His restorations of those passenger lines are a perfect immersion into a glamorous way to travel long gone, one that once upon a time could take a person from one small town to another, or to the big city or even across the entire country. Maples said he just lost a big customer this winter when the Appvion Paper Mill, which had been at its nearby Roaring Springs operation since 1866, closed, costing 300 people their jobs. "We really miss the days when newspaper was printed on newsprint, because that was a good business for the railroad, hauling newsprint.” Newsprint isn't made much anymore, which means it's not there to haul anymore. Since then, it has been a carrier-freight railroad in the Interstate 99 corridor of Blair County, which includes the communities of Altoona, Roaring Spring, Martinsburg, Claysburg, and Hollidaysburg. Yet by 1984, Maples was able to make the first run under his ownership, delivering a load of bauxite ore. By 1982, it had been essentially abandoned, then sold and moved here to Blair County. The company was originally incorporated in 1954 in its namesake town of Everett, 33 miles south of here. “We are a working railroad serving industries around the area we also run these excursion trains during the summer and then in the fall and the Christmas time as well,” he said, pointing to the meticulously and carefully restored passenger trains in the rail yard behind his office. To everyone's surprise, from the town to his parents to the manufacturing industries he serves in the area to the families and rail fans who discovered his steam-engine-powered excursion railroad line, Maples has been more than relatively successful.
“They also said, 'If you go broke, don’t come back there is no more money,'” explained Maples, who splits his time between here and Scottsboro, Alabama. I did not go to college, and my parents had set some money aside for my college education.” "The owners of the railroad wanted to get rid of it it wasn't worth a lot at the time. “Well, it was during a recession," he explained. (Shannon Venditti / for the Washington Examiner) Now, my brother grew up in the same house, and he could care less about trains, so I don't know what the magic is, but it's something I've loved all my life.”Īt 21, with some help from his parents and the college fund they had saved for him that he never used, he bought the Everett Railroad, which is not something that someone who isn’t a robber baron traditionally does. "There was a railroad track a few blocks from our house, and I had a model train as a kid. “I grew up in Bethesda, Maryland," Maples said. In fairness, lots of children want to run railroads when they first catch sight of a train chugging along the highway in the distance and hear the long-long-short-long rhythm of the whistle in the distance. Maples shrugs, smiles, and admits a few people, including his parents, thought he was a bit daft when he said his career goal was to run a railroad, at the very time the industry was on its knees.
#President tyler railroad story full
Yet when Alan Maples became president of the Everett Railroad Company in 1983, a purchase that made him the youngest person in the history of the industry to hold that title, the Alabama native knew full well he would not wield the prominence, power, and influence that title once held. HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pennsylvania - If you were the president of a railroad 100 years ago, you were kind of a big deal.
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