Harbor Springs Railway

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Harbor Springs Railway
Hemlock Central
Harbor Springs # 1, a frameless geared locomotive designed by Ephraim Shay
Harbor Springs # 1, a frameless
geared locomotive designed by Ephraim Shay
Route length: 12.6 km
Gauge : 762 mm ( narrow gauge )

The Harbor Springs Railway was a 12.6 kilometer long, narrow-gauge , forest railway with a gauge of 2 feet 6 inches (762 mm) that ran from Harbor Springs , Michigan on Lake Michigan 's Little Traverse Bay to Carter's Mill. It was also called Hemlock Central because of the large number of hemlocks in the area .

history

The railroad was chartered on February 2, 1902 by Ephraim Shay , the inventor of the Shay locomotive , but construction may have started as early as December 10, 1900.

It was primarily a forest railway used to transport wood, but summer vacationers were also transported for a fare of 25 cents. Originally there was an 11 km (7 mile) route to Stutsman and the Race Mill; In 1904, it was extended another 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) to Carter's Mill. Short, temporary junctions were built on flying tracks to cleared areas, as was customary in logging at the time. The line was built using a very light rail weighing 7.9 kg / m (16 pounds per yard) and served by three locomotives built to the designs of their President and General Manager, Ephraim Shay. They were locomotives with the typical Shay drive, but they were unusual in that they had no frames and used the boiler as the main support. The route was built debt-free thanks to Shay's license income through the locomotive design patented by him. In 1906 the value of the facility was estimated at $ 51,346 (equivalent to $ 1 million in 2016).

The line was closed in 1910 and dismantled in 1912. The operating company dissolved on January 17, 1912.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Meints names 1900 as the founding date, while Hilton names 1902. A 1901 Michigan State Tax Commission report referred to Harbor Springs as a "non-nationalized railroad" four miles (6.4 km) long.
  2. ↑ According to Meints, the task took place in 1910, according to Hilton it took place "around 1911". Both agree that the company was dissolved in 1912.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Graydon M. Meints: Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies . Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI 1992, ISBN 0-87013-318-7 , p. 85, OCLC 300611233 .
  2. ^ Michigan State Tax Commission: First Annual Report of the State Tax Commissioners for the Year Ending December 15, 1900 . Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford, Lansing, MI 1901, p. 182.
  3. ↑ a b c d George Woodman Hilton: American Narrow Gauge Railroads . Stanford University Press , Stanford, CA 1990, ISBN 0-8047-1731-1 , p. 421, OCLC 613788908 .

Coordinates: 45 ° 26 ′ 7.6 "  N , 84 ° 58 ′ 47.2"  W.