ASLRRA to induct Corman, McCaffrey, Smith into Hall of Fame

The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association yesterday announced the 2026 inductees into the Short Line Railroad Industry Hall of Fame.

Each year, a class including one posthumous and two living honorees are selected. For 2026, those individuals are the late Richard Jay "Rick" Corman (1955-2013), R. Lawrence "Larry" McCaffrey and Mike Smith.

ASLRRA created the Hall of Fame in 2020 to recognize short-line visionaries and stars who — through their dedication, commitment and achievement — best exemplify the qualities of innovation, entrepreneurialism, perseverance and service that have advanced the short-line railroad industry, ASLRRA officials said in a press release.

Born in Nicholasville, Kentucky, Corman's professional journey began in 1973, just after graduating from high school. With a rented backhoe and a dump truck, he founded R. J. Corman Construction Co. Eventually, his company expanded to work under contract with Class Is and short lines. After the passage of the Staggers Act of 1980, he acquired his first short line, the Bardstown Line, in 1987. This move marked the birth of R. J. Corman Railroad Co., which now owns 19 short lines stretching over 1,400 miles. Corman’s business model became a prime example of the short-line railroad industry’s vital role in America’s infrastructure, ASLRRA officials said.

To learn more about Corman, read the association's profile of him here.

McCaffrey wrote the book on how to create and manage a short line, publishing "Starting a Short Line" in 1983 with his law partner, Peter Gilbertson. In the early years of his law practice, focused on seeking restructuring financing through U.S. Department of Transportation programs, a breakthrough came with an Interstate Commerce Commission decision for one of McCaffrey’s clients. The decision created a policy that opened the door to sales of rail lines by Class Is to noncarriers, which thereby became new railroads. From there, the short-line industry blossomed with new railroads, resulting in among other things the transformation of the American Short Line Railroad Association (ASLRA) into ASLRRA.

To read more about McCaffrey, read his ASLRRA Hall of Fame bio here.

President of Finger Lakes Railway, Smith today is an expert at sharing the short-line industry’s story, according to ASLRRA. A job as an operating management trainee with Penn Central Transportation Co. after graduation from Amherst College set him on a career path that has lasted over half a century. After Penn Central, Smith worked as a marketing manager at the Canadian Pacific Railway in Montreal and later the Boston & Maine Railroad. At the Boston & Maine, as the vice president of marketing and sales, he was part of the team that brought the railroad out of bankruptcy. In 1990, Smith and others took over a nearly defunct 118-mile railroad in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Smith and the FGLK team secured Finger Lakes’ transformation into a vital property.

Click here to view Smith's ASLRRA bio.