WASHINGTON — Pete Claussen, Bruce Flohr, Edward Lewis, and Richard Robey have been selected by the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association for induction into the Short Line Railroad Industry Hall of Fame.
Induction is set for April 3 at the 2023 ASLRRA Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans. Lewis, who died in 2015, will be honored posthumously.
This will be the third class inducted into the Hall of Fame, which the ASLRRA says recognizes those who exemplify the qualities of innovation, entrepreneurialism, perseverance, and service that have advanced the short line industry.
“These individuals have each added their own chapter to the all-American short line railroading story,” ASLRRA President Chuck Baker said in the announcement of this year’s honorees. “We are grateful for the leadership of those that have come before us, and inspired by their achievements. This year’s cohort … each took small companies that they started or joined early and brought them to the pinnacle of industry leadership, providing a playbook for many other short liners to emulate. It will be an honor to recognize these exceptional entrepreneurs for their career-spanning short line industry contributions in April.”
Claussen’s career as a lawyer laid the groundwork for his second career in railroading, which began as president of the South Central Tennessee Railway in 1983. After his founding of Gulf & Ohio Railways, his first railroad of more than 18 he would purchase, the Mississippi Delta, ran its first train on Dec. 31, 1985. Today Gulf & Ohio operates four short lines in Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina, as well as a tourist railroad in Tennessee, and owns locomotive remanufacturing firm Knoxville Locomotive Works.
Flohr entered railroading as a brakeman and management trainee with Southern Pacific in 1965, rising to become superintendent of SP’s San Antonio Division in 1971. After a period in government that included a stint as acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, he founded leasing company RailTex, which expanded into shortline ownership beginning in 1984. By the time RailTex was sold to RailAmerica in 2000, it had acquired 34 lines and operated them as 23 different railroads, making it North America’s largest short line holding company at that time.
Lewis began his railroad career as a clerk at the Long Island Rail Road in 1963 and held positions at a variety of small railroads in the northeast before becoming president of North Carolina’s Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad in 1987. He held that position for 20 years. He also wrote several books about railroads, most famously the “American Shortline Railway Guide,” a directory of small railroads still used for reference by the ASLRRA. An avid collector of railroad memorabilia, Lewis died on Nov. 11, 2015, after battling Parkinson’s disease.
Robey’s first railroading job was a college summer position with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in 1964. He joined the C&O’s management training program after graduating from Columbia University, and also had stints with Illinois Central and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie railroads, along with an early stint in short lines with the Octoraro Railway, an operation on a former Pennsylvania Railroad branch. In 1984, Robey and his wife Miriam founded the North Shore and Nittany & Bald Eagle railroads to operate ex-Conrail branches purchased by the SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority, an eight-county agency in Pennsylvania. Under Robey’s leadership, traffic grew from a handful of cars to 20,000 to 30,000 carloads today. Robey retired in 2010, selling the railroad to North Shore’s management team.
More complete information on the inductees is available here.
