Today I saw on TV a video of the narrow gauge Rio Grande when it was an operating carrier. I am sure the rolling stock was downsized from std gauge, but I wonder how much. With the depth of knowledge on this forum, I am sure I can get some info, such as boxcar dimensions and capacity, tank car capacity. Even saw some stock cars and flats and gondolas. Wonder also if any examples of this are in existence today. The video was made from film shot in the 1940’s up to the early 60’s, primarily steam power. Thanks.
Quite a lot of the equipment is the same as “normal” or standard gauge.
Here is something for you to think about.
Brazil has a dual gauge railroad, both narrow and standard gauge…they buy used GEs like nobody else, fit them with narrow gauge trucks, and run them.
They also buy new units, GE Dash 9s, and modify them too…oddest thing to see a big Dash 9 running on narrow gauge trucks.
And they have a idler car, with narrow gauge wheels on one end, standard gauge on the other…because so much of their track is dual gauge, they fit these car in-between the narrow gauge locomotive, and can pull standard gauge cars…or vice versa.
E mail me with a address that I can send photos to, and I will be happy to send you a few shots of them…
Ed
…Check on the internet and you probably can find photos of the rolling stock still at East Broad Top RR, Orbisonia, Pa. It is a 3’ gauge tourist operation…Former coal hauler that hauled coal for interchange at Mount Union, Pa. onto the former Pennsylvania RR. Believe they actually changed trucks from standard gauge to 3’ gauge when bringing cars into the EBT and then to the mines for hauling coal out. Should be able to pull articles up on the EBT operation on Google.
There is no standard, but 3 ft gauge cars are offen roughly 3/4 the size of standard gauge cars. For instance a box car body might be: standard gauge 40’ long x 10’ wide x 10’ high, narrow gauge 30’ long x 7.5’ wide x 7’ high.
Actually, Brazil has both broad gauge (5’3") and meter-gauge trackage. Be that as it may, EFVM has been willing to pay a lot to modify full-size North American locomotives to fit on meter gauge since they need the horsepower.
In a previous thread (see below), I raised a similar question about comparing the different gauges in Australia, and got a similar response from the Australians, the size of the equipment varies roughly in proportion to the gauge differences. http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic,asp?TOPIC_ID=14288
In this case, I was asking for a comparison between Queensland (3’6") and the standard gauge, since QR is also a heavy-duty operation.
Colorado Railroad Museum - Golden, CO has the engines and rolling stock plus almost all of D&RG/DRGW’s mechanical plans. (plus at the moment, most of Lindsey Ashby’s Georgetown Loop engines and rolling stock) Come out and visit the Richardson Library on the museum grounds some day. http://www.crrm.org
The interchange point was at Mount Union in Huntingdon County. The truck changing was done to a small number of standard gauge cars for delivery to points on the EBT. The majority of their freight was coal from the Broad Top fields. The interchange point also contained the cleaning plant so the change in gauge was not a factor in the cost of the shipping of the coal since it had to be unloaded for cleaning anyway. The cleaned and graded coal was simply loaded into standard gauge cars for final delivery.
And the other entry was right, the 3 foot narrow gauge rolling stock is aprox. 3/4 the size of the standard gauge counterparts.
In Austria there are a number of 2’ 6" gauge narrow gauge lines where standard gauge cars are carried piggy back fashion. Many years ago there was a 2’ 6" line in England (the Leek and Manifold) which did that too.
Here you can see a former SSW converted and riding on a flat car, in preperation to for us to take it down to the docks to ship it out to them, I shot this for him a few years ago.
Included in the first link is a shot of the narrow gauge truck cast and built there…
Often they ship the truck here to NREX and other to install before shipping.
Give Pedro’s album a look over, you might see a old “friend” or two, and a few Alcos still doing what they were built for…we just shipped them six former BN B30-7As, cabless B30 booster units.
Ed’s posting helps to remind us that narrow-gauge is a lot more than the Rio Grande and the White Pass.
Coal trains with mid-train power in Queensland (3’6") look as impressive as anything out of the Powder River Basin and ore trains on EFVM in Brazil (meter-gauge) have a definite resemblance to DM&IR.
Remember that South Africa is narrow-gauge (3’6") with a small network of very narrow gauge (2’).
In New Zealand the gauge is 3ft 6" throughout both Islands and the width of the trains is ± 2.8 metres.
The normal 20 and 40 ft containers are used on standard flat deck wagons which have the standard interlocking fittings for the containers.
Most freight trains have 2 or 3 diesel electric locomotives in front and bankers are rarely used, exept on long trains on steep grades.
A section on the main trunk is electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz where between Te Rapa and Palmerston North, where electric locomotives take over the section through the midlands where the altitude by Waiuru is 826 meters above sea level.
In Wellington 1500 V dc is used for the suburban passenger trains in the Hutt Valley and coastal area towards Paraparumu
There is a cache of D&RGW rolling stock in Alamosa Colorado ,seems like it’s been forgotten about . I have seen stock cars, boxcars, flat cars, and gondolas there . If you are planning a trip to Colorado take the time to go off the beaten path and you will find lots of examples. I think Mudchicken will agree that it seems like everyone in narrow gauge country has a box car in their back yard.
Randy
Go and ride the Cumbres and Toltec and the Silverton and see for yourself! They have plenty of coach and frieght equipment for you to measure and inspect and photograph.
From my own trips to the D&RGW narrow gauge when they ran it, I would say that the coaches are about the same size as standard gauge Chicago, Manhattan, and Brooklyn elevated train coaches, about 45 feet long over the open or close platforms and eight fee, not ten feet wide. Freight cars seem about 34 to 40 feet long, and perhaps about seven feet six or eight inches wide. So 75-85% the size of standard gauge equipment OF THE ERA is quite correct. Today, of course, a lot of freight equipment is much larger. (Longer and higher, not wider) Kalmbach used to sell a really excellent plan book for D&RGW freight and passenger equipment, both standard and narrow gauge, and I wonder if this is still available, you might find it a worthwhile purchase.
The seats the D&RGW use to replace the more comfortable recliners in coaches when the regular San Juan was discontinued and added capacity on Silverton was needed came from scrapped Denver trolleybuses! 2 and 2 seating replacing 2 and 1.