Wendell J. Dillinger, 93, lifelong railroader and founder and CEO of the 7-mile-long Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad in Central Pennsylvania, died Dec. 10. During his 47 years of operating the line, he ran diesel freight and passenger trains, acquired and restored to service ex-Canadian National Railways 2-6-0 steam locomotive No. 91, and collected streetcars for a planned trolley service that never materialized.

A former analyst with Chicago & North Western and other Midwestern railroads, Dillinger always held the dream of operating his own short line. With his parents, Joy and Gladys Dillinger, he bought a branch line from the trustees of the bankrupt Reading Co. in March 1976. With the help of a friend, Sam Holmes, they restored its original 1888 status as an independent carrier.

For the first decade, M&H was freight-only, but began tourist runs in 1986 when it acquired several ex-Delaware, Lackawanna & Western commuter trailer coaches.

“I’m thankful for every opportunity he gave me,” said Vice President Mike Graycar, who started as a volunteer in 2011. “It’s the same sentiment we all have; he was loved by all of us, and will be missed. He owned [M&H], he got us all together, and gave us a great place to work and volunteer.” M&H employs two full-time and three part-time workers, supported by 14 volunteers.

The road is best known for its street running on Brown Street in Middletown, for operating a pair of Alco switchers, and for its welcoming attitude toward railfan photo charters. In 1984, M&H bought the ex-CNR steam engine and ran it until 2009.

Born in New Jersey in 1930, Dillinger and his parents moved to Cicero, Ill., in 1937, when his father’s job was transferred. There, according to an M&H biography, “he fell in love with the trolleys and interurbans that dotted the suburbs of Chicago, including his favorite, the Chicago & West Towns Railroad.” Graduating from high school in 1948, he earned a bachelor’s degree at Otterbein College and a master’s degree at the Wharton School, where his thesis was a history of the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Co.

During college summer breaks, he took a job as a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy janitor as a gateway to becoming a CB&Q watchman, ticket seller, interchange clerk, and station agent.

After two years in the Army, he was hired by the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban line in 1958 as director of research and development, later taking a job in C&NW’s finance department. From there, he became president of the Iowa Terminal Railroad. (ITR is today’s Iowa Traction Railroad, America’s sole surviving freight interurban).

Dillinger is survived by his female companion of 20 years, Frankie Wiseman, who handled bookkeeping, as well as special events such as staged train robberies. A memorial will be held Monday, Dec. 18 at Richardson Funeral Home, 29 South Enola Drive, Enola, Pa., with visitation at 10 a.m,, service at 11 a.m.

"...he bought a branch line from the trustees of the bankrupt Reading Co. in March 1976."

Wendell Dillinger, a major figure in traction preservation for over 60 years, died on Sunday the 10th at the age of 93. He was the owner of the Middletown & Hummelstown, a short line and tourist railroad based in Middletown, Pennsylvania, which he purchased in 1976.

In the years before that, he was active in the traction preservation scene in the Chicago area. I met him just once, in 2003, and I recall him describing how he was one of the principals behind the consortium museum lawsuit against the Chicago Aurora & Elgin around 1962. To make a long story short, the railroad had sold 15 or 20 cars to various trolley museums, but then later decided to sell the entire fleet - including those 15 or 20 cars - to the scrapper. Wendell helped organize the joint museum effort to file a lawsuit against the CA&E which was (obviously) successful and resulted in a cross-section of cars from the line being preserved instead of every last car being cut up. For the railroad's part, they had to purchase the museum cars back from the scrapper - of course at two or three times what the scrapper had paid for them!

Anyway, during the 1960s, Wendell worked for the C&NW and then the Iowa Terminal. Meanwhile, he started amassing a small collection of electric railway equipment, including two Rio de Janeiro open cars that were stored at the then-Railway Equipment Leasing & Investment Corporation site (today the Fox River Trolley Museum) and an ex-Kansas City steeplecab that went to Iowa Terminal but never ran there. In the late 1970s or early 1980s, after he purchased the M&H, he moved all of his equipment to Middletown and began collecting more, including a smattering of cars from Red Arrow, SEPTA's city lines, the Lackawanna, and some car bodies thrown in too. Today, the M&H has 24 cars on the PNAERC roster. Wendell also oversaw operation of the M&H tourist railroad business and the restoration of a Canadian 2-6-0 steam locomotive. About ten years ago, he had a carbarn built in Middletown and was finally able to put the more significant pieces from the traction collection into protected storage.

Wendell Dillinger left an indelible mark on traction preservation. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.