The Fulton Chain Railroad, also known as the "Peg Leg", was a private railroad connecting Moose River to Minnehaha, New York in the Fulton Chain of Lakes.[1] The line was built in 1888, and ceased running in 1892. The line was eight miles (13 km) long, and had wooden rails, hence the nickname "Peg Leg". It was a narrow gauge railway, using a 3 ft (914 mm) gauge. It ran only during the summer months to carry vacationers to the Fulton Chain of Lakes.
Excerpted from: ”The Adirondacks Fulton Chain – Big Moose Region, A Story of a Wilderness” by Joseph F. Grady. 1933. 2nd. Edition 1966.
“Service on the seven mile length of Moose River-Minnehaha Railroad began in the late spring of 1889….
“The narrow gage railroad became a celebrated hit of trackage despite its abbreviated length. It was built in a single season, in much the same manner that a wooden sidewalk might be laid along the rough floor of the forest. After a swath of timber had been felled to open the right of way, a portable sawmill followed the grading crew and cut from the fallen trees sufficient lumber to provide material for the track structure. The stringers, rails and cross ties were fashioned wholly of wood, the rails being two b four lengths of hardwood secured to the ties with six inch wire nails. At the curves, strips of band iron protected the rails against abrasion by contact with the iron wheels of the locomotive and its train of cars. Although the route followed a path of least resistance wherever possible, several trestles were required to carry to track over depressions or ravines. One trestle bridged a gap twenty feet deep.
“In addition to the engine, the train included a combination freight and baggage car, and one passenger coach, roofed but open at the sides, with a seating capacity of thirty persons. It carried on separate fuel or water tender as these materials wee available at both ends of the seven mile run. The locomotive was a diminutive, black creature of the mechanical world, equipped with most of the power-generating and noise-making appliances common to its bigger brothers of the iron rails, like them, smoky and belligerent in appearance. Its ten foot length of cab and boiler were set upon six chubby wheels that scurried through the forest with all the ferocity of a band of pigmy warriors. Persons lingering beside the right of way to observe its approach were delighted at the incongruous spectacle of a puffing, panting little train hurrying upon important errands through the somber depths of virgin forest. Sometimes their cheers of mock encouragement brought a humorous response from those aboard, and sometimes they didn’t. Passengers could often be seen clutching the wooden seats in trepidation lest the impetuous engine should send them headlong into the depth of a chasm or against a wall of stalwart trees that bordered the track. The confusion of sound engendered by the contact of iron wheels with wood and the echoes awakened in the surrounding forest created an impression of wilder speed that the train actually attained, and the effect on timorous passengers sometimes approximated the excitement provoked by an amusement park “thrill ride.” Mishaps occurred at intervals, but all of a minor character. Occasionally the train left the track and the combined efforts of crew and passengers were required to pry it back upon the rails. Passengers were also called upon to push the train, when heavily freighted, up the sharp grade that confronted the engine after I left Moose River Settlement.
“The road became known as the Wooden Legged or Peg Legged Railroad, and finally by the contemptuously familiar term “The Peg Leg.” These names were suggested by the wooden rails. Newspapers, including several metropolitan journals, printed feature articles about the road and the humiliating predicaments its little train experienced because of the unstable type of track construction. Regardless of all the good natured ridicule to which it became subjected during its four years’ operation, it served as a really valuable link in the transportation chin from the west.”