American narrow gauge railroads |
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Contents |
New England
There were extensive 2 ft (610 mm) gauge lines in the Maine forests early in the 20th century. In addition to hauling timber, agricultural products and slate, the Maine lines also offered passenger services. The Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn Railroad was a narrow gauge commuter railroad that operated in Massachusetts. Narrow gauges also operated in the mountains of New Hampshire, on the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and in a variety of other locations.
Mid-Atlantic States
The last remaining 3 ft (914 mm) gauge common carrier east of the Rocky Mountains was the East Broad Top Railroad in Central Pennsylvania. Running from 1873 until 1956, it supplied coal to brick kilns and general freight to the towns it passed through, connecting to the Pennsylvania Railroad at Mount Union, Pennsylvania. Purchased for scrap by the Kovalchick Corporation when it ended common carrier service in 1956, it reopened as a tourist railroad in 1960. Still owned by the Kovalchick family, trains operate over 5 miles (8.0 km) of the original 33-mile (53 km) mainline. This trackage is today the oldest surviving stretch of narrow gauge railroad in the United States.
It was the last survivor of an extensive narrow gauge network in New York and Pennsylvania that included many interconnecting lines. The largest concentration was in the Big Level region around Bradford, PA, from which lines radiated towards Pittsburgh and into New York State. The Waynesburg & Washington Railroad, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, operated in the southwestern part of the state until 1933.
Southeast
The Southeast helped initiate the narrow gauge era with the opening of the Tuskegee Railroad in 1871.
Longest lived of its narrow gauges was the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad. Originally built as a broad gauge in 1866, the was later converted to a narrow gauge railroad between Johnson City, Tennessee and Cranberry, North Carolina and ultimately Boone, North Carolina. It continued in service until 1950.
Another long-lived southern narrow gauge was the Lawndale Railroad & Industrial Co.
Midwest
One of the the first three narrow gauges in the U.S. -- the Painesville & Youngstown -- opened in Ohio in 1871, and the narrow gauge movement reached its greatest length in the Midwest. For a brief time in the 1880s it was possible to travel by narrow gauge from Lake Erie across the Mississippi River and into Texas. The hub of this system, Delphos, Ohio, shared with Durango, Colorado the distinction of being the only towns in the United Sates from which it was possible to travel by narrow gauge in all four compass directions.
Ohio was a center of the narrow gauge movement. In addition to serving as the northern end of the Little Giant "transcontinental", it had several other notable lines, including the long-lived Ohio River & Western, the Kellys Island Lime and Transport Co. (the world's largest operator of Shay locomotives, virtually all of them narrow gauge) and the Connotton Valley, a successful coal hauler still in operation today as the standard-gauge Wheeling & Lake Erie.
Rocky Mountains
The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, opened in 1871, was one of the first three narrow gauges in the United States and by far the longest and most significant. It effectively circled the state of Colorado, and feeder lines were run to the mining communities of Leadville, Aspen, Cripple Creek, Telluride and Silverton. Through affiliated companies, its lines extended west to Salt Lake City, Utah and south to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The northern trunk line was re-gauged to standard early, but the southern portions remained steam hauled and narrow gauge until the 1960s.
Other major narrow gauges in Colorado included the Rio Grande Southern, the Denver, South Park and Pacific, and the Florence and Cripple Creek. The Uintah Railway operated in Utah and Colorado. By the twentieth century, Colorado was the largest mother lode of narrow gauge railroading in North America.
California and Coast
The Southern Pacific operated several narrow gauges, including the Carson and Colorado Railway. Another major SP line was the Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad, running from Reno into southern Oregon.
Two small regional railways in the Pacific Northwest were the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Co near Astoria, and the Sumpter Valley Railway near Baker. The latter one still operates in the summer.
Alaska
The last surviving commercial common carrier narrow-gauge railroad in the United States was the White Pass and Yukon Route connecting Skagway, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. It ended common carrier service in 1982, but has since been partially reopened as a tourist railway.
Hawaii
Hawaii boasted an extensive network of narrow gauge sugar cane railways, but also was home to the Oahu Railway and Land Company which was the only US narrow gauge railroad to use signals. OR&L used Automatic Block Signals or ABS on their double track mainline between Honolulu and Waipahu a total of 12.9 miles (20.8 km) and had signals on a branch line for another nine miles (14 km). The section of track from Honolulu to Waipahu saw upwards of eighty trains a day, making it one of the busiest narrow gauge main lines in the world.
Other Applications of Narrow Gauge in the U.S.
There were also numerous narrow gauge logging railroads in Pennsylvania and West Virginia who operated mostly with geared locomotives (Shays, Climaxes, and Hieslers.)
Many narrow gauge lines were private carriers serving particular industries. One major industry that made extensive use of 3 ft (914 mm) gauge railroads was the logging industry, especially in the West. Although most of these lines closed by the 1950s, one notable later survivor was West Side Lumber Company railway which continued using 3 ft (914 mm) gauge geared steam locomotives until 1968.
There is one narrow gauge industrial railroad still in commercial operation in the United States, the US Gypsum operation in Plaster City, California which uses a number of Alco locomotives obtained from the White Pass after its 1982 closure.
The famous San Francisco cable car system has a gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm), as did the street cars on the former Los Angeles street railway.
U.S. Common Carrier Narrow Gauges in the Twentieth Century
Literally thousands of narrow gauge railroads were built or projected in the U.S. The following list includes those common carrier narrow gauge railroads which operated into the Twentieth Century. Note: this list intentionally excludes tourist railroads, amusement parks, loggers, and other non-common carriers.
- Monson Railroad - Maine, 1883-1943
- Kennebec Central Railroad - Maine, 1890-1929
- Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad (later Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway) - Maine, 1895-1933
- Bridgton and Saco River Railroad (later Bridgton and Harrison) - Maine, 1883-1941
- Phillips and Rangeley Railroad (later Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes) - Maine , 1890-1908
- Sandy River Railroad (later Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes) - Maine, 1879-1908
- Franklin and Megantic Railroad (later Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes) - Maine, 1884-1908
- Kingfield and Dead River Railway (later Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes)- Maine , 1892-1908
- Eustis Railroad (later Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes) - Maine 1903-1911
- Madrid Railroad (later Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes) - Maine, 1902-1908
- Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad - Maine, 1908-1935
- Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn - Massachusetts, 1875-1940
- Nantucket Railroad - Massachusetts, 1881-1917
- Baltimore & Lehigh - Pennsylvania and Maryland, 18xx-1900
- East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Co. - Pennsylvania, 1873-1956
- Tuscarora Valley Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1893-1934
- Newport & Sherman's Valley Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1891-1934
- Pittsburgh & Western Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1878-1911
- Tionesta Valley Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1882-1941
- Bradford, Bordell & Kinzua - Pennsylvania
- Eagles Mere Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1892-1928
- Kane & Elk Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1896-1911
- Lancaster, Oxford & Southern - Pennsylvania, 1873-1919
- Altoona & Beech Creek Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1891-1916
- Lewisburg & Buffalo Valley Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1897-1906
- Montrose Railway - Pennsylvania, 1872-1903
- Susquehanna & Eagles Mere Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1902-1917
- Mount Gretna Narrow Gauge Railway - Pennsylvania, 1889-1915
- New Berlin & Winfield Railroad - Pennsylvania, 1905-1916
- Waynesburg & Washington - Pennsylvania
- Ohio River & Western - Ohio, 1877-1931
- Fulton County Narrow Gauge - Illinois
- Eastern Tennessee & Western North Carolina - Tennessee and North Carolina, 187x-1950
- Linnville River (later Eastern Tennessee & Western North Carolina)
- Lawndale Railway & Industrial Co. - North Carolina, 1899-1945
- Tidewater & Western - Virginia
- Bellevue & Cascade - Iowa
- Denver & Rio Grande Western - Colorado and New Mexico, 1871-1969
- Colorado & Southern - Colorado, 187x-194x
- Uintah - Colorado and Utah, 19xx-19xx
- Florence & Cripple Creek - Colorado, 189x-191x
- Rio Grande Southern - Colorado, 189x-1952
- Eureka & Palisade Railroad - Nevada, 1874-1938
- Nevada Central Railway - Nevada, 1880-1938
- Nevada Short Line Railway - Nevada, 1913-1918
- Pioche Pacific Transportation Co. - Nevada, 1891-1930
- Coronado Railroad - Arizona, 1879-1932
- Magma Arizona Railroad - Arizona, 1914-1923
- Morenci Southern Railroad - Arizona, 1899-1932
- Shannon-Arizona Railroad - Arizona, 1910-1932
- United Verde & Pacific - Arizona, 1894-1920
- Nevada County Narrow Gauge - California, 187x-194x
- Carson & Colorado (later Nevada & California and Southern Pacific) - California, 1881-1960
- Tonopah Railroad - Nevada, 1904-1905
- Nevada-California-Oregon - Nevada, California and Oregon, 18xx-19xx
- South Pacific Coast - California, 18xx-1907
- Pajaro Valley Consolidated - California, 1xxx-19xx
- Oregonian - Oregon, xx-xx
- Sumpter Valley - Oregon, xx-xx
- White Pass & Yukon - Alaska, 1898-1982
- Golovin Bay Railroad - Alaska, 1902-1906
- Tanana Valley Railroad - Alaska, 1904-1930
- Wild Goose Railroad (later Nome Arctic Railroad and Seward Peninsula Railroad) - Alaska 1900 - 1953?
- Oahu Railway - Hawaii, xx-1972
Viewing Narrow Gauge Railroads Today
Some cars and trains from the Maine Two-Footers are now on display at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Portland, Maine.
In 1957, the Eastern Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad was revived as a tourist attraction under the common name, Tweetsie Railroad. It currently runs a three mile (5 km) route near Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
Significant remnants of the Colorado system remain as tourist attractions which run in the summer, including the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad which runs between Antonito, CO in the San Luis Valley and Chama, NM; and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad which runs in the San Juan Mountains between its namesake towns of Durango and Silverton. Much equipment from the Colorado narrow gauges is on display at the Colorado Railroad Museum.
Much of the equipment from the Westside Lumber Co. found its way to tourist lines, including the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad and Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad in California and the Midwest Central Railroad in Iowa. Additional equipment from the west coast narrow gauges is displayed at the California Railroad Museum, in Nevada City, CA, and at the Grizzly Flats Railroad, and Laws Depot Museum.