И. А. Курбасова Е. И. Силантьева

World's Shortest Railroad
Only a few of us may have heard or read about the world's shortest railroad. It ran in northern New York for a distance of seven-eighths of a mile! The rolling stock handling the service included one locomotive, two open coaches and a baggage car. This rolling stock was supposed to carry ten thousand passengers a year, as well as heavy loads of freight. The railroad connected two lakes spanning the unnavigable part of the Marion River. Steamers were to meet the train at both ends of the line and to transfer passengers and freight. In winter, however, with thick ice covering the lakes, the steamers stopped running and, with them, the world's smallest railroad.

Needless to say that other, more efficient means of trans­portation should have been used to handle the traffic all the year round. But at that time the line was considered to economically justify its existence. Indeed, it carried its load successfully for nearly thirty years. And it might have performed its duty for many years to come but for the con­struction of a highway between the two lakes. The result was that the little railroad was out of business.

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