Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad

Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad

The Judy K. locomotive on a grade crossing.
Locale	Cedar Point
Dates of operation	1963–
Track gauge	3 ft (914 mm)
Length	2+ miles
Website	http://www.cplerr.com/

The Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge passenger railroad at the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.

The railroad originally opened in 1963 with construction starting in the Fall of 1962. Some of the railroad cars were previously 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge before being converted to 3 ft (914 mm) gauge. The railroad runs on a 2-mile circuit around the park. There are currently two stations, the Main Station in Celebration Plaza and the Frontier Town Station in Frontier Town. Much track work has been done over the years to re-route the track but the most significant track work came in 2007 when the track by the Frontier Town station had to be re-done to navigate around Cedar Point's new coaster, Maverick.

In 2013, Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad celebrated its 50th Anniversary. In its first 50 years of operation the ride had more than 116 million passengers.

There are currently four engines in operable condition on the railroad, #44 Judy K., #22 Myron H., #4 George R., and #1 G.A. Boeckling Myron H. or Judy K. are the primary locomotives used on a daily basis. Either locomotive can be used as the second engine for two train operations. The G.A. Boeckling and the George R. are available as back ups if their services are needed. The engines used at Cedar Point are all historic locomotives that were built for a variety of uses before ending up at the park.

Judy K. was built in 1923 as construction number 3333 by the Vulcan Iron Works in 1922 as an 0-4-0T, nearly identical to the engine which became the Myron H. It is not known who the original owner was, but it was sold at an unknown date to the Lehigh Stone Company in Lehigh, Illinois. In 1960, it was sold to Peter Burno, a private collector in Spring Green, Wisconsin. It was sold to Cedar Point in August 1968 and converted to a 2-4-0 with tender. It was unnamed until 1974, when it was named the "Jack Foster" after the first superintendent of the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad. The engine had been retired by the late 1980s and sat with the Myron H. in the back of the enginehouse. It was fully restored in 1992 and renamed the "Judy K." after the wife of Richard Kinzel.