Global InformationFremont and Elkhorn Valley Railroad information
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Fremont, Nebraska |
| Reporting mark | FEVR, EVRC |
| Locale | Fremont to Hooper, Nebraska |
| Dates of operation | 1985–2015 |
| Predecessor | Chicago & North Western |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Fremont and Elkhorn Valley Railroad (reporting mark FEVR, EVRC) was a 17-mile (27 km) heritage railroad headquartered in Dodge County, Nebraska and, offered excursion services on the line. Its equipment is now owned by the Nebraska Railroad Museum.
The FEVR line extended from Fremont to nearby Hooper. It was originally built in 1869 as part of the larger system, the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad (FE&MV) & effectively nicknamed the "Cowboy Line". In 1903, the Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW) acquired the FE&MV & continued to operate the line until 1982, when the section from Fremont to Norfolk (known by C&NW as the West Point Subdivision) was abandoned after flooding along the Elkhorn River damaged the section. From the mid-1970s until the abandonment in 1982, freight traffic volumes had been mildly declining along this stretch of the Cowboy Line. The museum acquired the Fremont to West Point section in 1985.
Inaugurated on Memorial Day 1986 as an excursion line for the summer months, the trains were powered by 2-8-0 #1702, a 1942 steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. A back-up locomotive, EMD SW1200, Soo Line 2121, was used until 1996. Since then the motive power was FEVR 1219 (née CNW 1219, CNW 319) another EMD SW1200, built in 1962.
In 2010, after foreclosure was threatened on a bank loan, the Nebraska Railroad Museum sold the rail line to a private party out of Richmond, Missouri, in a deal that also included the museum's locomotives.[1] The museum planned to continue to operate its dinner train on the line, renamed the Fremont Northern Railroad, through a lease agreement, but the train was discontinued in 2012 after deteriorating rail conditions jeopardized safety and promised repairs were not made.[2]
A FEVR train can be seen in the 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.
- ^ "FEVR's line, locomotives have been sold". Fremont Tribune. February 5, 2011. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
- ^ "Fremont Dinner Train may chug away into Kansas". Fremont Tribune. August 8, 2012. Retrieved April 8, 2017.