Issue004

Willard Edson has informed us that after 56 years working and owning two-foot gauge trolleys, he had sold his railway to a friend in Xenia, Ohio (3 hour drive from Toledo). At his young age of 94, Willard decided to pass on his railway collection to a friend in the best interest of preservation.

Barry and Shelva Meckley wrote and mentioned a nice trip that they took this year that included a stop at the Fort Eustis Transportation Museum. While at the museum they saw a variety of trains and personnel movers. Trivia: Elephants where used to switch trains in Burma, India during WWII.

Charles Pidacks sent the following pictures that he took while attending the WW&F Annual Picnic. Engine #10 performed well and everything went smoothly. He recently purchased some rail from Jack Flagg at Edaville based on a tip from Bruce Wilson.

When we first got into 2-foot gauge railroading we had one piece of equipment: a single truck trolley. To protect the trolley from the weather, we decided to build a small, single track building. This building turned out to be our caboose carbarn. Construction began in May 1990. After building the locomotive and flatcar in 1993, we added 8-feet onto the length of the building and built a parallel siding. However, the building became VERY cramped after we built the caboose and speeder. Thus, in 2001 we decided to build a new building for additional rolling stock storage and to house our growing collection of antique International tractors. In May 2001, we ordered a 40ft x 50ft steel building from A&S Building Systems.

The building was delivered on July 10, 2001 and construction began in early August. By October the frame was built and the sheeting & roofing was installed. The doors were installed in November and the electrical was completed in early 2002. The original plan was to have a gravel floor with the top of track level with the floor. Before we began construction of the track into the building, we decided to pour a concrete floor. This was the only part of the construction that was not done by us. We prepared the gravel base and layed the track into the building, while contractors done the actually pouring and finishing of the floor.

The figure below shows a cross-section of one rail. Channel iron was used as the “rail” and a piece of angle protected the flange-way during concrete pouring. The angle and channel was welded to steel ties to form panel track. A conversion rail was welded near the door and buried in the concrete so that it appears as though rail is used throughout the building. In reality, only 1-foot of rail is buried in concrete with the other 49 feet being channel iron.

Pouring the concrete foundation August 18, 2001	Steel framework construction - Rear View September 7, 2001
Exterior Complete - Front View December 2001	Building the switch into the building May 28, 2002
Building the siding July 6, 2002	Track test before concrete floor is poured July 18, 2002
First train in completed building August 6, 2002	International tractors on display August 7, 2002
Caboose Carbarn Original Equipment Shed	Rear of Caboose Carbarn

It has been quite unintentional at times, but I have often stumbled unexpectedly into the backwaters of railroading—sites where the equipment, and in some cases, the operations, have remained unchanged for decades after big time railroads have moved on. A few of these have included two-footers—in amusement parks, industrial operations or using a combination of the two—that have been pretty much ignored by the mainstream.

I first visited Edaville in August 1958, very early in the Nelson Blount Era. At that time, a vast collection of rail equipment in several gauges was being assembled in the cranberry bogs at South Carver. Some of the locomotives Blount was a acquiring at the time were so large that he eventually moved on to establish Steamtown. But, at Edaville, Boston & Maine Railroad standard gauge 2-6-0 No. 1455 had just gone on display, and a work crew was busily engaged during my visit unloading the B&M’s Zephyr-like Flying Yankee stainless steel streamliner.

With this experience behind me, you can imagine my surprise three years later in early July 1961 to stumble onto another two-footer, this one located not far from the B&M’s historic Hoosac Tunnel in western Massachusetts, and it was steam-powered—with a vertical boiler wood-burning steam engine! The Hitch, Twitch & Wiggle Railroad, located on the north side of state Route 2 near Charlemont, Massachusetts, ran on a fairly large loop of track. In addition to the quite impressive apparently homemade wood burner, which gobbled up pine slabs at a voracious rate as very healthy flames could be seen each time the firebox door was swung open, pulled several flat-bottom steel mine cars with wood benches placed inside them and a home-built caboose.

The four-wheel locomotive had a low vertical flywheel underneath it—which necessitated modifying the few turnouts on the line so the switches had a short section of rail incorporated into each point rail that was ingeniously linked to automatically swing out of the way to clear the flywheel. In 1961, it was a small family-run stand-alone attraction alongside the highway. I suspect the loco had been built by the engineer who operated the train—pitching pine slabs from a large trackside pile into the roaring firebox. It also had a very throaty steam whistle—and it exchanged whistle salutes with the “bluebird” GP-9’s heading up a Boston & Maine freight train on the “big railroad” across the road and the river during our visit. The engineer’s pre-teenage daughter was boarding passengers in the mine cars. A small open Kiosk held several rail lanterns and the station sign from Hoosac Tunnel—items that were obviously taken indoors when the operation closed down at the end of each day.

The next—and last—time I stopped at the site was in June 1986 on my way to attend several classes at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York. The track and cars were still there, but the steam locomotive had been replaced by a gussied-up 1.5-ton Brookville Cranberry Special gasoline locomotive—complete with a purely ornamental “smokestack.” The strange modified turnouts were still there, but they did not appear to have been used for years. It was then part of a gaudy Native American (yes, North American Indian) souvenir business—called, I believe, The Trading Post of the Indian Trading Post (there were two such businesses several miles apart on Route 2 at that time—and this was the western of the two). The Kiosk had vanished. The railroad and the property had obviously gone through several ownerships over the intervening quarter century. The owner at the time professed no knowledge of the earlier steam operation or what happened to the strange vertical boiler steam locomotive.

Is it still there today? I don’t know. I have not been back. And the vertical boiler steamer? Happy hunting!

August was a great day for running trains! We had an excellent day for our Railroaders outing on August18. The picture below was the first run of the day and we tried a new whistle. The whistle was created based on the castings of a Pittsburgh Shwamut & Northern whistle that the Bucktail Chapter of the NHRS was able to acquire.

There is a 42 inch gauge Brookville available. ($2,000) It has a new cat engine, but was in a flood a few years ago. Brookvillie’s frames are made so they can be regauged, but this one may be to far out to take down to two foot. If there is any interest let the staff know.

Convention Dates Change !!! Thanks to Matt & Wiley Helton, we were informed that the original dates for the convention coincides with a major NASCAR race in Bristol, TN. Therefore, the convention dates have been changed to July 31 – Aug 3, 2003. With NASCAR in the Bristol area on the original dates picked for the convention, hotel accommodations would not be available within a 150 mile radius of the speedway. Therefore, we felt that a modification of our travel dates were necessary to enjoy this trip.

Tentative stops include: Great Smokey Mountain Railroad, Goose Creek Railroad, and the Doe River Railroad. We are currently working on hotel accommodations, bus transportations, and other points of interest. We have commitments from 20 members. Please let us know your interest as soon as possible. Seating on the bus is limited.

As we finish putting together this issue, we realize that the next issue will be published around Christmas. Has Santa ever had a ride your railroad? Please send us your photos and stories. Remember we need more than your Santa photos and stories; we need to hear from our members.

“Full Steam Ahead”

News From Members

by Tom Bauer

Building a New Engine House on the GCRR

by Matt Helton

The Two-Foot Gauge Near Hoosac Tunnel

by Frank Kyper

Railroaders Day at the B&W

by Fred Bauer

Classified

by Tom Bauer

by Greg Bauer

by Tom & Fred Bauer