Ontario Midland Railroad (OMID) Discussion

The flanger would have made an interesting museum piece, or even to use on a shortline.

The Jordan Spreader would likely have been too tall for trucking without major disassembly.

The plow may have fit on a lowboy physically but would have been far too heavy.

IIRC, the plow was an old Milwaukee Road steam engine tender filled with concrete for ballast.

I agree. A number of those items could have been historical displays at museums instead of being scrapped.

Going back to some of the former Ontario Lines locomotives, the one Linco Stone & Supply Company in New Jersey had was the old JSRW Engine #16. They changed the number back to Engine #106 from the Wyandotte Terminal Railroad days. I'm pretty sure LSS is out of business now, so I'm not sure what became of the locomotive.

I noticed that the former ONER Engine #4085 is now on display at the Erie Turntable in Port Jervis, New York as Erie Railroad Engine #935 after being in service with the NYGL for a number of years.

nessman wrote:IIRC, the plow was an old Milwaukee Road steam engine tender filled with concrete for ballast.

Close - filled with crushed rock. There's still one over in Victor although I believe it has been donated.

As far as I know, the LAL-family didn't just scrap these things. Donations were looked at. You can assume if it was scrapped, an org declined.

I have heard conflicting stories on that, and can't really say which is correct. But the bottom line is it's their property, and within the law, they have the right to do anything they want with it. Sad to see, it's not the outcome I'd prefer, but that's reality.

To quote one of Willie Nelson's songs, "...and there's nothing I can do about it now"

Nobody asked me and I would have taken it

This past Tuesday marked 45 years since OMID's start. A letter to the editor of a local newspaper back then complained about the effort, said Penn Central / Conrail had not been able to make the line viable, and neither would the new company. That clipping, if it could be found, would look good framed and hung on the wall in the OMID office.

BR&P wrote: ↑Fri Oct 04, 2024 11:19 am This past Tuesday marked 45 years since OMID's start. A letter to the editor of a local newspaper back then complained about the effort, said Penn Central / Conrail had not been able to make the line viable, and neither would the new company. That clipping, if it could be found, would look good framed and hung on the wall in the OMID office.

We could probably check FultonHistory.com or NYSHistoricNewspapers.org. It could be there.

EDIT: I'm not sure as to what newpaper article you are mentioning, let alone when it was published, but I did find an article on Fulton History regarding an Anthony DeVito of Newark complaining about the continuance of a "dead horse"...stating that Wayne County should not get into the railroad business. DeVito had retired from Penn Central Railroad in 1973.

This was posted in the Finger Lakes Times on October 13, 1979. If you go to https://fultonhistory.com/fulton.html and look up "Ontario Midland" on the Boolean search setting, it will be the third or fourth one down on the list..."Geneva NY Finger Lake Times 1979 Oct 1979 - 0587.pdf". The newspaper article was written by Charles Hickey and is titled Rail vet: Don't put tax money on 'dead horse'.

mdevall1 wrote:We could probably check FultonHistory.com or NYSHistoricNewspapers.org. It could be there.

It's one of 3 papers: Sodus Record, Wayne County Star, Finger Lakes Times. Time frame is probably from one week prior to startup to 2 weeks after.

mdevall1 wrote:EDIT: I'm not sure as to what newpaper article you are mentioning, let alone when it was published, but I did find an article on Fulton History regarding an Anthony DeVito of Newark complaining about the continuance of a "dead horse"...stating that Wayne County should not get into the railroad business. DeVito had retired from Penn Central Railroad in 1973.

This was posted in the Finger Lakes Times on October 13, 1979. If you go to https://fultonhistory.com/fulton.html and look up "Ontario Midland" on the Boolean search setting, it will be the third or fourth one down on the list..."Geneva NY Finger Lake Times 1979 Oct 1979 - 0587.pdf". The newspaper article was written by Charles Hickey and is titled Rail vet: Don't put tax money on 'dead horse'.

That's the one! And yes, the writer was the griever for the Clerks during PC days.

"Nobody can make it pay. Why take over a dead horse? Railroads are a dead horse and have been for 20 years."

Yet somehow, 45 years later the OMID continues to operate.