RAIL CITY

The Rail City Museum was created in the 1950's by Dr. Stanley Groman of Syracuse, NY. Located on the shore of Lake Ontario at Sandy Pond, NY, it was originally envisioned as a narrow gauge railroad and western town, typical of 1950's tourist attraction design. However, the line ended up standard gauge. Equipment came from the Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain, the PRR, NYC, Bath & Hammondsport and even a coal mine in New Mexico.

The museum was open until 1974, when the Sandy Pond & Ontario RR made its final run and all the equipment was eventually sold off or scrapped. Today, Bob Groman, son of the founder, has restored the former NYC Deer River station and has created a new Rail City Museum, displaying photos and artifacts connected with the creation of Rail City and the railroads that Doc did and didn't get equipment from. For more info on today's museum, please use the following link:

• The New Rail City Museum

I was privileged to be part of the Rail City crew in its last years, from 1971 thru 1974 and did everything from conductor to engineer to relaying 300' of rail in the curve at the runway crossing. The 1 1/2 mile loop track consisted of a steep downgrade out of the station to Red Rock Springs, then a slight upgrade to the road crossing before the enginehouse and another stiff grade up from the enginehouse to the runway of Doc's air strip which was in the middle of the loop. Trains ran counterclockwise when I was there. We seldom had a fireman so the engineer did it all.