In May, G&W celebrated the railroad’s 125th anniversary. For the world’s largest holder of short-line railroads, the celebration.represented both a look at the past and an opportunity for the future.
On May 8th, under a large tent in a rail terminal tucked away in a normally quiet corner of Rochester, New York, a crowd of over 250 people, largely composed of employees past and present of the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad (G&W), gathered to celebrate the rail’s 125th anniversary in the place where it all began.
A century and a quarter is a remarkably long-time to be in business. And even more remarkably to still be serving the same original customer which is the case with G&W and a salt mine in Retsof, New York.
From A Short-Line to a Long History
This arrangement worked until 1977, when Mortimer “Mort” B. Fuller III, the great grandson of Edward L. Fuller, bought out the railroad’s other shareholders and purchased the railroad and subsequently set a holding company with the Genesee and Wyoming Railroad becoming a subsidiary – a precursor of things to come.
A short time later in 1980, the Staggers Rail Act deregulated the rail industry, and the railroads began shedding their unprofitable routes. And Mort Fuller took advantage of this opportunity to purchase spun off short lines. When in the 1990s, similar legislation was introduced overseas, especially in Australia, the G&W leaped at the chance to expand overseas. G&W invested in Canada, Mexico, Bolivia and became the first foreign investor in Australia.
Throughout the 2000s G&W went on a massive acquisition spree of buying up short railroads. The purchases ran the gamut of rail services from publicly traded rail companies like the Providence and Worcester, industrial companies’ railroads like South Buffalo from Bethlehem Steel and three railways from Georgia Pacific, not to mention short-lines like Maryland Midland and Arkansas Midland. There were also acquisitions outside North America, notably Rotterdam Rail Feeding in the Netherlands and the Freightliner Group in the UK.
Now G&W owns or operates 122 “short-line” railroads, which cumulatively amounts to around 13,000 track-miles – enough trackage to make the company number six in the nation in track length just behind the well-known Class 1 rail companies.
First and Last Mile
G&W’s rail companies are frequently located in or near ports. For this reason, the G&W has an unusual but descriptive tag line for a rail company, “first and last mile.” Because many of G&W’s short-lines are located inside the port boundaries freight often is placed directly on cars, essentially a “first mile” for onward delivery that can take the freight across the country. Equally many of G&W’s short-line railroads are located in industrial zones where the delivery is in effect the “last mile” of the transit.
As an example of the first and last mile, Dan Pavick, VP Operations for the Great Lakes Division described the movement of an unusual freight, “We’re seeing a growing market in some of our areas with food, food materials, inbound pastes, sugars…they [the customer] make all sorts of pasta sauces for distribution… that’s 100% California to Rochester, New York haul. It literally is the last mile.”
However, like the composition of the short-lines under the G&W umbrella, the type of freight carried is varied. Quite literally is everything from tomato paste, described above to coal, aggregates, scrap metal, chemicals, lumber, autos, plastics, and even the enormous blades of wind turbines.
A Trip Back To the Beginning
The centerpiece of the 125th anniversary celebration was the dedicating of two new locomotives. Similar to the christening of a ship, the dedication was to have a champagne bottle broken over the lead locomotive, named in the founder’s honor, by a person of note - in this case the original company’s founder’s great-grandson Mort B. Fuller III. The two new locomotives, C44-9 (No. 1899) and GP38-2 (No. 125) were painted in a heritage color scheme which was the same as the original G&W locomotives from the 1970’s when Mort Fuller took controlling interest in the company. The new locomotives were kept a secret for months as they were painted in the nearby Retsof Yard. And after the ceremonies the locomotives were later deployed on the Rochester & Southern Railroad (R&S) and the Buffalo & Pittsburg Railroad (BPRR) railroads. The numbers of the locomotives 1899 and 125 were in honor of the year the company started and 125th anniversary. The christening of the locomotives was a surprise for Mort Fuller and is wife Sue Fuller, who did the actual smashing of the champagne bottle on the engine.
The christening was followed by the subsequent 14.5 rail ride that included the use of passenger cars that were arranged by Great Lakes Division Vice President Dan Pavick, who has a relationship with the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Ohio, who provided the cars.
The 14.5 rail trip back to the Retsof salt mines was both a trip back to the past but also a celebration of the future. The choice of the route involved several factors. The obvious ones were that the G&W originated near Retsof, New York, at the salt mine which remarkably is still a customer today. Also the G&W’s administrative headquarters is in Rochester which allowed employees to attend the event. And the route is symbolic of the original 14 mile railroad established in 1899 that solely hauled salt - a single commodity railroad - from the mine in Retsof, New York.
At virtually every crossing and up in the hills surrounding the routing, “rail fans” gathered to wave and take pictures of the train hauling the highly unusual freight of “people” in the passenger cars. And while it was a celebration of 125 years of endeavor, G&W’s activities are very much a part of today’s railroading linking Class 1 railroads to ports and yards across North America.
