The Midland Beach Railway Company was the operator of a

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petrol ...

at Midland Beach in

Staten Island, New York City Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and f ...

around 1903. The railroad operated along a pier jutting out from what is now the

South Beach Boardwalk South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

Operation

The track was laid on the pier at Midland Beach, which was in length, and its steam locomotive was designed to draw a train of nine cars. The gauge of the locomotive was a unique , and it was built like a standard trunk line steam locomotive in every particular. Its length was , its width , and its height from the rail to the top of the smokestack. The passenger cars were long and wide, and the train ran on a track laid with T-rails.Miniature locomotives for street railway parks.
The Street railway journal, Vol. XXI (Vol. 21), No. 14, April 4, 1903, p. 538.

Locomotive

The lilliputian locomotive was made by the Miniature Railway Company of New York. Their devices have proved profitable at street railway parks as well as at some of the fairs, like the

Pan-American Exposition The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is now Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Avenue to Elmwood A ...

, at

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, and those at

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and Charleston in the early 1900s. Some of the street railway parks at which these machines have been run in 1902 were those of the Oil City Railway Company,

Oil City, Pennsylvania Oil City is a city in Venango County, Pennsylvania known for its prominence in the initial exploration and development of the petroleum industry. It is located at a bend in the Allegheny River at the mouth of Oil Creek. Initial settlement of Oi ...

; the West Chicago Street Railway Company and the Richmond Beach Railway Company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Midland Beach Railway Company Companies based in Staten Island Defunct New York (state) railroads Narrow gauge railroads in New York (state)