Half-Z Scale - 1:440 Tiny Trains and even 1:900 Tiniest Trains!
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MARION RIVER CARRY RAILROAD
MARION RIVER CARRY RAILROAD
HOME PAGE
{unofficial}
Photo courtesy of the Adirondack Museum
H. K. PORTER 0-4-0T LOCOMOTIVE No. 2 ON DISPLAY AT THE
ADIRONDACK MUSEUM,
BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE, NEW YORK
This is one fantastic museum and well worth a trip to the heart of the
Adirondacks!
A lot of historical information
about the Marion River Carry Railroad is also available on the website of
The Church of The Good Shepherd, on St. Hubert's Isle in Raquette Lake.
The Marion River Carry Railroad may well have been the shortest standard-gauge
passenger line in history and certainly had one of the smallest standard-gauge steam
locomotives built in the 20th Century. The Marion River is one of the waterways
in the Fulton Chain of Lakes system running diagonally east-northeast in New York
State's Adirondack Mountains from near Utica through Raquette Lake to Blue Mountain
Lake (the Eckford Lakes). Extended culturally, if not strictly hydrologically, Long
Lake, Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake, and Lake Placid to the northeast and Indian Lake
to the southeast can be included.
{preliminary}
Turnouts on the Marion River Carry Railroad (moved here from the main
Marion River Carry Railroad page on 04 Aug 05) - I always remembered the
Marion River Carry Railroad as being just a single track point-to-point
(dock-to-dock) line with no side tracks, spurs, or attendant turnouts (switches),
but it had been abandoned for many years before I stumbled on it with my
dad on a canoe trip up the Marion River ca. 1940-41. Well, an e-mail
about switching on the Marion River Carry Railroad set me to thinking; how
could full-sized, standard-gauge freight cars have been transported from
Raquette Lake to Blue Mountain Lake up the Marion, across the Carry, and
through Utowanna and Eagle Lakes, unless there was a way to get them on the
tracks ahead of (or behind) #2? I started by reviewing the postcards
and other photos on the Good Shepherd site, the 1902 William Henry Jackson
photo (tinted) of the Lower Carry on the Marion River at the head where it
flows to Raquette Lake and the 1918 one of the Upper Carry on Utowana Lake
were the most promising:
(postcard views courtesy of the Church of the Good Shepherd - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images - click on pictures for larger images]
I then enhanced and enlarged them:
(enhanced enlargements of postcard views courtesy of the Church of
the Good Shepherd - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images - click on pictures for larger images]
[What follows is completely revised; I had labeled the 1902 excerpt
"'Upper' Carry" in error and got the text completely scrambled.]
The view of the Lower Carry (the one at the Marion River where it opens to Raquette
Lake) looks very much like what I remember was left when I first saw it.
The view of the Upper Carry (the one at Utowanna Lake) looks nothing like what I
saw back then in the early 1940s and has far more going on than I ever
realized. This will take some serious study, aided by my correspondent's
first-hand recollections.
Could that be a pile of sawdust from the sawmill in the distance?
More to the point, though, let's examine the Upper Carry photo more closely;
it shows a car float head on to the pier and #2 moving at an angle around an
open gondola/hopper car:
(extreme enhanced enlargement of postcard view courtesy of the Church of
the Good Shepherd - all rights reserved)
That little engine worked a lot harder than I ever realized
You can even see a horsecar behind the loco. This establishes that, at
least when the photo was taken in 1918, the engine faced east (as I remember
it in the shed). Now, why was #2 heading onto (or off of) the float with
a horsecar?
Look closely; there HAS to be a turnout between where the rails connect
between the "main line" (HA!) and the float and the line running alongside the
bulkhead of the passenger pier. There did NOT have to be any
runaround track if, as my correspondent states (edited), the "train backed
under the roofed shed (what roofed shed?) and cars were towed off the barge
with a winch tower (part of which is still laying along track on left side) and
then pushed to the upper dock. There was also a winch there to reverse
the process. All that was required at the Lower Carry on the Marion was
that #2, trailing its horsecars, tucked its nose behind the freight car and
pushed it to the Upper Carry landing, where the winch would pull it onto the
Utowanna/Eagle/Blue Mountain car float:
(Map redrawn 27 Jul 2005 after Michael Kudish in Allen, et al. 1999,
and revised by SB,III on 03 Aug 05 - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image, click on diagram for larger image.]
{This version needs some serious rethinking!}
The float at the Upper Carry does not appear to be lined up with the rust bucket
(I mean freight car); if it's at the railhead, that even further complicates the track
layout. As Pooh would say, "Oh,
bother!"; I think I'll stick to, "Oh, brother!"
There would have had to be another turnout for lumber from (or logs for) the
sawmill, if such service was indeed provided and that might have served for
the Utowanna dock. In addition, there could have been two turnouts to
bypass the engine shed, since it is highly-unlikely that full-size freight cars
ran through the shed (although I don't recall any evidence of such by 1940-41).
My correspondent says that the shed was single-ended (not the way I remember
it), thus absolutely requiring at least one turnout there, and that the path
alongside, which shows in my pictures, was the "main" line.
Were the turnouts on the MRCRR regular ones with movable points or stub
switches?
Upper (Utowanna Lake) and lower (Marion River off Raquette Lake)? - The
USGS Raquette Lake Quad shows the water level of Blue Mountain and Eagle
Lakes at 545.6m (1,790'), Utowanna Lake at 545.5m (1,789.7'), and Raquette
Lake at 537.1m (1,762').
(04 Aug 05)
Larry Miller sent me these two photos, one which is not familiar (unless I
forget), "The Steamboat Landing at Utowanna Lake" (see the faint imprint at
lower left), ca. 1878, and is by famed Adirondack photographer Seneca Ray
Stoddard, and one which is, the "Marion River Turnaround" {sic} by Kellogg
ca. 1900:
and
(16 Nov 05)
(photos courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images, click on pictures for larger images;
happily, the roof shingle moir� pattern at right is only an artifact of the thumbnail]
Larry summers at North Point, the former Carnegie Camp that was later
owned by the Birrell family which donated the engine to the Museum.
They owned the Carry and recently sold it to Dean Pohl, co-owner of the
Raquette Lake Navigation Company, operator of the W. W. Durant
tour and dinner cruise boat, who hopes to resurrect the Carry Railroad.
Larry then came up with these two; a great, early shot of the "Marion River
Terminal" (artificially lightened) and a later one of the "Marion River Hotel":
(16 Nov 05)
(photos courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images, click on pictures for larger images]
What a kick; I so well remember walking apprehensively past the hotel as a
kid! Is that a Stearns-Knight out front? The terminal photo is
unusual, showing a car still on the tangent track, not around the curve at the
dock, and shows the barge loading track head on; that's worth a closer look,
so I blew the photo up in two parts, left (the car and barge track) and right
(the dock):
(cropped from photos courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images, click on pictures for larger images]
If you look at all that gear on the dock (all I can identify is a pair of hose or
cable reels and a small-diameter wheelset to their right), you'll realize just
how critical the Carry RR and associated boats were before Route 28 brought
the motorcar and motortruck to the Fulton Chain of Lakes.
Ooh, look! That's a horsecar, all right; there's old Dobbin in the traces!
(cropped from photo courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images, click on pictures for larger images]
Thanks, Larry!
1902 Survey Map - Larry Miller also sent me an extract from Durant�s
plan from when he was selling lots on Utowana and Eagle and Blue Mountain
Lakes in 1902; it shows the Marion River Carry Lot, with the two docks, the
engine house, the water tank, and the Carry Inn buildings quite clearly:
(14 Dec 05)
(image courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image, click on picture for MUCH larger (1.2Mb) image]
Look in the upper left; the demarcation of the township boundariesy is an old
"Nickle {sic} Plate in Rock. / Marked N. Y. State Land Survey. /
Verplanck Colvin Sup't.", the primary survey of the Adirondack Park!
Also note that distances are given in "chs." (chains)!
I cropped the image down to a more reasonable size (426Kb), from dock to
dock:
(cropped from image courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image, click on picture for larger (426Kb) image]
Here are some details from that map; first, the lower dock to the engine house:
(cropped from image courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
The engine house, water tank, Carry Inn, and bridge:
(cropped from image courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
The dam and upper dock:
(cropped from image courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
Finally, although not part of the railroad but definitely part of the carry, here's
the relocation and canalization of the old upper channel, something of which I
was unaware (or had forgotten all about):
(cropped from image courtesy of L. Miller - all rights reserved)
Well, that shows the engine house on the "wrong side of the tracks" to my
vague recollection and, of course, no indication of any turnouts whatsoever.
Once again, we are indebted to Larry Miller!
Bernie Perch sent me a copy of an undated photo of the lower dock 'way back
when Forest Park & Land Co. ran the Carry RR; it is from the collection of
famed RR photographer Mallory Hope Ferrell and has a wealth of detail!
First of all, here's a thumbnailed image; I had to lighten the image to see any
detail and, if you click on the picture, you will bring up the 2.1Mb
full image:
(14 Dec 05)
(photo from the collection of M. H. Ferrell courtesy of B. Perch - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image, click on picture for MUCH larger (2.1Mb) image]
There's so much to see! The FP&L "dummy" locomotive is #1, the
former Suburban Rapid Transit Co. Baldwin 0-4-2T* #4, trailing one of the
horsecars:
(cropped from photo from the collection of M. H. Ferrell courtesy of B. Perch - all rights reserved)
The car float, loaded with people, is carrying a New York Central & Harlem
River flat car:
(cropped from photo from the collection of M. H. Ferrell courtesy of B. Perch - all rights reserved)
Finally, here's the flat car, #28---, enlarged almost to pixellation:
(cropped from photo from the collection of M. H. Ferrell courtesy of B. Perch - all rights reserved)
* - at least, I think it is an 0-4-2T; Ferrell tagged it as an 0-4-4T; I'll
have to check on this. SRT had three other identical BLW locos (per
M. H. Ferrell 9/94):
#3 - BLW c/n 8048, blt 7/86
#4 - BLW c/n 8049, blt 7/86 -> FP&L #1
#5 - BLW c/n 8050, blt 7/86
#6 - BLW c/n 8057, blt -/86
1927-29 Schuelke Photos.
(14 Aug 07)
I got these Marion River Carry photos both from the Church of the Good Shepherd and
from Richard F. Palmer, who bought them from professional photographer Theodore
Schuelke, many years ago, shortly before the line closed down; Schuelke has long
since passed away (comments edited from Richard F. Palmer):
(photos by T. Schuelke courtesy of R. F. Palmer - all rights reserved)
[click on thumbnailed pictures for larger images]
Captions [written on the backs of the prints] -
(left) "The shortest railroad --- in the world, being 7/8 mile long and operating
between Raquette & Utewana {sic} Lakes. Taken Aug. 25, 1927."
(center)
"The shortest railroad in the world, being 7/8 mile long & operating between
Raquette & Utewana {sic} Lakes in the Adirondack Mountains. Taken Aug. 8,
1929."
(right) "All aboard for Raquette Lake - and homeward bound to Eagle Bay, after a trip
to Blue Mt. Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. This picture was taken at the
Utewana {sic} Lake Terminal of the Shortest Railroad in the world on Aug. 8,
1929."
[Captions furnished by R. F. Palmer; pictures artificially lightened slightly by SB,III
to bring up detail.]
What more can we dredge up about the Marion River Carry Railroad?
If you like model railroading nonsense (and good tips), take a gander at Jim Wells' incredible 
and at the AW NUTS Magazine site, "A Publication of the A.W. N.U.T.S. Garden Railway Society".
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