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RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=43135		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  JayZee [ Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:58 pm ]
Post subject:  RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
Has anyone heard anything about a branchline in Myrtle Beach, SC being reactivated by the RJ Corman Company as a tourist line? Here is a youtube video about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ7BVrLS-Cg
Author:  ebtrr [ Mon Mar 11, 2019 2:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
Wondered the same thing after watching the same video a few months ago. Below is an articled from about the same time, but could find nothing else. Seems rather speculative at the time and does not mention trains actually traveling to Myrtle Beach proper.

https://www.myhorrynews.com/news/railway-tourism-coming-down-the-track-for-conway/article_71f37da0-5f5b-11e8-ae6d-27c9b32b4c08.html
Author:  whodom [ Mon Mar 11, 2019 3:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
The depot is used for various events. We went to a concert there a couple of years ago; it's a cool venue.

That'd be great if the line could be put back in service.
Author:  tweetsie12 [ Mon Mar 11, 2019 8:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
I've seen this line plenty of times, having visited Myrtle Beach plenty of times. I think it would work fairly well alongside the other attractions at Myrtle Beach. Curious if they'll run a steam engine?
Author:  Txhighballer [ Mon Mar 11, 2019 8:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
tweetsie12 wrote:
I've seen this line plenty of times, having visited Myrtle Beach plenty of times. I think it would work fairly well alongside the other attractions at Myrtle Beach. Curious if they'll run a steam engine?


Since they own one that would make sense....
Author:  Bobharbison [ Mon Mar 11, 2019 8:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
ebtrr wrote:
Wondered the same thing after watching the same video a few months ago. Below is an articled from about the same time, but could find nothing else. Seems rather speculative at the time and does not mention trains actually traveling to Myrtle Beach proper.

https://www.myhorrynews.com/news/railway-tourism-coming-down-the-track-for-conway/article_71f37da0-5f5b-11e8-ae6d-27c9b32b4c08.html



Dateline May 24, 2018, guessing this idea fizzled. If it was a few years out, you think they would have mentioned that to the press. I've seen this before, somebody in the town says "Hey, we should have <insert railroad here> run a tourist train and our town can be just like Durango!
Author:  Rader Sidetrack [ Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
Bobharbison wrote:
Dateline May 24, 2018, guessing this idea fizzled. If it was a few years out, you think they would have mentioned that to the press. I've seen this before, somebody in the town says "Hey, we should have <insert railroad here> run a tourist train and our town can be just like Durango!


Hmmm, "fizzled"???

RJ Corman Railroad Group says they purchased the "Carolina Southern Railroad" in 2015. See:
https://www.rjcorman.com/about/history and scroll down to 2015.

Their interactive map calls the trackage "Carolina Lines" and as you can see in this screenshot, the map shows that tracks still extend to Myrtle Beach SC.

Image(click image to enlarge)

Here is the interactive map link: https://www.rjcorman.com/contact#bottom

A news article from Feb 2, 2019 mentions upgrading the line with the aid of a TIGER grant:
https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/ ... 51300.html
Author:  jayrod [ Mon Mar 11, 2019 10:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
This has been proposed/tried a number of times. The inoperable drawbridge over the Intracoastal Waterway is what blocks service getting into Myrtle Beach. That's been the hitch for decades. Then you'll have a ton of rehab south of there. IIRC, RJC isn't real friendly to outside operators so it would have to be a profitable undertaking by them. I don't see it happening, especially into MB but I could be wrong on that, too.
Author:  NS 3322 [ Tue Mar 12, 2019 9:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
tweetsie12 wrote:
I sorta killed off the idea when I concluded that it would cost less to build my dream Y6b than to try and run a tourist railroad. (Yes, I'm still planning on building a Y6B, but I'm going to take y'all's advice and get some experience restoring other equipment before I try to tackle this project.)


No, don't turn this into another rebuild <insert steam locomotive here> thread!!!!!

I really like your creative ideas and spirit, but reality sucks and there is never enough money.
You will learn that while volunteering somewhere.

And tourist railroads only work in certain areas. Far too many have flopped for this reason.
Author:  Tim Moriarty [ Tue Mar 12, 2019 9:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
The article discusses running a tourist train from Conway north to Tabor City, which is in the opposite direction from Myrtle Beach. Reopening the line to the southeast into Myrtle Beach would require the repair and operation of the drawbridge over the Intracoastal Waterway, as well as rehabilitation of the track. This would be a very expensive endeavor, the cost for which is unlikely to ever be recovered with tourist train ticket sales. If some industries requiring frequent rail service were to locate on the line, then perhaps the expense might be justified and a tourist train could piggyback on the freight operation.

Given that the area on the southeast side of the waterway caters more and more to tourists, not industries that would be interested in rail service, this is very unlikely.

Even if this were to happen, it would be good to remember the words of Mark Jordan that were written on this forum five years ago:

My stint as GM of Queen Anne's RR 1992-1997 is enough to know that it is a challenge to compete with the beach. Folks come to that area for the beach, and everything else is secondary. That secondary market is flooded with everything from miniature golf to seafood restaurants. Getting people to board an antique train to watch trees go past their windows is a daunting task, and expensive advertising.
Author:  whodom [ Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
The section from Conway to Myrtle Beach operated fairly recently as the Waccamaw Coast Line:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waccamaw_ ... e_Railroad

Before the WCL closed, I seem to remember that they'd actually acquired former Rockton & Rion 2-8-0 #203, currently in Knoxville, TN and planned to operate it, but apparently that plan fell through.
Author:  Tim Moriarty [ Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
Yes, the WCL was one of the prior operators, but the line beyond the bridge hasn't been operated for a very long time. Several decades ago I was living down the coast in Charleston, SC, and would occasionally pass by there to see what, if anything, was going on. I recall a BN box car was stranded in Myrtle Beach for a number of years by the closing of the bridge before it was finally trucked out. No trains have operated into MB since then.
Author:  PaulWWoodring [ Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
If the line ran along the coast through several beach towns, I could see a Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway-like operation maybe succeeding. A grand-scale railroad as a novelty people-mover between beach communities, run by a volunteer-based non-profit. The Romney survives and thrives because it already exists and was created at a time when such operations were in vogue. Creating such a thing in the high-tech era probably won't work. Trying to overcome the problems of major infrastructure items like long-dormant draw bridges over major waterways is going to be a deal killer. Operations like the Strasburg succeed in part because there are virtually no serious infrastructure issues on the line.
Author:  Tim Moriarty [ Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
If R. J. Corman actually has interest in running a tourist operation, there's nothing that obligates the company to doing anything with the line on the southeast side of the waterway. There's plenty of track on the other side for running tourist trains.
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RJ Corman to reactivate Myrtle Beach Branch line?
I have a railfan friend in Maryland (important contributing fact, as you will see) whose extended family vacations in Myrtle Beach once or twice a year. He knows the line.

He's told me repeatedly, "If they don't get the train over the bridge and into downtown, it's never gonna work!" He--and I--offer up the cautionary tale of the Ocean City Western outside Ocean City, Md. (Mobile & Gulf 2-6-0 97/ex-LV SW1 114 and open-window cars through mosquito marshes, 1970s), which had its station on the "mainland" side of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Now, COULD it be made to work? It's going to take shrewder marketing minds than mine to adequately answer that question.

Here's the bridge:

http://bridgehunter.com/sc/horry/bh42594/

It's been rehabbed. THAT'S not the problem. The rest of the railroad is the problem, says the FRA. The last stretch into town proper has pretty much surrendered all its ties to the earth and weeds.

Further, a "Google Earth drone flight" over the line shows multiple paved-over and unmarked crossings, one being six lanes of Grissom Parkway. Once you get a few miles out of town, we're dealing with the dreaded "tunnel of trees" syndrome.

Freight? Maybe--there's a quarry/"aggregates' place near Myrtle Beach. Passenger? Good luck.
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