The Fungus and Mungus Railroad was chartered on July 11, 1896, as a cooperative venture between Frederick “Freddy” Fungus and Hubert “Hugh” Mungus.
Freddy Fungus is the owner of the Fungus Mining Corporation. It operates the Ophelia and Leonor mines, named for Fungus’s two daughters. The mines are rich in unobtainium, a rare mineral used in the manufacture of specialty steel products.
Hugh Mungus is a local timber baron, and owner of the Hugh Mungus Timber Company, with significant tracts of land on the west side of Big Pine Mountain. I’m sure you’re familiar with those Hugh Mungus trees. Mungus also owns the Mungus Sawmill and the Mungus Lumber Company.
Construction of the FMRR began on September 1, 1896, under the supervision of Kent C. Straight, Railroad Superintendent. Three separate crews under the direction of K. O’Malley, T. O’Riley, and J. O’Grady began surveying, grading, and laying track.
O’Malley headed north towards Junction City where the FMRR would interchange with the D&RGW and the Southern Pacific railroads. O’Riley began constructing southwards towards the logging camps of the Hugh Mungus Timber Company. O’Grady began construction of the Cloud’s Rest railyard at the site of Mungus’ original Logging Camp 1.
The line north to Junction City, past the Fungus Mines, was completed on November 15, 1897, while the line south to Camp 3, past the Mungus Sawmill, was not completed till April 28, 1898.
The FMRR’s first locomotive, a used 4-4-0 from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, left Cloud’s Rest on November 17, 1897, with Lionel Trane as the engineer, Willey Stoker as the fireman, and Justin Thyme as the conductor. It left with three empty flatcars with sideboards in place, stopped at the Leonor mine to be loaded and continued on to Junction City, where it spotted the three loaded cars and picked up a string of recently purchased empty cars.
By the spring of 1899, the railroad was running full steam. A second and third locomotive were added to the growing fleet of rolling stock. These two new additional locomotives were Shay-type geared locomotives designed to negotiate the switchbacks and steep climbs to Logging Camp 3. Under the guidance of Stan Still, the new mine foreman, operations at both the Ophelia and Leonor mines were expanded and each was producing two or more carloads of high-grade unobtainium ore daily.
By the turn of the century, business was booming. Hugh Mungus Logging Camp 4 was opened under the direction of Tim Burr near the top of Big Pine Mountain. Fully staffed with a seasonal logging crew of 60 men and a support staff of 10, including five women; the camp was running six days a week. In order to attract and keep the best loggers, the camp hired renowned cooks Chris P. Bacon, Al Dente, and Ida Baker to keep the crew fed. A well-fed crew is a happy crew. The four flunkies, Billy Jo, Bobby Jo, Betty Jo, and Becky Sue made sure the food kept flowing, the coffee pots were always full, and the loggers’ plates were never empty.
Not only was the railroad growing but so was the surrounding area. With easy rail access, the town of Bedrock grew from a shanty town on the outskirts of the Fungus Mining District to a right and proper city with a fine hotel, a church, three saloons, and nearly three dozen other establishments. The town elected F. Flintstone as its first mayor and hired B. Rubble as its first sheriff.
Fast forward to the summer of 1906. The towns of Bedrock and Cloud’s Rest are booming. Six-day-per-week passenger service has been established between these towns and Junction City. Farms and homesteads have grown up along the right-of-way to the south, the largest being the Dusty Bottoms Cattle Company, which ships one to two cars of prime beef cattle per week.
Tim Burr and his logging crew are shipping as many as six carloads of logs per day from the landing site to the Hugh Mungus Sawmill, which in turn ships out two to three cars a day of finished lumber. Stan Still and his mining crews at the Ophelia and Leonor mines are producing two to three cars per day each of high-grade ore.
Cloud’s Rest is fully electrified with the construction and operation of its coal-fired power plant which produces enough electricity for the FMRR yard and the Town of Cloud’s Rest and even has some to share with the town of Bedrock.
The FMRR now operates four trains per day on a very tight schedule. One services the sawmill, Dusty Bottoms Cattle Co., Camp 4, and some small businesses along the way. Another services the town of Bedrock, the Fungus Mines, and some additional industries. The third runs from Cloud’s Rest with cars destined for interchange and one or more passenger cars servicing Cloud’s Rest, Bedrock, and Junction City. The fourth works the yard shuttling cars from place to place.
To keep yard operations running smoothly, the railroad hired a husband-and-wife team of experienced railroaders to help run the day-to-day operations. Ben Dover serves as Trainmaster, and his wife Ilene Dover serves as the station telegrapher. Their son, 13-year-old Trip Dover, serves as the yard’s bicycle messenger, running errands between the station, the shops, and other yard buildings.
Things look good for the Fungus and Mungus Railroad and the booming towns of Cloud’s Rest and Bedrock. Who knows what the future holds?