, New York in a town they named Despatch (present-day East Rochester). MDT hired 900 workers and embarked on an aggressive car building program; by 1900 the firm owned 6,687 units, slightly more than half of which were refrigerator cars.
The East Rochester plant would grow in time to encompass some 64 acres (with an adjacent rail yard of equal size), and would produce on the order of 36 cars per day. The installation became the main car plant within the New York Central system. MDT adopted the Wickes Patent into its refrigerator car design. Even with its own substantial manufacturing capacity, MDT at times purchased rolling stock from outside companies such as Pullman in order to meet the demands imposed by its rapidly expanding shipping service.
The company incorporated in the State of New York in May, 1911. 3,400 reefers were sold to the NYC in December 1912, and 2,988 to the Lake Shore line, though all of the units were in turn leased back to the MDT. The firm was reincorporated as a Delaware corporation in 1923. Circa 1925, the NYC established a new subsidiary, the Eastern Refrigerator Despatch (mirroring the expansion strategy of the rival Fruit Growers Express). Operation of the ERD, along with its 2,100 reefers, was quickly absorbed by Merchants Despatch. In November, 1928 the MDT purchased the Northern Refrigerator Car Line (founded by Milwaukee's Cudahy brothers) and its 1,800 cars.
A holding company, Merchants Despatch, Inc., merged with the MDT in 1936; the new venture was chartered in Delaware on December 18. In 1962 the NRC was combined with Merchants Despatch. At the same time, greater emphasis was placed on auto carrier business; from 1961 to 1966, the company acquired nearly 1,200 autorack cars (although the base flatcars were owned by MDT, the rack structures were owned by the New York Central). MDT also entered the Intermodal freight transport business, and purchased 572 Flexi-Van container flats (intended mainly for use in mail service on passenger trains) between 1958 and 1965.
As part of the consolidation of facilities planned for the Penn Central merger, the car shop was closed down on April 1, 1970, and the 72-acre property was sold off. In July, 1985 the MDT assumed the responsibility for car weighing and inspection previously under the purview of the Eastern Weighing and Inspection Bureau.
After ceasing construction, MDT would continue as a repair shop, and a car lessor to both railroad and private companies. As an independent lessor, it was able to outlast NYCs merger into Penn Central, and their collapse into Conrail. However, after the 1998 purchase of Conrail, MDT's assets were merged and the company dissolved in 2000.
Merchants Despatch Transportation Company Roster, 1900–1970:
Northern Refrigerator Car Line Roster, 1930–1960:


Baltimore and Ohio Railroad locomotives

On the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, locomotives were always considered of great importance, and the railroad was involved in many experiments and innovations.
History.
Early locomotives.
The name "Tom Thumb" is forever associated with the B&O, as the first steam locomotive built in the United States for an American railroad. It was built strictly as a demonstrator, but it was succeeded by a series of similar locomotives (the "Grasshoppers" and the "Crabs") designed by Ross Winans, the first head of motive power on the railroad. Early B&O designs were quite unlike those used on other roads, due to in-house design and the emphasis of pulling power. 4-2-0 locomotives from Norris (represented by the "Lafayette" reproduction in the B&O museum's collection) were the anomaly on a railroad which was already building eight-coupled (0-8-0) locomotives well before the Civil War. By the beginning of the war, new power on the railroad had become more conventional, though many of the older, unconventional designs remained.
Up until 1884 locomotive numbers were reused when locomotives were retired; numbers were not allocated sequentially (unless lower numbers were used up). In 1884, in order to reduce confusion, all locomotives were renumbered to group like locomotives together, and thereafter numbers were retired along with the locomotive to which they referred.
The Baltimore Belt Line and electrification.
John W. Garrett's desire to have a line to New York led to the construction of the Baltimore Belt Line in order to bring the railroad across Baltimore. The most important feature of this was the Howard Street Tunnel, which began at Camden Station and headed north to Mount Royal Station. Objections to use of steam led, in 1895, to the first main line electrification in North America. Trains in one direction were pulled through the tunnel, by a series of electric locomotives that lasted until the end of steam; in the other direction, the train simply drifted down the slope. Dieselization made the electrification unnecessary and it was discontinued in 1952.
"Old Maude".
Another innovation was the introduction of Mallet locomotives. Economies in haulage could be achieved by reducing the number of locomotives and trains needed, so ever more powerful locomotives were always sought. In 1904 #2400, a 0-6-6-0 design, was introduced, and quickly became known as "Old Maude" after a mule in a cartoon. "Old Maude" was renumbered to #7000 in 1915, and it boasted an impressive 71,500 pound tractive effort and was a great success at a Maximum speed of only 21 mph. It was the first Mallet in North America. Mallets were built in large numbers for the B&O, culminating in the huge EM-1 2-8-8-4.
"Uncle Dan" and Colonel Emerson.
In the presidency of Daniel Willard, the motive power department, headed by Col. George H. Emerson, entered on a long series of experiments intended to improve the performance of the steam locomotive. Particular emphasis was placed on the water tube boiler, as opposed to the fire tube boiler used from the earliest days of steam. (In practice, only the firebox used water tubes.) The culmination of these experiments was the duplex #5600 "George H. Emerson", the first of its kind. It was to be succeeded by a visionary locomotive of a unique design, of which very little was built before the whole project was cancelled.
Many other trials were conducted of steam locomotive appliances, very few of which had any lasting impact.
At the turn of the 20th century various compound locomotives were tried, particularly of the Vauclain and tandem patterns. As on other roads, they presented maintenance problems, and only the Mallets were repeated. Some engines had scoops to take on water from track pans, which were found on the line to New York.
The P-7 "president" engines were originally painted olive green, with the name of a United States president in gold on the cab; later they were painted a dark blue. Certain experimental engines had a British-style firebox door instead of the usual American Type.
Diesels.
Other trials, it can be said, changed the face of railroading. In 1925 the B&O was one of the buyers of the first model of diesel locomotive, of which CNJ 1000 was the first example. These were used as yard engines in areas where smoke abatement led to restrictions or bans on the use of steam. In 1935 a single unit mainline diesel-electric engine (#50) was constructed; this was eventually transferred to the Chicago and Alton Railroad, an affiliated line.
Finally in 1937 the B&O bought the first multiple unit diesel locomotives to power its passenger trains. And in 1937 they ran the first coast to coast use of diesel electric locomotives. The railroad put an end to the steam locomotive experiments, though wartime pressures would lead to purchase of many other new steam locomotives. Dieselization took many years, and in the meantime a long program of upgrading older locomotives was continued. The P-7 Pacifics were particularly targeted for improvements, culminating in the "Cincinnatian", for which four of the engines were upgraded and streamlined to a design by Olive Dennis, who also supervised the refurbishment of the rolling stock.
The B&O did not emphasize standardization, and when road diesels were bought, they were purchased from nearly every manufacturer. By the time of the railroad's purchase in 1963, though, they were well on their way to becoming the all-EMD line which they remained to the end.
In 1954 a group of steam switchers was renumbered to free up numbers in the 600s and 700s for diesels. Then in 1956 all locomotives were renumbered again. All steam locomotives were renumbered below 1000, thus freeing all four digit numbers for use by the growing numbers of diesels.
Locomotive Classification.
Before the Civil War, the B&O organized its locomotives into four classes, based upon relative power. After the war this was felt to be inadequate, and a classification scheme was devised, based upon wheel arrangement. Each wheel arrangement was assigned a letter, except for 4-4-0 locomotives, which were subdivided according to cylinder size. When articulated steam locomotives were first introduced, they were assigned a single class ("O"). This proved inadequate almost immediately and a two letter code was used instead, based on treating the locomotive as if it were two engines coupled back-to-back.
Within each letter class, a number was assigned for each successive design. Usually the first class was numbered "1". Locomotives acquired through mergers were renumbered and reclassified to fit into the sequences of numbers and classes.
Lowercase letter suffixes were used to denote successive modifications of a design. The "t" suffix was also used to indicate that the locomotive was assigned an extra large tender. In the 20th century, such modifications were common, and the pattern of suffixes could become confusing. At one point there was even a class "Q"odd"" Mikado (2-8-2).
Diesel locomotives were initially classified according to intended service and model. Eventually this was dropped in favor of using the manufacturer's model designations.
Steam classes were as follows:
Articulated classes:
Electric locomotive classes were as follows:
There was one gasoline-powered locomotive:


Magruder Branch


Alfred Wolcott Gibbs

Alfred Wolcott Gibbs (October 27, 1856 – May 19, 1922) was a mechanical engineer in the railroad industry who attained the position of chief mechanical engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
He was instrumental in the design of a number of important PRR locomotive classes, including the E6 4-4-2 "Atlantic" type, the K4s 4-6-2 "Pacific" type, and the L1s 2-8-2 "Mikado" type.
Biography.
He was born in Fort Fillmore in what is now New Mexico, and died of a heart attack at his home in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Alfred Gibbs was educated first at Rutgers College (1873–1874) and then at the Stevens Institute of Technology (1874–1878), graduating in mechanical engineering.
He joined the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1879 as an apprentice.
Gibbs was appointed General Superintendent of Motive Power of Lines East in 1903, replacing William W. Atterbury.
He was a hereditary member of the Aztec Club of 1847, representing his father General Alfred Gibbs.


Northern Pacific Railway Museum

The Northern Pacific Railway Museum is a railroad museum in Toppenish, Washington. It is located on 10 Asotin Av. and open between May and December.
In 1990 the ex-Northern Pacific Railway depot in Toppenish, WA, was leased and subsequently purchased from the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1993 for the museum.
In 1993 the 1902 Northern Pacific steam locomotive #1364 was leased, and restoration began. Currently the 1364 is being hydro-tested and upon passing at 200psi it will be fully steamed and certified under the FRA. Present goal is to be operational by Christmas 2018. In 2017 the Northern Pacific Railway Museum fully purchased the 1364 from the City of Tacoma and own a clear title to the engine.


James U. Jackson

James Urquhart Jackson (June 24, 1856 - October 15, 1925) was a native of Augusta, GA known primarily for founding and developing the city of North Augusta, SC. Jackson worked as a financer, a railroad builder, and as a developer of industrial affairs for Georgia.
Biography.
Life.
Jackson was born in Augusta, GA June 24, 1856. Jackson's parents were George and Catherine Jackson. George Jackson was a native of Georgia and Catherine was from Massachusetts but grew up in Augusta. With nine siblings, James was the fifth child from George and Catherine. James went to school at and graduated from Richmond Academy in 1873, he then went on to get a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia.
In 1887 Jackson married Minnie Falligant in Athens, GA. They had two children, Robert Falligrant (who died of cholera at only five months old in 1880) and Walter M. (born in 1881 and died in 1932). Minnie died in 1883. Then in 1889, Jackson married again to Edith B. King, and they had four children: Daisy, Edith, James, Jr., and John.
Edith, Jackson's daughter would be married in 1913 to James Bishop Alexander. Jackson's first son, Walter was married in 1914, and in 1915 Daisy married A. Baudry Moore in the month of December. Unfortunately, the Jackson home was set on fire right before the wedding at 6:30 PM (after this event, the home was referred to as "Rosemary Hall"). Then, in 1917, Jackson's son, James Jr. would marry Lilla Fickling.
Jackson died on October 15, 1925 after suffering from an illness for a short period of time. Jackson's funeral took place in his home with the Reverend T.C O'Dell from Grace United Methodist church conducting the services. Jackson was buried in Sunset Hill Cemetery; and thirty years later in 1955, Edith, Jackson's wife would join him in the lot beside him.
Career.
After graduating he took part in looking after securities, stocks, and bonds in Augusta until 1894. During which time, he sold bonds; the money earned from the sales went toward building the Augusta and Knoxville, the Georgia Southern and Florida, the Augusta Southern and the Marietta and North Georgia railroad systems. Jackson was the president of the Marietta and North Georgia railway and through the construction of this railway, the development of the Georgia marble quarries was possible. Jackson was the first to use the marble mines, and the first column taken from the mines was used in the building of his home in North Augusta, SC. Jackson, being in control of the marble quarries, organized and negotiated the sale of the marble used for several major buildings throughout the US (such as the New York Stock Exchange Building and the Minnesota State Capitol Building). Jackson later went on to build the Augusta-Aiken Railway.
On March 24, 1890, Jackson bought a deed for $100,000 that gave him rights to 5,600 acres of what is now North Augusta, SC from Mrs. Mattie Butler Mealing. Later on, that same year, Jackson, his brother, and his lawyer got together to petition the city council of Augusta, GA to let them conduct the project of building a bridge between Augusta, GA and North Augusta, SC. The council decided in Jackson's favor and he received privileges to build a steel bridge (without taxes) for $85,000 which would connect North Augusta with 13th Street in Augusta. In February 1891, the first meeting of the North Augusta Land Company met, with investors representing 80% of the total capital stock of the company, and then in late October of the same year, the bridge was opened to the public. In 1893, Jackson was made the president of the Augusta Southern Railroad.
In 1897, Jackson added trolleys to North Augusta that provided transportation between Augusta and the Natatorium in North Augusta. Beforehand, the trolleys went to Crystal Lake and later they went to Jackson Avenue. After Jackson was re-elected in 1897 (the vote was unanimous) to be the president of the Augusta Southern Railroad, he went to Columbus, GA for a meeting to reorganize the Eagle and Phoenix Manufacturing Company. Then in 1901, Jackson announced plans of the construction of the Augusta-Aiken Electric Road which would be powered by electricity generated by the steam plant on Clearwater Road. Then in 1902, Jackson built his home on the corner of Forest Avenue and Carolina Avenue. The house has twenty-two rooms and a porch that is supported by 50-foot columns made of the marble from the Georgia marble mines. The home would not be called Rosemary Hall until 1915. Jackson's home is still standing today.
In 1902, Jackson began the construction of the Hampton Terrace Hotel and it would be completed the following year. The hotel would be one of Jackson's most notable achievements, accommodating for 500 guests with the 300 rooms it would house. However, in 1916 on New Year's Eve, the hotel was burned to the ground with nothing left standing but the brick chimney. After this event, Jackson did not have the same amount of momentum to develop and improve North Augusta. Also in 1903, Jackson sold the land for Grace Methodist Episcopal Church South for $1.00. The church was later renamed United Methodist Church, and is known today as Grace United Methodist Church. Jackson's family decided to become members of the church in 1905, and in 1906 Jackson donated more land to the church for the minister to build a house on. The deed was later given to the church in 1912.
After selling the Augusta Florida railway system, Jackson returned from a business trip to New York with a new plan in 1906 to build a railroad from Augusta to Valdosta. Jackson was also a temporary chairman for the Georgia-Carolina fair that would be held from October 31 to November 3 in 1906. Then in 1908, Jackson invited William Howard Taft to join him in his home in North Augusta for the Christmas holiday. Early, the next year, Taft gave his first public address in Augusta. Jackson held a banquet in the Hampton Terrace Hotel after the address was concluded. Jackson retired from being the chairman of the Georgia-Carolina fair in December 1909.
In 1912 while hunting, Jackson was accidentally shot in the face. He then returned to his home in North Augusta to have the fragments of birdshot removed and recover from the injury. Later that same year, he presided as Vice President over the meeting of the street railways interest.
Then, in January 1917, Jackson had plans of rebuilding the Hampton Terrace Hotel. The full plans would not be released until February 1917, and would never come to fruition.


Staten Island Railway

The Staten Island Railway (SIR) is a rapid transit line in the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is owned by the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (SIRTOA), a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and operated by the New York City Transit Authority Department of Subways. SIR operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing local service between St. George and Tottenville, along the east side of the island. The only line on the island, there is no direct rail link between the SIR and the New York City Subway system, but SIR riders do receive a free transfer to New York City Transit bus and subway lines, and the line is included on official New York City Subway maps. Commuters on the railway typically use the Staten Island Ferry to reach Manhattan; the line is accessible from within the Ferry Terminal, and most of its trains connect with the ferry.
The line has a route bullet similar to other subway routes: the letters "SIR" in a blue circle. It is used on timetables, the MTA website, and some signage, but not on trains. Like the New York City Subway, the line runs 24 hours a day every day of the year, and is one of the few 24/7 mass-transit rail systems in the United States.
Although the railway was originally considered a standard rail line, the existing line is severed from the national rail system, and only a small portion of the former North Shore Branch still sees freight use. The passenger operations are now regulated as a rapid transit system, and exempt from certain regulations. The line uses modified R44 subway cars, with planned replacement by R211 cars.
History.
19th century.
The Staten Island Rail Road was incorporated on August 2, 1851, after Perth Amboy and Staten Island residents petitioned for a Tottenville-to-Stapleton rail line. The railroad was financed with a loan from Cornelius Vanderbilt, the sole Staten Island-to-Manhattan ferry operator on the East Shore, his first involvement in a railroad. The line was completed to Tottenville on June 2, 1860. Under the leadership of Vanderbilt's brother, Jacob H. Vanderbilt, the Staten Island Rail Road took over several independent ferries. The Staten Island Railway and ferry line made a modest profit until the explosion of the ferry "Westfield" at Whitehall Street Terminal on July 30, 1871. By July 1872, the railroad and ferry were in receivership. On September 17, 1872, the company was sold to George Law in foreclosure. The following April 1, the Staten Island Rail Road was transferred to the Staten Island Railway Company.
By 1880 the railway was barely operational, and New York State sued (through Attorney General Hamilton Ward) to dissolve the company in May of that year. Erastus Wiman, one of the island's most prominent residents, organized the Staten Island Rapid Transit Company (SIRT) on March 25, 1880, and partnered with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) to build a large rail terminal on the island and centralize the six-to-eight ferry landings. He secured an extension on a land-purchase option from George Law by offering to name it "St. George" after him.
Construction of the Vanderbilt's Landing-to-Tompkinsville portion of the North Shore Branch began on March 17, 1884, and the line opened for passenger service on August 1 of that year. The lighthouse just above Tompkinsville impeded the line's extension to St. George but, after the SIRT lobbied for an act of Congress, construction of a two-track, tunnel under the lighthouse began in 1885 for about $190,000. The SIR was leased to the B&O for 99 years in 1885. Proceeds of the lease were used to complete the terminal at Saint George, pay for two miles of waterfront property, complete the Rapid Transit Railroad, build a bridge over the Kill Van Kull at Elizabethport, and build other terminal facilities. The North Shore Branch opened for service on February 23, 1886, to Elm Park. The Saint George terminal opened on March 7, 1886, and all SIR lines were extended to the station. The remainder of the North Shore Branch, to its terminus at Erastina, was opened in the summer of 1886. On January 1, 1888, the South Beach Branch opened for passenger service to Arrochar. In 1893, the South Beach Branch was extended from Arrochar to a new terminal at South Beach. The new lines opened by the B&O were known as the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway, and the original line (from Clifton to Tottenville) was called the Staten Island Railway.
In 1886, Congress passed a law authorizing the construction of a swing bridge over Arthur Kill, after three years of effort by Wiman. The bridge was completed three days early, on June 13, 1888, at 3 p.m. The Arthur Kill Bridge was the world's largest drawbridge when it opened, and there were no fatalities in its construction. In 1889, construction began on a line from Arthur Kill to the Jersey Central at Cranford, and was finished later in the year. On January 1, 1890, the first train operated from St. George Terminal to Cranford Junction. When the Arthur Kill Bridge was completed, the United States War Department was unsuccessfully pressured by the Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania Railroads to have the newly built bridge replaced with a bridge with a different design; according to the railroads, it was an obstruction to navigation of the large numbers of coal barges past Holland Hook on Arthur Kill. In 1897, the terminal at Saint George (which served the railroad and the ferry to Manhattan) was completed.
20th century.
Improvements were made to the SIRT after the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) took control of the B&O in 1900, after which the B&O became profitable again. On October 25, 1905, New York City took ownership of the ferry and terminals and evicted the B&O from the Whitehall Street terminal. The St. George Terminal was then built by the city for $2,318,720, .
In anticipation of a tunnel under the Narrows to Brooklyn and a connection there with the BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, the SIRT electrified its lines with third rail power distribution and cars similar to those of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). The first electric train was operated on the South Beach Branch between South Beach and Fort Wadsworth on May 30, 1925, and the other branches were electrified by November of that year. Electrification did not greatly increase traffic, and the tunnel was never built. During the 1920s, a branch line along Staten Island's West Shore was built to haul building materials for the Outerbridge Crossing. The branch was cut back to a point south of the crossing after the bridge was built. The Gulf Oil Corporation opened a dock and tank farm along Arthur Kill in 1928; to serve it, the Travis Branch was built south from Arlington Yard into the marshes of the island's western shore to Gulfport in the early 1930s.
The Port Richmond–Tower Hill viaduct, the nation's largest grade-crossing-elimination project, was completed on February 25, 1937. The viaduct, more than a mile long, spanned eight grade crossings on the SIRT's North Shore Branch and was the final part of a $6 million grade-crossing-elimination project on the island which eliminated thirty-four crossings on its north and south shores.
Freight and World War II traffic helped pay some of the SIRT's accumulated debt, and the line was briefly profitable in the 1940s. All East Coast military-hospital trains were handled by the SIRT during the war, and some trains stopped at Staten Island's Arlington station to transfer wounded soldiers to a large military hospital. The need to transport war materiel, POW trains and troops made the stretch of the Baltimore & New York Railway between Cranford Junction and Arthur Kill extremely busy. The B&O also operated special trains for important officials, such as Winston Churchill. On June 25, 1946, a fire destroyed the St. George Terminal; three people were killed, twenty-two were injured and damage totaled $22 million. The fire destroyed the ferry terminal, the four slips used for service to Manhattan and the SIRT terminal. Normal service was not restored until July 13, 1946, and a request for bids to build a temporary terminal was issued on August 21 of that year. On February 10, 1948, a replacement terminal was promised by Mayor William O'Dwyer. The new $23 million terminal opened on June 8, 1951, with ferry, bus and rail service in one building; portions of the new terminal were phased into service earlier.
Ridership decreased from 12.3 million in 1947 to 4.4 million in 1949 as passengers switched from the rail line to city-operated buses due to a bus-fare reduction. In September 1948, about half of weekday trains were cut, night trains after 1:29 a.m. were cancelled, and thirty percent of the company's employees were laid off. After backlash, service was slightly increased. On September 22, the Interstate Commerce Commission allowed the SIRT to abandon the ferry it had operated for 88 years between Tottenville and Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and the ferry operation was transferred to Sunrise Ferries of Elizabeth, New Jersey on October 16. SIRT discontinued passenger service on the North Shore Branch and the South Beach Branch at midnight on March 31, 1953, due to competition from city-operated buses; the South Beach Branch was abandoned shortly afterwards, and the North Shore Branch continued to carry freight. On September 7, 1954, SIRT applied to discontinue passenger service on the Tottenville Branch on October 7 of that year; a large city subsidy allowed passenger service on the branch to continue.
In 1956, work began on the replacement of the Arthur Kill swing bridge by a single-track, vertical-lift bridge, which opened in August 1959. The prefabricated, 2,000-ton bridge was floated into place. The new bridge could rise and, since it aided navigation on Arthur Kill, the federal government assumed 90% of the project's $11 million cost. Freight trains started crossing the bridge when it opened on August 25, 1959. The Travis Branch was extended in 1958 to a new Consolidated Edison power plant in Travis (on the West Shore), allowing coal trains from West Virginia to serve the plant.
Operation of the Tottenville line was turned over to the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (a division of the state's Metropolitan Transportation Authority) on July 1, 1971, and the line was purchased by the city of New York. As part of the agreement, freight on the line would continue to be handled by the B&O under the Staten Island Railroad. The first six R44 cars (the same as the newest cars then in use on the subway lines in the other boroughs) were put into SIRT service on February 28, 1973, replacing the ME-1 cars which had been in service since 1925. Between 1971 and 1973, a project began to extend the high-level platforms at six stations. A station-rebuilding program began in 1985, and the line's R44s were overhauled starting in 1987.
The B&O became part of the larger C&O system in a merger with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and the island's freight operation was renamed the Staten Island Railroad Corporation in 1971. The B&O and C&O became isolated from their other properties in New Jersey and Staten Island with the creation of Conrail on April 1, 1976, in a merger of bankrupt lines in the northeastern U.S. Their freight service now terminated in Philadelphia, but for several years afterward B&O locomotives and one B&O freight train a day ran to Cranford Junction. In 1973, the Jersey Central's car float yard was closed; however, the B&O's car-float operation was later brought back to Staten Island at Saint George Yard, after having ended in September 1976. This car-float operation was taken over by the New York Dock Railway in September 1979, and ended the following year. Only a few isolated industries on Staten Island used rail freight, and the yard at Saint George was essentially abandoned. The C&O system sold the Staten Island Railroad to the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad, owned by the Delaware Otsego Corporation, in April 1985 due to a lack of business. The Susquehanna then embargoed the track east of Elm Park on the North Shore Branch, ending rail freight to Saint George. Procter & Gamble (the line's largest customer) closed in 1990, leading to a large drop in freight traffic. The last freight train crossed the bridge in 1990 and the operation ended on July 25, 1991, when the Arthur Kill Bridge was taken out of service. The North Shore Branch and the Arthur Kill Bridge were then taken over by CSX Transportation (CSX). The line and bridge were purchased in 1994 by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), followed by a decade of false starts.
SIRT was transferred from the New York City Transit Authority's Surface Transit Division to its Department of Rapid Transit on July 26, 1993, and that year the Dongan Hills station became accessible, making it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. MetroCards were accepted for fare payment at the St. George station beginning on March 31, 1994, and the station became the 50th MTA rapid transit station to accept them. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) restored the line's original name on April 2 of that year as the MTA Staten Island Railway (SIR). On July 4, 1997, the MTA eliminated fares for travel between Tompkinsville and Tottenville as part of the year's "One City, One Fare" fare reductions. United Transportation Union Local 1440, the union representing SIR employees, was concerned about the fare reduction in part because of an expected increase in ridership. No turnstiles were installed at the other stations on the line, and passengers at St. George began paying when entering and exiting; fares had previously been collected on board by the conductor. The removal of fares was blamed for an immediate spike in crime along the line. Three afternoon express trains were added to the schedule on April 7, 1999, nearly doubling the previous express service. The express trains skipped stops between St. George and Great Kills. A several-hundred-foot section of the easternmost portion of the North Shore Branch was reopened for passenger service to the Richmond County Bank Ballpark, home of the Staten Island Yankees minor-league baseball team, on June 24, 2001; the service was discontinued on June 18, 2010. A new station building at Tompkinsville opened on January 20, 2010, with turnstiles installed to prevent passengers from exiting (free of charge) at Tompkinsville and walking the short distance to the St. George ferry terminal.
Current use.
Passenger service.
Although the Staten Island Railway originally consisted of three lines, only the north-south Main Line is in passenger service. It resembles an outdoor line of the New York City Subway. Although the railway has been grade-separated from all roads since the 1960s, it runs more or less at street level for a brief stretch north of Clifton, between the Grasmere and Old Town stations, and from south of the Pleasant Plains station to Tottenville—the end of the line. The terminus at St. George provides a direct connection with the Staten Island Ferry. St. George has twelve tracks, ten of which are in service. Tottenville has a three-track yard to the east of the station, which itself has two tracks and an island platform.
Rolling stock consists of modified R44 subway-type cars built in early 1973, added to the end of the R44 order of subway cars for New York City Transit; they were the last cars built by the St. Louis Car Company. Heavy maintenance is performed at NYCT's Clifton Shops, and any work unable to be done at Clifton requires the cars to be trucked over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to the subway's Coney Island Complex in Brooklyn. The right-of-way includes elevated, embankment and open-cut sections, as well as a tunnel near St. George.
Before 2007, the Staten Island Railway used Baltimore & Ohio Railroad-style color position light signals dating back to its B&O days. That year, a $72-million project to replace the old signal system was completed. The system was replaced with an FRA-compliant 100 Hz, track-circuit-based automatic train control (ATC) signal system. As part of the project, forty R44 subway cars and four locomotives were modified with onboard cab signaling equipment for ATC bi-directional movement. A new rail control center and backup control center were built as part of the project. The line uses NYC Transit-standard 600 V DC third-rail power.
Sally Librera has been the railway's vice-president and chief officer since her appointment in May 2017. The workforce, about 200 hourly employees, is represented by United Transportation Union Local 1440.
Accessibility.
Only the Dongan Hills, St. George, Great Kills, and Tottenville stations have been renovated to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; these stations have elevators and/or ramps. In late 2019, as part of the MTA's 2020–2024 capital plan, three stations are planned to be renovated to become ADA-accessible. These stations are Huguenot, New Dorp, and Clifton.
The Prince's Bay, Huguenot, Annadale, Great Kills, Dongan Hills, and Arthur Kill stations have park-and-ride facilities. The newest station on the Staten Island Railway, Arthur Kill, opened on January 21, 2017, and is ADA-compliant. The station is between (and has replaced) the now-demolished Atlantic and Nassau stations, which were in the poorest condition of all the stations on the line.
Police.
On June 1, 2005, the Staten Island Rapid Transit Police Department was disbanded and its 25 railroad police officers became part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department. The MTA Police Department was created in 1998 with the merger of the Long Island Rail Road Police Department and the Metro-North Railroad Police Department. The MTA Police Department then opened its newest patrol district, Police District #9, which began covering the Staten Island Railway.
Fare.
The cash fare is $2.75, the same fare as the New York City Subway and MTA buses. Fares are paid on entry and exit only at St. George and Tompkinsville. Rides not originating or terminating at St. George or Tompkinsville are free. Fares are payable by MetroCard or OMNY. Since the card enables free transfers for a continuous ride on the subway and bus systems, for many more riders there is effectively no fare for riding the SIR. Riders can also transfer between a Staten Island bus, the SIR and a Manhattan bus (or subway) near South Ferry. Because of this, the SIR's 2001 farebox recovery ratio was 0.16; for every dollar of expense, 16 cents was recovered in fares (the lowest ratio of MTA agencies). The low farebox recovery ratio is part of the reason the MTA sought to merge the SIR with the subway to form MTA Subways in October 2002: to simplify accounting and subsidy of a single line.
Before the 1997 introduction of the one-fare zone, with the MetroCard's free transfers from the SIR to the subway system and MTA buses, fares were collected from passengers boarding at stops other than St. George by onboard conductors. In the past, passengers had avoided paying the fare by exiting at Tompkinsville and walking a short distance to the St. George Ferry Terminal. The MTA installed turnstiles at Tompkinsville and a new station building, which opened on January 20, 2010.
On October 23, 2017, it was announced that the MetroCard would be phased out and replaced by OMNY, a contactless fare payment system also by Cubic, with fare payment being made using Apple Pay, Google Pay, debit/credit cards with near-field communication technology, or radio-frequency identification cards. Though full implementation of OMNY is planned for 2020, support of the MetroCard is slated to remain until 2023.
Freight service.
During the early 2000s, plans to reopen the Staten Island Rapid Transit line in New Jersey were announced by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). Since the Central Railroad of New Jersey became a New Jersey Transit line, a new junction would be built to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad. So all New England and southern freight could pass through the New York metropolitan area, two rail tunnels from Brooklyn (one to Staten Island and the other to Greenville, New Jersey) were planned.
On December 15, 2004, a $72 million project to reactivate freight service on Staten Island and repair the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge was announced by the NYCEDC and the PANYNJ. Projects on the Arthur Kill Bridge included repainting the steel superstructure and rehabilitating its lift mechanism. In 2006, the freight line connection reopened from New Jersey to the Staten Island Railroad, including the Arthur Kill Bridge. Regular service began on April 2, 2007 (16 years after it had closed) to ship container freight from the Howland Hook Marine Terminal and other industrial businesses. The service at the marine terminal is part of the PANYNJ's ExpressRail system completed with of the single-track Chemical Coast connector. Service is provided by and Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CRCX) for its co-owners, CSX, Norfolk Southern Railway.
As part of the project, a portion of the North Shore Branch was rehabilitated, the Arlington Yard was expanded, and of new track was laid along the Travis Branch to Staten Island Transfer Station at Fresh Kills. Soon after service restarted on the line, Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially commemorated the reactivation on April 17, 2007. As of 2019, the New York City Department of Sanitation's contractor was moving containers of municipal solid waste by barge from Queens and Manhattan to the Howland Hook Marine Terminal for transfer to rail there.
Along the remainder of the North Shore Branch, there are still tracks and rail overpasses in some places.
Future plans.
Elected officials on Staten Island, including State Senator Diane Savino, have demanded the replacement of the railway's aging R44 cars. Although the Metropolitan Transportation Authority initially planned to order R179s for the Staten Island Railway, it was later decided to overhaul R46s to replace the R44s. However, the R46 overhaul plan was also dropped, and 75 R211S cars will replace the R44s. In the meantime, the R44s are receiving intermittent rounds of scheduled maintenance to extend their usefulness until at least 2022–2023.
There has been discussion of building an in-fill station in the Rosebank neighborhood, which would bridge the longest gap between two stations (Grasmere and Clifton). The area was once home to the Rosebank station on the railway's now-defunct South Beach Branch, which was located east of the proposed station site.
Several proposals have been made to connect the SIR to the subway system, including the abandoned, unfinished Staten Island Tunnel and a line along the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge using B Division cars and loading gauge, but economic, political and engineering difficulties have prevented these projects from realization.
Possible branch restoration.
In a 2006 report, the "Staten Island Advance" explored the restoration of passenger service on of the North Shore Branch between St. George and Arlington. Completion of a study is necessary to qualify the project for an estimated $360 million. A preliminary study found that ridership could reach 15,000 daily. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York requested $4 million of federal funding for a detailed feasibility study. In 2012, the MTA released an analysis of North Shore transportation solutions which included proposals for the reintroduction of heavy rail, light rail or bus rapid transit using the North Shore line's right-of-way. Other options included system management, which would improve existing bus service, and the possibility of future ferry and water taxi service. Bus rapid transit was preferred for its cost ($352 million in capital investment) and relative ease of implementation. In January 2018, the project had yet to receive funding. As part of the 2015–2019 MTA Capital Program, $4 million was allocated for an analysis of a Staten Island light rail.
Branches and stations.
Former stations.
North Shore Branch.
The North Shore Branch closed to passenger service at midnight on March 31, 1953. A small portion of the western end is used for freight service as part of the ExpressRail intermodal network at the Howland Hook Marine Terminal. The network, which opened in 2007, connects to the Chemical Coast after crossing the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge. The North Shore Branch served Procter & Gamble, United States Gypsum, shipbuilders and a car float at Saint George Yard. A smaller eastern portion, which provided seasonal passenger service to the Richmond County Bank Ballpark station (where the Staten Island Yankees played), operated from June 24, 2001, to June 18, 2010. In 2008, restoration was discussed along the mostly abandoned line as part of the island's light-rail plan. An environmental impact assessment is being worked on for the implementation of a bus rapid transit line on the North Shore Branch.
South Beach Branch.
The South Beach Branch opened on January 1, 1888, to Arrochar, and was extended to South Beach in 1893. The branch closed at midnight on March 31, 1953. It was abandoned and demolished, except for a few segments: a concrete embankment at Clayton Street and Saint John's Avenue, the Tompkins Avenue overpass, trestle over Robin Road in Arrochar and a filled-in bridge under McClean Avenue. This line left the Main Line at (south of the Clifton station), and was east of the Main Line. Although the right-of-way has been redeveloped, most of it is still traceable on maps; the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge toll plaza is on the former right-of-way.
The Robin Road trestle is the only remaining intact trestle along the former line. Developers purchased the land on either side of its abutments during the early 2000s, and the developers, the New York City Department of Transportation, and the New York City Transit Authority all claimed ownership. Townhouses have been built on both sides of the trestle.
Freight lines.
Mount Loretto Spur.
The Mount Loretto Spur is an abandoned branch whose purpose was to serve the Mount Loretto Children's Home. The spur diverged from the Main Line south of Pleasant Plains. The B&O Railroad served the non-electrified branch, which had some industry and a passenger station, until 1950. Although its track was removed during the 1960s and 1970s, some ties were visible until the 1980s. A coal trestle is all that remains of the branch.
West Shore Line.
South of the Richmond Valley station, a non-electrified spur, branched off the Tottenville-bound track. The spur, built in 1928, was called the West Shore Line by the B&O Railroad and delivered building materials to the Outerbridge Crossing construction site near Arthur Kill. Years later, the track was used to serve a scrapyard owned by the Roselli Brothers. This siding went out of service on June 14, 2011. The track divided in two under Page Avenue, with the rails still in place. The line's right-of-way, an easement on property owned by Nassau Metals, was later used by CSX. Although sections of the old tracks have been removed, others remain in the overgrowth.
Travis Branch.
The Travis Branch, from Arlington Yard to Fresh Kills, runs along the island's West Shore. The branch was built in 1928 to serve Gulf Oil along the Arthur Kill, south from Arlington Yard into the marshes to Gulfport. It was extended to Travis to serve the new Consolidated Edison power plant in 1957. In 2005, the branch was renovated and extended from the old Con Edison plant to the Staten Island Transfer Station at Fresh Kills; regular service to the transfer station began in April 2007.


Hopewell Subdivision

The Hopewell Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of Virginia. The line is a former Seaboard Air Line Railroad line that runs from Bellwood, Virginia, to Hopewell, Virginia, for a total of . At its north end it continues south from the Bellwood Subdivision and at its south end the track comes to an end.


Merchants Bridge

The Merchants Bridge, officially the Merchants Memorial Mississippi Rail Bridge, is a rail bridge crossing the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and Venice, Illinois. The bridge is owned by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. It opened in May 1889 and crossed the river north of the Eads Bridge.
The bridge was originally built by the St. Louis Merchants Exchange after it lost control of the Eads Bridge it had built to the Terminal Railroad. The Exchange feared a Terminal Railroad monopoly on the bridges but it would eventually lose control of the Merchants Bridge also.
In 2018 work began on an extensive renovation of the bridge projected to cost $172 Million.


Horace Barks

Horace Barks, OBE was Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent in 1951–2.
Barks was born in Ipstones in the countryside near Stoke-on-Trent and came from a working-class background. His experiences in World War I left him with pacifist beliefs and experience of railway operations. After the war he became a train guard and, in 1921, a member of the Labour Party, the dominant party in Stoke-on-Trent during the twentieth century. He was elected a Stoke councillor in 1930 and made an Alderman in 1948. He served as Mayor for 1951–52.
Barks' cultural interests included Esperanto and the writer Arnold Bennett. Barks and his son Guy were active in the Arnold Bennett Society, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent. The reference library in the city is named after Barks.
Esperanto.
Barks was involved with starting classes at the Wedgwood Memorial College in Barlaston, which remains an important centre of Esperanto education.
Through Barks' influence his local pub in Smallthorne, Stoke-on-Trent, acquired the name "The Green Star" (an Esperanto symbol) and a sign in Esperanto "La Verda Stelo". It is mentioned in a poem by Raymond Schwartz. Smallthorne also has a street named after Zamenhof.
References.
There are two posthumous autobiographical publications by Barks, both based on taped reminiscences.


Rochester and Suburban Railway

The Rochester and Suburban Railway can trace its roots back to the Rochester and Lake Ontario Railway which was formed in 1879 to construct a steam-powered railroad connecting Rochester at Portland Avenue with Sea Breeze on the shores of Lake Ontario. The line was operated with enclosed "dummy" steam locomotives so as not to frighten horses as they operated along city streets. The railroad was leased by the Rochester and Irondequoit Railroad in 1893, which in turn built its own electric streetcar line along St. Paul Boulevard to the Summerville lakeside community in Irondequoit. The electric line only operated in the summer months, and connected to a ferry boat that transported passengers across the Genesee River to Charlotte. The opening of the Stutson Street Bridge in 1927 forced the termination of ferry service, and the railroads entered receivership soon after.
Control by New York State Railways.
The Rochester and Suburban Railway was chartered in 1900 and purchased the Rochester and Irondequoit Railroad at a foreclosure sale, and then merged the Rochester and Lake Ontario Railway. The former R&LO line was rebuilt and electrified and year-round service to Summerville began in 1905. That same year, the railroad was leased to the Rochester Railway Company, which in turn was acquired by New York State Railways in 1909. The Sea Breeze line was closed in 1936, and the Summerville line followed a year later.


Henry Walters

Henry Walters (September 26, 1848 – November 30, 1931) was noted as an art collector and philanthropist, a founder of the Walters Art Gallery (now the Walters Art Museum) in Baltimore, Maryland, which he donated to the city in his 1931 will for the benefit of the public. From the late 19th century, Walters lived most of the time in New York City, where from 1903 on, he served on the executive committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue. He was selected as second vice president in 1913, a position he held until his death.
Like his father William Thompson Walters, (1820-1894), he was a businessman in the railroad industry, serving as president of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (1894-1902), which had been established by his father.
Biography.
Henry Walters was born in 1848 to William Thompson Walters, (1820-1894), a businessman who later founded the southeastern railroad line, Atlantic Coast Line Company. Henry graduated from Georgetown University in 1869. He did graduate work in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University from 1869–72.
In 1889 Walters moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, to serve as general manager of his father's railroad, the Atlantic Coast Line Company. Following his father's death in 1894, Henry Walters was elected president of the Atlantic Coast Line Company. He transferred the line's headquarters to New York. Under his leadership, the railroad experienced rapid growth until World War I. In 1902 Walters also took control of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
In New York, Walters lived with Pembroke and Sarah Jones, friends whom he had met in Wilmington, North Carolina. Each of them was interested in art, and their town house was filled with their collections. Seldom did Walters return to Baltimore other than to attend board meetings of the Safe Deposit and Trust Company.
Three years after Pembroke Jones' death in 1919, Walters married the widow Sarah Jones in 1922, his first marriage. They continued living in the Manhattan house surrounded by their art collections.
He died in 1931.
Art collection.
When his father died in 1894, he bequeathed his collection to Henry Walters, who greatly expanded the scope of acquisitions. He purchased the contents of a palace in Rome that contained over 1,700 pieces. In September 1900, Henry bought the three houses adjoining the property owned by his father in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, in order to house and display the full collection. He had the site designed and adapted as a palazzo-style building, which opened to the public in 1909 as the Walters Art Gallery.
Walters died in 1931, leaving the building and its contents to the mayor and city council of Baltimore "for the benefit of the public." The Walters Art Museum opened its doors for the first time as a public institution on November 3, 1934.
Walters also donated four public bath houses to the City of Baltimore., Walters Bath No. 2 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Collection highlights.
Henry Walters envisaged a museum that would fulfill an educational role within the community, but initially made modest additions to his father's collection. In 1897 his purchase of a 15th-century Koran, originally thought to be Persian, but now regarded as Indian, may have initiated the manuscript collection.
In 1900 Walters bought Raphael's "Madonna of the Candelabra", which had passed through both the Borghese and Bonaparte family collections. The USPS featured this painting on their 2011 Christmas stamp.
In 1902 he undertook an acquisition on a scale unprecedented in the history of American collecting: he bought the contents of the Palazzo Accoramboni in Rome. The collection abounded in significant works, many of them found to be by masters other than those to whom they had been ascribed, and others by artists not in fashion at that time. In the latter category fell El Greco's painting, "". Among the collection's archeological treasures were seven magnificent sarcophagi from a burial chamber associated with the Calpurnii Pisones family. Walters agreed to buy the collection for the sum of five million Italian lire, equivalent at the time to $1.0 million.
He enhanced the breadth of the 19th-century holdings with such early works as Ingres' ', bought in 1903. Although Walters was not fond of French Impressionism, he bought two works in 1903 from American artist Mary Cassatt, including Claude Monet's '.
Walters continued to augment his holdings, buying both in New York and abroad. He collected Egyptian, ancient Near Eastern, and Islamic art, as well as a number of key classical and western medieval objects. These included a pair of limestone heads of Old Testament rulers that came from the abbey church of Saint-Denis.
Beginning in 1903, Walters served on the executive committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1913 he became second vice president, a position he retained for the rest of his life. His experiences on a number of museum committees may have resulted in a change of direction in his collecting after World War I. He shifted from acquiring works representative of various fields and more committed to objects of major historical and artistic significance.


Alcolu Railroad

The Alcolu Railroad was a shortline railroad that served South Carolina in the early 20th century. It was incorporated in 1902 to help to carry passengers and freight from Alcolu, South Carolina, in Clarendon County, to Beulah, which was renamed Olanta. Freight service was extended to Ham, in Florence County. For a short time, a passenger service ran from Olanta to Kirby once a week.
Closure.
It was abandoned on June 4, 1936.