Does your homeroad/proto freelance line have a back story?


The Rutland was real, as was the White River. However fact and fiction intermingle on my railroad.

The non-fiction part of the backstory deals with the flood of 1927 and subsequent stock market crash of 1929. IIRC the White River nearly succumbed as a result of the 1927 flood, but managed to rebuild and hold on until 1931.

My thought is that in the fictional world, the Rutland, wanting to take advantage of the agriculture, marble and timber industries of central Vermont to up their cargo loads, purchased the White River, paid for a higher quality of track to be installed, improved trackage rights and upgraded equipment in order to keep the White River going so it could support local industries as a feeder service to the Rutland. Sort of the premise behind Fedex Home service.

Truth be told, the Rutland barely held on itself. It could not financially support such an endeavor. This would have brought the Rutland head-to-head with the Central Vermont railroad at Bethel and White River Junction. And that opens another can of worms.
 
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I grew up listening to trains pass through Bethel. Now I live in St. Albans (also known as Rail City). The trains are much closer now. :)
 
The History of Pine Ridge Railroad

When Mexico ceded the northern part of New Mexico and southern part of Colorado to the USA in 1848, a small basin was soon discovered with artisan wells and good rich soils for agriculture. While the crops grew well, transporting the fresh fruit over the mountains proved a hindrance to the industry. Fast forward to 1873 when an upstart railroad had began building track out of Denver and several railroads from Kansas had reached the Colorado boarder. There was great excitement that the coming of the railroads would allow the products to move quickly and open new markets. The hopes were soon dashed as it became apparent that all the railroads were going to bypass the community. Jay Gould's take over of the Missouri Pacific killed its westward expansion, the Santa Fe turned south through Raton, and the Rio Grande focusing on the west (and bankruptcy) seemed to have lost interest in driving south. With hopes vanished the community decided to build their own.

The first thought was to push was to push east to meet the Santa Fe. A survey showed that was not practical because of the topography. Instead they had to go west over the Pine Ridge and south down the Pinion River to the Santa Fe. It was tough building and expensive. It would have been an exercise in futility except a few rich mineral deposits were uncovered in the process. Likewise with a railroad in the future, a couple coal mining companies became interested in opening some cuts (these are the same geologic deposits that had interested the Santa Fe a bit further to the east). In all, it was enough to get the railroad built without becoming financially bust. The products flowed easily south to markets in New Mexico and Arizona but California had their own agricultural and provided competition in these markets. The issue with north and east markets was the tariffs rates to get the product back up over the mountain pass (Raton) and onto roads flowing that direction.

This lead the community to push the railroad north up the Pinion River toward the D&RG. Once again the route proved to be an expensive and labor intensive task. New developments in tunneling allowed some savings in both calendar time to complete and greatly reduced grades. Three years later the road emerged and connected to the Grande. As soon as the connection was make some traffic from the Santa Fe and D&RG began to divert along the Pine Ridge. While it could not be formally called a connector, the increased traffic decreased the over all cost per load. And occasionally one of the other railroads will detour trains onto the Pine Ridge.

As product began to move the fortunes turned around. Other supporting industries moved into the basin and the agricultural productivity improved.

In an attempt to further increase traffic the road built a short branch into a resort valley with hot springs known nation wide as a honeymoon spot. In the winter time the railroad supported efforts to build ski resorts along this same valley. As such several local passenger trains ran daily to meet the other railroad's main trains.

In basically open ground now, when the Union Pacific Railway went belly up and became the Union Pacific Railroad, it sold off many of the Colorado interests, the Pine Ridge bought a small section and pushed to the east to connect and also meet the newly formed Colorado & Southern. The Pine Ridge finally had a direct connection toward south eastern markets.

During World War I the Pine Ridge probably would have met the same fate as the Colorado Midland except one of the mineral deposits found during those first excavations was a high grade of copper ore. Considered vital to the war effort's demand for brass, the railroad was spared and kept operating. Further it was allocated some new USRA designed locomotives.

Post war things bustled and the railroad pushed its line further west up the North River to more mining, timber, and tourist opportunities. Unfortunately just as the line was completed the great depression hit simultaneously with the dust bowl. Tourist traffic plummeted, much of the manufacturing lost their orders, and the railroad teetered on the financial brink. "If only we hadn't spent all our capital on that expansion!". The Pine Ridge management held it together hand to mouth for many years. Things began to change in the mid 1930s when foreign prospectors came to the basin and began forming mining companies for the "hot rocks". Soon hot rocks being shipped out to ports became a regular commodity, and just as suddenly the railroad was approached by the federal government and not allowed to ship the rocks for any foreign companies. The government instead bought up all the contracts and the railroad shipped the rocks secretly to three destinations within the US. The hot rocks saved the company because soon thereafter the WWII war time traffic picked up and the money flowed again.

After the war, like several other railroads that owned their own coal, the Pine Ridge was slow to dieselize. But as steam locomotives became more expensive and the value of the diesel was proven over and over, the road began to purchase the modern locos. Post war tourist traffic picked up, with some people just riding the trains to see the scenery. The road started special day trains that ran up to the mountains for a picnic lunch and then back down in the afternoon. Folks could ride in special open gallery cars to get the full mountain experience.

And that is where the railroad is stuck in time.....
 
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History of the Aurora & Portland R.R.​


The Aurora & Portland Railroad was founded in 1963 as the Aurora & Indiana (a subsidiary of the Illinois Central), when the New York Central abandoned its Michigan Central branch line into Joliet Illinois. The A&I picked it up, including the division yard in Joliet. This allowed the A&I to interchange with the Rock Island and Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroads. Trackage rights into Aurora on the EJ&E had also been negotiated. This line then ran east from Joliet to Chicago Heights, where it connected with the C.M.StP.&P, continuing east to Griffith Indiana and then north to the Indiana Harbor Industrial Area yard. The A&I also purchased former C.M.StP.&P right-of-ways from Chicago Heights south through Danville Illinois, Terre Haute and Seymour Indiana.

In the early 70’s when the Penn Central offered branch trackage from Kankakee Illinois to Indianapolis Indiana, the A&I jumped at the chance. Having gained a major (to the A&I at least) route to Indianapolis, the A&I system map looked like this:

Now That the easternmost terminal of the A&I had moved, a name change was thought to be needed. Several combinations were tried, with Aurora & Portland (reporting marks AP) winning out. This also honored Portland as the eastern terminus.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s, the A&P was in a buying mood, due to the influx of several large investors. It was during this time that the A&P obtained titles to ex Penn Central trackage from Terre Haute to Indianapolis (via Greencastle); from Indianapolis to Louisville Kentucky (via Columbus and Seymour); and from Indianapolis to Cincinnati Ohio (via Shelbyville Indiana). At this time, citing dwindling revenue freight business due to stiff competition from the E.J.& E., the A&P stopped acquiring trackage.

In the early 80’s with the A&P satisfied enough to not want more track, the system map, (with a total trackage of 1,063 miles) looked as it does today. The system as it stands today, gives the A&P access to two river ports (Louisville and Cincinnati) and an International Lake port (Gary).

Principal products hauled by the A&P are; coal, grain, steel products (raw and finished), automobiles, lumber, gravel, limestone, furniture, bricks and other mixed revenues. Additionally four “Hot Shots” inter modal runs daily, 3 southbound (GLT, GIC) and 3 northbound (LTG, CIG).

Consequently the modern day A&P is a class 1 railroad interchanging with the following railroads;

CN CSX
BNSF Norfolk Southern
Union Pacific Harbor Belt


New motive power, specialized inter modal handling equipment and excellent yard facilities enable the A&P to remain competitive and offer timely, quality service to both its own customers and to connecting rail links with other lines.
 
Previous layout was the Albany, Sherman Island & Stockton short line operating from Albany, CA to Stockton, CA paralleling the ATSF around Point Pinole on the bay and through Jamieson Canyon before reaching the flats of the California delta. It's main source of revenue was TOFC moving cars that were 'somehow' left behind in West Oakland by the Union Pacific's Overland Mail East to catch this priority train on a shorter route to Stockton. GP-35's painted in a CSX similar livery would race the TOFCs east at night and return as part of the morning commuter consists the following day. There was also a branch south into the San Joaquin Valley to the town of Westley where a quarry was located. This quarry was served by the Wesley Crusher.

The layout currently on the drawing board is another short line operating in Sonoma County California on the abandoned Petaluma & Santa Rosa Right Of Way, with a couple of artistic licenses. This yet unnamed short line will begin at the newly rebuilt ferry landing of Donahue which was the original starting point for Northwestern Pacific RR before the buildings and ferry slips were moved down river locating to Tiburon in the early 1900s to be closer to San Francisco. The short line will follow the long abandoned NWP ROW crossing the modern NWP tracks south of Petaluma, CA. There will be a small interchange yard here and an aggregate rail to barge transfer facility. Today the new NWP have rejuvenated grain car gtraffic coming into Petaluma using the Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Transit (SMART) tracks supplying feed for the many west county dairies. The grain facility will be served by the short line and provides opportunity for a colorful assortment of hoppers being interchanged. The short line trains will continue northwest to Sebastopol, CA and the Gravenstein (apple) Highway packing houses. As a youngster I remember the tracks running right down the middle of the road in Sebastopol, I only ever recall seeing them with a train once, it was a scarlet & gray locomotive so either Southern Pacific or NWP. There is small non-rail served quarry off the old P&SR ROW. Applying artistic license this quarry will be larger and produce several car loads vice semi-truck loads per day. Another option again using artistic license will be an unseen dam/powerhouse being built along the line further north so aggregate can move both north to the dam or south to the barges.

Main revenue traffic will be aggregate, grain and apples. I like the colorful early-mid 1980's per deim boxcar era.
 
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