Along with Ed Miller, we lost two others involved with railroading recently. All three from PA.

Published: Monday, April 26, 2010
INDIANA, Pa. — Sloan Cornell, one of the pioneers of the steam tourist railroad industry, died on April 20 at age 85.

Cornell had a lifelong interest in steam locomotives, owning and operating half a dozen over the years. He built his first steam railroad, the Penn View Mountain Railroad, on his farm near Blairsville, Pa., in the mid-1960s. In 1976, following the formation of Conrail, Cornell became the operator of the Gettysburg Railroad, a former Reading branch line between Gettysburg and Mount Holly Springs. In addition to popular steam-powered excursions, Cornell provided freight service along the line.

Cornell later operated the Knox & Kane Railroad on a former Baltimore & Ohio line between Shippenville and Mount Jewett in northwestern Pennsylvania. The K&K excursion trains ran between Marienville and the former Erie Railroad Kinzua Viaduct (the fourth-highest railroad bridge in the country, at 2,052 feet long and 301 feet high) until 2003, when a tornado destroyed the bridge. The K&K also provided freight service along its route.

Among the steam locomotives used on Cornell's railroads were No. 76, a small 2-8-0 from the Mississippian Railway; No. 38, a larger 2-8-0 originally from the Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain; No. 3254, a large Canadian National 2-8-2 later traded to Steamtown for 4-6-2 No. 1278, which was heavily damaged when its firebox crownsheet collapsed in 1995 seriously injuring Jim Cornell, his son; and No. 58, a Chinese-built 2-8-2 built new for the K&K. All of these engines have been preserved, and several are being restored for further operation. — Wayne Laepple


Published: Monday, April 26, 2010
LANCASTER, Pa. — TRAINS author Bill Moedinger, the last survivor of the original investors group that turned the Strasburg Rail Road into an iconic tourist railroad, died Saturday at age 97.

He first wrote for TRAINS in the early 1940s, and is well-remembered by many for his series of articles in the 1970s about his experiences during his 12-year career as a Pullman conductor. He also wrote about prewar jaunts by motorcycle to Colorado to experience and photograph the legendary narrow gauge railroads in the southwestern corner of the state.

Moedinger was a Pullman conductor from 1943 to 1955, a job he called "the best job in the world," and he and his wife, Marian, were among the original stockholders who saved the Strasburg in 1958. He was the railroad's first marketing director, beginning the process that led to the Strasburg's place as one of the top steam tourist railroads in the world. The couple opened the railroad's gift shop in 1961 and ran it for many years. He was a qualified locomotive engineer, and he served as company president for 17 years.

Moedinger was also a charter member of the Lancaster Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, one of the two groups (the other was the Interstate Trolley Club) that agreed on Aug. 18, 1935, to merge to form the National Railway Historical Society.

He is survived by a son, Linn, who is Strasburg's current president. — Wayne Laepple

Not a good year