I was looking through an old Steam Passenger Directory.

What ever happen to the equipment and right of way of the Petticoat Junction Railway in Panama City Beach FL.? This was a 36" line.

And

In OR. the Vernonia, South Park and Sunset. They seemed to have had long scenic line and some nice equipment.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Alan Levy

AlanL759@aol.com

> I was looking through an old Steam Passenger
> Directory.

> What ever happen to the equipment and right
> of way of the Petticoat Junction Railway in
> Panama City Beach FL.? This was a 36"
> line.

The three locomotives (two rebuilt Porter 0-4-0s and Argent Lumber Co. 2-6-0 #1) were acquired in early 1985 by Fred Hallmark of the Fred H. Hallmark Coal Co. in Warrior, Alabama for a private estate railroad. They are listed in Conrad's book as still there; I know nothing about them since the Conrad book came out.

lner4472@bcpl.net

> In OR. the Vernonia, South Park and Sunset.
> They seemed to have had long scenic line and
> some nice equipment.

I'm not sure what year the VSP&SSSRR closed down, but it must have been around 1970. I'm not sure if the SP&S (BN) branch they ran over is still intact.

The VSP&SSRR's operable steam loco, former Oregon-American 2-6-2 No. 105, later found its way to the Oregon, Pacific & Eastern in Cottage Grove, Oregon. (In the 1970s the OP&E was the home of the "Goose" tourist train with former McCloud River 2-8-2 No. 19.) However, I don't belive No. 105 ever ran there. After the OP&E quit the tourist business in 1988, most of the steam locomotives there, except the No. 19, wound up in the Fred Kepner collection, No. 105 included. The 2-6-2 is today at Merill, (spelling?) Oregon in storage.

The passenger equipment has fared somewhat better. The VSP&SSRR used six former Oregon Electric interurban cars as their passenger fleet. (With electrical equipment removed they made excellent coaches.) They also had an interurban baggage car and an "observation" which was created by slicing off the top of one of the interurbans. All of these were sold to Bill Heckman in the mid 1970s for use on his Black Hills Central Railroad out of Hill City, SD. Unfortunately by the 1990s they were in very poor condition, and most were out of service. Since 1993 the new owner of the BHC has completely rebuilt one car to museum-quality standards, and another is in the shop. His goal is to rebuild all the cars to like-new condition. Note that the old VSP&SSRR "observation" is also in service on the BHC, and now sports a roof.

Jeff Terry

Black Hills Central
jterry618@msn.com

Alexander & Jeff,

Thanks for the quick and informative responses!

I've been reading about the new owner of the BHC in a couple of magazines. The gentleman really seems to want to do things first class. It's nice to see.

I had no idea some of their equipment came from
OR.

-Alan Levy

AlanL759@aol.com

The VSP&SS/BN ROW is the first "rails to trails" in the state of Oregon. The line still has many trestles, a big one "out of service", as only half still stands.

The #105 is in Merril, and is still lettered VSP&SS.

Smokebox

Not only did the cars come from Oregon, but the locomotives (not mallet) did too. I think former Peninsula Terminal (Portland stockyards area).

> I had no idea some of their equipment came
> from
> OR.

> -Alan Levy

> The VSP&SS/BN ROW is the first
> "rails to trails" in the state of
> Oregon. The line still has many trestles, a
> big one "out of service", as only
> half still stands.

> The #105 is in Merril, and is still lettered
> VSP&SS.

> Smokebox

The former Oregon Electric cars actually came from the Pacific Great Eastern here in British Columbia. Allways a cash strapped road,the PGE (the "Province's Greatest Expense") picked up the cars for a good price since there was very little market at the time. As the PGE was expnaded in the early '50s,there was need for a better passenger service and second hand Milwaukee cars started to appear. These were eventually supplanted by new Budd Cars in 1956 and all old passenger cars that were not turned into work cars were sold or scrapped. The Vernonia god a good deal when they purchased the cars and it is great to hear that they are being restored. I am concerned to hear that they have built a roof over the open car. It was the only one of its kind from the PGE to survive. Perhaps if they are going back to "museum quality" they should remove the roof.


http://www.wcra.org
gferguson@aebc.com

> Since 1993 the new owner of
> the BHC has completely rebuilt one car to
> museum-quality standards, and another is in
> the shop. His goal is to rebuild all the
> cars to like-new condition.

A sidebar to the thread: I met Bob Warder at BHC in the early-90's. Bob is a local businessman, and he readily admitted then he was no railfan. But, after the BHC operation had deteriorated to the point that it had become a community eyesore, he stepped in and acquired the venture.

The rest is histoire..

hi_plain@yahoo.com

And from looking at BHC photos on their website, it appears the long neglected Chicago and North Western drovers car has been repainted and possibly resided.

I wonder if BHC still has the former C&NW Western Division Supt's business car.