Trolleys and Trains

[Robert E. Rathke]

I too have wondered about that train.  I saw it running in 1965, but it
was night and I couldn't get any good photos of it.  I was at Hershey
Park this past June, and also saw the old photos of the train in the
lodge, but no one knew anything about its current whereabouts.

Speaking of miniature trains, I also wonder what happened to the 12" B&O
diesel streamliner (electric powered) that the Boggs & Buhl department
store on the Northside would set up every Christmas and Easter.  Boggs &
Buhl closed its doors in 1958.  An issue of the B&O Magazine in the late
1940's had a feature article on department stores in cities along the B&O
lines that had such trains.  The article mentioned Boggs & Buhl and
stores in half a dozen other cities.

Bob Rathke 9/14


On Tue, 14 Sep 1999 08:46:58 -0400 "Vigrass, Bill"
<billvigrass at hillintl.com> writes:
>Did you ever ride and/or photograph the miniature train at Hershey 
>Park?  I
>recall having seen it a long time ago.  It had a power car in the 
>middle and
>pushed and pulled two trailers on either side of it. It actually 
>performed a
>transportation service taking people from one end of the park to the 
>other.
>Then it disappeared.  I go to Hotel Hershey every April for the annual
>PennDot/Penna.Public Transit Assn meeting, and I see the train in some 
>of
>the photos on the hotel wall.  It is mentioned briefly in the book on
>Hershey Park.  I wonder if it is still in storage someplace.  Do you 
>or
>anyone of the group know?  Perhaps we could persuade HersheyPark to 
>put it
>back into service. 
>Bill Vigrass
>
>> ----------
>> From: 	Robert E. Rathke[SMTP:brathke at juno.com]
>> Reply To: 	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Sent: 	Monday, September 13, 1999 10:40 PM
>> To: 	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Subject: 	Trolleys and Trains
>> 
>> A few days ago I answered  offline some questions about trolleys and
>> miniature railroads, and though they might be of interest to readers 
>of
>> this e-mail list:
>> 
>> I rode the miniature railroads at Kennywood and West View Parks many
>> times.  Both parks had gasoline engine powered trains, although
>> Kennywood's locomotives were designed to look like bullet-nose steam
>> locomotives.  My uncle Ray Rathke lived in West View, and after
>> retirement from the B&O, he was engineer on the miniature train at 
>West
>> View Park, probably right up to the time the park closed.  The West 
>View
>> Park train station was near the Dips loading station, and the train
>> tracks paralleled the roller coaster line, weaving in and out of the 
>Dips
>> wooden structure on the way out to the end of the roller coaster 
>line at
>> the fence along Rt. 19.   I spent many days and nights photographing 
>the
>> 10-West View line in 1963-65, including time at the West View Park 
>stops
>> trying to get the roller coaster and other park buildings in the 
>photos.
>> 
>> Jim Holland mentioned the new PCC trolley line in Kenosha, Wisconsin
>> which is less than an hour's drive from my home.  I've been to 
>Kenosha
>> four times in the past two months, but I didn't know about the new
>> trolley line there.  Ironically, about an hour ago, a friend from 
>Kenosha
>> stopped by our house, and I asked him about the trolley line.  He 
>knows
>> all about it, and says they expect to have it running next year.  It 
>is
>> being built to serve a new lakefront marina being built there, but
>> construction was delayed because of hazardous wastes that had been 
>buried
>> at the site years ago.
>> 
>> Last week I visited the Riverside & Great Northern RR at Wisconsin 
>Dells,
>> Wisconsin.  What's interesting about this 15" gauge railroad is that 
>it
>> was originally a manufacturing plant for the trains, and its 
>1-1/4-mile
>> line was built as a demonstration railroad for prospective amusement
>> park/zoo customers. It's built on the former Milwaukee Road right of 
>way,
>> and is parallel to the current Soo Line (Amtrak) route to the Twin
>> Cities.  The 15" demonstration line and manufacturing facilities 
>were
>> built in the early 1950's to make live steam trains.  The company
>> (Sandley Manufacturing Co.) went out of business in the late 70's, 
>but
>> all of the old shop buildings, roundhouse, 3 turntables, water 
>tower,
>> two-story station and other structures are still there.  The whole 
>place
>> was re-opened to tourists in 1990.  It's now operating again,and 
>they run
>> a couple of steam locomotives and a diesel.  And if you're there at 
>the
>> right times of the day, you can pace Amtrak's Empire Builder on the
>> parallel right of way!
>> 
>> Bob Rathke 9/13
>> 
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