Lawndale Dummy

Back in March I mentioned the Lawndale Railway & Industrial Co. ( Pumped Up, 3/3/07 ) At the time, I didn't want to go into that fascinating little RR. But now, for no particular reason, here goes.

This is one of the original freight-cars, I believe, #314. I believe that because that is what is painted on it. As you might have noticed, the track does not appear to go anywhere. This is, alas, the case today, but it was not so in the early 1900's, in it's days of glory.
Back in that era of the rise of our late lamented textile industry, it seems there was a booming mill and mill-town about a dozen miles from here. Now this metropolis was served by not one, but two modern rail-lines, whereas said mill-town was served by only muddy wagon roads. The Great Industrialist who's mill was lacking this modern transport, was determined to remedy this. When no "real" railroaders could be induced to assist in this endeavor, this Industrialist took matters into his own hands and built his own rail-line. The narrow gage was already largely considered obsolete, but it suited his purposes in that second hand equipment could be had economically, and actually gave some technical advantages in this case. The Railroad operated until WWII when the track was taken up for scrap in those desperate times. But the old LRR had served it's purpose by then, and trucks had taken over from the little "Lawndale Dummy" as it was know.
I think it's kinda cool though. The photo doesn't give a very good idea of the scale of things. Sorry about that. It is a lot smaller than the box cars we usually see. Dig the cool wooden trucks.