Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1912 — SHORT RAILROAD LINES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SHORT RAILROAD LINES

MANY IN THE UNITED STATES THAT SEEM LIKE TOYB. Small as They Are, However, the Msrr jority Pay Handsome Dividends According to the Capital Invested In Them. _ Of-jthe 1,180 railroads in the United States 180 are less than eight miles

long. Of these only twenty-nine are more than seven miles in length, while twenty-five just reach that distance. Eighteen are six miles long, forty cover five miles, sixteen run four miles,

twenty-five ■ three miles, nineteen two miles and eight are a single mile f rom - end to end; Every part of the country furnishes specimens of these dwarf roads, says the Railroad Man’s Magazine. They are found in mining districts and scenic sections; they are the handy helpers around industrial plants and terminal centers; they climb mountains that would be impossible otherwise.

The Johnstown and Stony Creek Railroad, which is only a mile long, connects with the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio in Pennsylvania at two points named in its title. Freight is the specialty of the road, and in the two years of its'existence it is said to have made a very satisfactory financial return to its owners. Ever hear of the Due West Railroad? No? Well, it’s hardly to be wondered at, seeing that it’s scarcely three miles long and stowed in an out of the way corner of South Carolina. Yet it has a unique history of its own. The road runs from the town of Due West to Dowell. Its construction was the outcome of the craving of the inhabitants of Due West for easy transportation to Dowell. So the people of Due "West, in the name of their, town, issued SII,OOO of railroad aid bonds on behalf of the construction of the line, which w(is opened for traffic in 1908.

The road was a financial success from the start and is comfortably paying its way. It has neither debts nor bonds of its own, in which respect it Is almost without parallel in railroad history. The total cost of the construction of the road and Its equipment, including its two locomotives’ one passenger and one baggage car, is said to have been less than $30,000. Mary Lee is the sentimental name of a little freight railroad that runs between East Birmingham and Boyles, Ala., a distance of seven miles. It connects with the Queen and Crescent Route, Southern Railroad and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Mary, according to published balance sheets, is a paying proposition. Fulton Chain Railroad is only two miles in length, but this Lilliputian line has brought enjoyment to thousands of summer vacationists. It runs from Fulton Chain to Old Forge, N. Y., and is operated by the New York Central lines mainly in connection with the hot weather traffic. Last year It carried 53,670 passengers; its net earnings were $6,019, and it had the comfortable little surplus of $13,341 tucked away in its jeans.