Eastern Shortline Steam Railroads in the Early 1960's 

The last set of scenes appear to be at E.J Lavino in Lynchburg. Also the scenes on the BC&G with the shay and Railbus are at the Swandale Mill.

Thank you for a wonderful video. Will watch again and again. I know I hit you with many comments. I don't claim to be a wizard, but history of sr722 was in the brochure I have from my first excursion ride in 1971. Other comments I gave are found in the book Rails Through Dixie by Johnny Krause and H. Reid. Thank you again.

Really interesting video of some great old shortlines. Many errors in facts and all but the pictures were great.

You were correct, the footage at around 23:30 is Cass Scenic Railroad. This would have been the very first season, based on the locomotive's "two line" lettering scheme which was only used for that one season.

630 &722 were originally southern railway locomotives that were sold to et&wnc. Later after 4501 had initial success as an excursion loco the southern railway traded 2 diesel switchers for those 2 et&wnc consolidations and brought them back to srr for excursion service.

Last clip is ej lavino at at reusens, va near Lynchburg.

Thank you Very Very Very Very Much Jerry Hott.

Vbr caboose is ex southern railway and contemporary with srr cabooses at that time. Plant in background at start of vbr footage is American Cyanamid at piney river,va.

I think number 9 is the steamer being rebuilt by SMS lines in new jersey

611 was the only engine they had with poppet valves I believe.

Another Potomac Chapter member, Chuck G., provided more information about the final railroad: "The last railroad shown evidently wasn't identified in Jerry Hott's notes and apparently no one in the Zoom audience knew what it was. I, however, recognized it from the "L" on the locomotive side-tank as belonging to the E.J. Lavino Co. It operated a few small steel mills in the East, one of which was the mill in Jerry's film. From a little research I did, I think that mill was one at Sheridan (aka Newmanstown), PA. "Another mill was at Reusens, VA, a small settlement just up-river from Lynchburg, VA. When my wife and I visited her family in the latter city I would occasionally bike to Reusens to poke around the remains of the mill; it closed in the early '60s. Since my wife's dad knew I was a steam enthusiast he told me about Lavino's steam engine which he'd seen when the mill was still operating. That engine (#34) went to the museum in Roanoke, VA. I remember seeing it when the museum's collection was at a city park in Roanoke. The Sheridan mill engine was #3 (the number is barely legible on the cab of the engine in Jerry's film)."

Swandale sawmill is recognized in bc&g footage with shay. Shay is probably elk river rr.

A very nice and interesting video. I wasn't aware of any of these short-line railroads, but do recall riding on a short-line tourist railroad located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Note that the fireless steam locomotive was retired in 1992.

the Tank Loco at the end is a USATC S100 switcher en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USATC_S100_Class

Yes it was EJ Lavino

5:53 look very different in today's time

ET&WNC 208 was SR 722.

13:56: I think that’s weird for a Shay

Looks like e j lavino at the end

1960’s boomers turn 60 1960-1963.