branch lines and the railroad and mill got by mostly on sacrifice (mainly employee)
until the US entry into WW II. The awarding of a prime defense contract for Refractorily-Molded
Ferrous Body-Refuse Directory Tubing to a small Strangville foundry, the Leachy Pipe Company, made the
road strategically important.
The Federal Government took over operation of the line for the duration of the
war, infusing on the standard gauge the now badly needed maintenance that had been neglected during the
depression, but leaving maintenance of the logging branch to the NCC. Thus the logging branch
continued to deteriorate.
In 1946, having received full return of control of the LP, 'Ma' Gready decided
that the costs of refurbishing the narrow gauge were great enough to warrant upgrading the whole line to
standard gauge, opting to haul logs by truck to landings at only a couple of camp sites instead of
extending temporary trunk lines to the various cuts.
The railroad thrived in the post WW II economy and up through Korea, when the
Military once again needed its vital ReMFaBRunDT for new bases overseas.
MODERNIZATION
In 1958, Ma Gready passed on, leaving her vast fortune and holdings to her
children, who became fascinated with diesel-electric's in the early `60s. Being at first true to
their heritage, the heirs abandoned passenger service almost before the very idea occurred to the big
roads. Eventually feeling "remorse", they finally yielded to the LP Historical Society's pleadings
in 1972 to turn the abandoned passenger station in Strangville and some equipment over to it to restore
and operate as a tourist attraction.
The Society was then surprised to be presented with the NCC, its remaining
intact narrow gauge trackage from Najidae, which had at some time been renamed Crabbon since the
original name had somehow escaped being recorded at the county offices, and the old NCC holdings at
Crabbon, Coruscate, and Cloaca.
The logging line formerly administered by the NCC was purchased by the LP.
Although the Gready Logger is now officially a train operated by the LP, it is still headed by
locomotives owned by the mill.
Today, the NCC is once again a working common carrier, due to an agreement by
the Society to operate under NCC markings a small fleet of standard gauge boxcars for a cooperative of
small lumber producers, United Forest Products, working in the forest lands around the canyon, and
loading their product at the old dual gauge team track in Crabbon. The old trackage is currently
undergoing refurbishment with an eye toward operating tourist excursions.
HIDDEN
MOTIVES? The
Gready
heirs' generosity is rumored to have been more self serving than a desire for historic preservation.
Coincidentally with the opening of the refurbished Lewshinn passenger station,
the LP re-entered the passenger market with a commuter train to take advantage of the sudden interest of
people to live in Strangville, but work in Lewshinn. A reluctant Historical Society agreed to let
the railroad use the station "for old time's sake", which saved the railroad a bundle in taxes and other
costs; allowing it to offer attractive rates to commuters as incentive to use the rail instead of the
highway.
As for the NCC, the IPUC had been getting increasingly belligerent about
collecting fees on the unused narrow gauge line, since the NCC was still a going concern, in the logging
arena. In their protest of the fees, the Gready heirs pointed out that the old mining portion of
the line was no longer in use, and the rails were no longer connected to the operating part of the NCC.
The IPUC insisted that since they still had the right of way, they should pay
the fees, whether they still used it or not. Filing for abandonment of the now relatively short
stretch was considered too much of a hassle, what with the FRA red tape involved, so officially shedding
the old line via the donation, and having the mill directly take over all responsibility for its logging
operations on trackage "sold" to the LP was their solution to the problem.
