{"id":13327,"date":"2013-05-23T18:43:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T23:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=13327"},"modified":"2022-02-13T06:23:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T11:23:15","slug":"shortline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/shortline\/","title":{"rendered":"Shortline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

That’s shortline (with a “t”) not shoreline. The term describes very small railroads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first became aware of shortlines a couple of years ago when we took a brief trip to Vermont during early Autumn. One of our activities included an excursion along the western bank of the Connecticut River. We took that trip on the White River Flyer, a vintage train belonging to the Green Mountain Railroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Green<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t discover that the railroad was an independent entity with only about 50 miles<\/a> of track (all within Vermont) until I began writing an article<\/a> on my travel site. My second encounter occurred as I researched a 12MC article on Railroad Ferries<\/a>. I learned about the Bay Coast Railroad<\/a> with 96 miles of track on the Delmarva Peninsula. It ran from Pocomoke City, Maryland to the southern tip of Virginia Eastern Shore and then via ferry to Norfolk. [Update: unfortunately it ceased operations in May 2018<\/em>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until then I’d though that maybe only a handful of large railroads existed. However, that misconception couldn’t have been more completely wrong. I consulted American-Rails.com<\/a> for an explanation. There I learned that shortlines “by far make up the bulk of railroads in the country today, totaling some 500<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Definition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Government tags shortlines with a more bureaucratic name. They call them “Class III” railroads. Those are defined<\/a> as “Carriers having annual carrier operating revenues of $20 million or less after applying the railroad revenue deflator formula<\/em>.” Feel free to examine the deflator formula on your own if that kind of thought excites you. I didn’t particularly care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, in the eyes of the government, the definition of shortlines doesn’t hinge on miles of track but on piles of cash. The Class III category contains an array of railroad types. The longer ones might connect a few towns to the larger railroad network. The Green Mountain Railroad excursion I experienced fit into that part of the definition. Others served as more specialized terminal or switching railroads. Those connected rail to other modes of transportation or simply moved cars within the confines of a rail yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wondered what might be the shortest existing railroad and quickly concluded that it defied a simple answer. Trainweb provided a great list of very short railroads<\/a>, with each line ten miles or shorter. I got lost on that page for awhile. The vast array of micro-railroads simply amazed me. The following instances fell amongst the shortest mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kendallville, Illinois<\/h2>\n\n\n\n