Our 1996
trip involving railroading was a little different this year. We
visited our friends near Washington, DC and took a bus trip into the
Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, near Wellsboro, PA and then an excursion
ride on the Tioga Central Railroad in October. At the
canyon, we took a horse drawn "covered wagon" ride on the road bed of
the former double tracked NYC/Conrail system. The rails have only
been up about 8 years. It would have been a beautiful run on a
steam excursion train in the canyon. The roadbed became a part of
the "Rails to Trails" program, hence the horse drawn wagon. I
later asked why they didn't try for an excursion train in the
canyon. They said that the notice that the tracks were going to
come out came out in the paper one day and the very next day the
equipment was moving in the take up the tracks. There was no time
to petition or plan.
The canyon is approx 10 miles from
Wellsboro, and the track was taken up from before the canyon to
Wellsboro Jct. about 3 miles north of Wellsboro. The track is
still in and operating between Wellsboro and Corning RR for
freight purposes. The Tioga Central operates passenger excursion
service on the W&C track from Wellsboro Jct to Hammond Lake (approx
12 miles). Since there is no run around at Hammond Lake, and they
are not allowed to back a passenger train any distance, they had a
diesel locomotive on each end, one for each direction operation.
When we got to Hammond Lake and the
engineer was shutting down that diesel, I was in the last car and he
heard me say that I was a member of NRHS and a railfan. He told
me to come with him and I could ride back in the cab of the lead
engine! As he was going through the train, he explained that all
of the people operating the TC were volunteers, and the money they took
in was for operating and maintenance expenses, there were no salaries!
The TC has 5 engines, 3 currently
operable. They said it would take them quite a while and some
money to get the other two running, but they were trying. The
other man in the cab was a retired electrician, and he was doing most
of their electrical work. They had about 8 cars on the train and
one passenger car stationary at Wellsboro Jct (where Conrail use to tie
in) as their ticket office and headquarters. It was an
interesting trip in the cab, especially watching how he
manipulated both dynamic braking and throttle to give good speed
control and smooth slow down in the required areas. He brought
the train into the junction and came to almost a stop on the dynamic
brakes, and he used the air only for the final few feet of stop.
This was interesting.
* January 1997
Myrtle Beach Depot Restoration
I
attended the ceremonies for the Grand Reopening of the Myrtle
Beach Train Depot on May 6th. I had been to the area in the early
and mid 1990's and it looks quite a bit better now. There was a
beer distributor's warehouse in front of the station, causing the
station to be hard to see from the road. The station itself had
been used as a beer warehouse. That area is now a beautiful park
with three flag poles, the tall center one from the Myrtle Beach Air
Force Base. The station now look good and can be seen from
several streets that come together in that area.
The Carolina Southern had a passenger
train there for people to ride after the ceremonies. On the
westbound end was engine #100, then coach #1885, L. L. Crawford, coach
#1903, S. A. Beasley. then an unnumbered air conditioned club car.,
then engine #950. This gives an engine on each end, so that an
engine is in the lead for each direction of travel. The rides
were up to the bridge and back, about 2 miles in each direction.
On the club car and engines, was the CS logo, which had "Est.
1886."
The station was built in 1937, and it
has now been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It has been beautifully restored, but there are no chairs or benches in
the waiting room area. The Grand Strand Western "N" gauge model
railroad was set up in the freight area. The brick walkway had
"named" bricks which people could purchase. Mr. Jack Thompson was
the head of the "All Aboard" Committee. One interesting note was
the uncovering of the station sign. The sign had been removed and
Mr. Thompson found it in some store and had it reinstalled. It
was covered with a black cloth with two blue ribbons to pull.
Well, when they went to uncover it, two men pulled the ribbons.
The ribbons came down but the cloth did not. One of the
dignitaries put his little girl on his shoulders and she reached for a
corner of the cloth and pulled it down, uncovering the sign.
Great! Has this ever been done before?
Congratulations to Mr. Thompson, who pulled this off and got Myrtle Beach
"back on track." He said that Myrtle Beach is one of few resort
cities without scheduled rail passenger service. He
mentioned AmTrak. According to my 1996 rail map, the
nearest AmTrak connection would be Dillon, SC. It would be quite
an accomplishment to get AmTrak into Myrtle Beach.