Oh man that looks like a migraine in action. Typical dual gauge does not lay another set of tracks in the middle- instead it uses a third rail. It will have four rails when it has a draw where it switches the narrow gauge from one side to another. I do have a small section of dual gauge on my layout (sorry this was while I was under construction and ballast still needs to be done)
There were some variations on dual gauge- In Black Hawk Colorado the Colorado and Southern which was 3 foot had dual gauge trackage with the Gilpin Tram which was two foot. There was even triple gauge in a few places- There was a tie plant on the Rio Grande that had Standard gauge, three foot gauge and either 2 foot or 18" gauge. (There were some other instances overseas) I could not find a pic online but I believe "Rio Grande to
I found your post fascinating! I ended up doing a ‘Railroad Dual Gauge’ search and ran across this picture.
Click to enlarge
Now there is a challenging piece of track work for an enthusiastic model railroader. You can’t even say no prototype for that.
Mel
Oh man that looks like a migraine in action. Typical dual gauge does not lay another set of tracks in the middle- instead it uses a third rail. It will have four rails when it has a draw where it switches the narrow gauge from one side to another. I do have a small section of dual gauge on my layout (sorry this was while I was under construction and ballast still needs to be done)
There were some variations on dual gauge- In Black Hawk Colorado the Colorado and Southern which was 3 foot had dual gauge trackage with the Gilpin Tram which was two fo
Talk about an S curve, the double gauge double slip in that picture is a dandy.
I hadn’t heard of or never paid any attention to the double slip when I designed my layout back in the 80s if I had I would have included one at my wye.
I ended up making my own Double Crossover from Atlas turnouts and have been kicking around attempting to make a double slip, doesn’t look promising.
True that- I have made a lot of progress since that was taken but still need to ballast…kind of glad that I did not in that section as I needed to replace a turnout. Ballasting in the last thing I do. (To be honest I have too distracted in building Black Hawk on the C&S narrow gauge that I haven’t done much on the standard gauge lately besides running it.)
Shinnohara made standard gauge/3 ft gauge dual gauge track including turnouts. Not sure if they are still available.
A video of one of the Western dual gauge railroads showed standad gauge equipment with a second offset coupler so both standard gauge and 3 ft gauge rolling stock could run in the same train. That might be intersting to try modeling
Probably unobtanium by now. If you come across any old stock is the only way you’ll find them, except maybe on ebay.
Keep in mind when ordering dual gauge turnouts that there aren’t just two types, right and left, there are four. You have rights and lefts in two variations, depending on which side the 3rd rail is offset to. This is something you’ll need to determine in planning and count carefully to achieve what you desire.
While Shinohara is done, custom turnout builders can still make them for you. There is also Fast Tracks, which also offers their line of turnout templates in dual gauge and would be the most economical to use if you’re needing more than a few.
BTDT. The offset couplers on a loco work pretty well once you squeeze them in. Here’s an install on a Bachmann 44-tonner.
Rio Grande Models produced kits for the Rio Grande’s dual gauge idler cars. I built a pair, but their light weight makes them kind of dodgy to operate.
Thank you all for the information. My space is kind of limited for now. I’m thining of doing everything in N scale standard guage. Is that something frowned upon by most modeler’s? Also, I’m having a hard time finding old maps on the internet of the Durango & Silverton yards from the 1940’s. Anyone have any ideas or links that might be helpfull?
I think you’re referring specifically to modeling Durango here, in standard gauge as you say. Don’t worry too much except about pleasing yourself here and you’ll have a lot of fun with this idea.
A little more background. The Rio Grande built from the east, running from Alamosa, CO down to Chama, NM, then continuing on to Durango, arriving there in 1881, then quickly continued to Silverton with the branch that survives as the D&S.
Rumors that this line would be standard-gauged continued for years - and never happened except for the very eastern end from Alamosa to Antonito, CO, where dual gauge lasted until the end of NG ops in 1967. A few places had a 3rd rail present until years later along the line, but Antonito became the eastern end of the C&TSRR.
Rumors did play a role in Durango becoming dual gauge for awhile. One was that the Southern Pacific intended to build into the coal lands south of Durango. With standard gauging still on the agenda in Denver at HQ, the Rio Grande got ahead of itself a little and decided to build a standard gauge line from Durango down to the coal fields south of Farmingtin, NM. The intent was that once the Alamosa to Durango line (also known as the Cumbres line after the pass it surmounts near Chama) was standard gauged, it would hook right up to the new SG Farmington Branch. All the locos, cars and other SG equipment were hauled over the NG, assembled in Durango, and operated from there, isolated from the rest of the Rio Grande SG.
The threat to the coal traffic passed. WWI and the economic hard times that followed put an end to the SP threat and the traffic on the Cumbres line never picked up. The end of the SG came in 1923, when the line to Farmington was narrow-gauged.
On my layout, I presume that the need from resources like uranium after WWII caused the line that runs down to Moab from the Rio Grande main to Salt Lake City to instead be extended to Durango thence down to the Santa Fe main at Gr
The GWR museum at Didcot is great. They have a short operational track as well as the indoor broad gauge exhibit. Brunel was correct about high speed stability but it didn’t catch on. Still, 7’ gauge is impressive to look at in real scale.
Gidday Buckeye Don, I’m not really a big fan of the “It’s your layout, so do as you please philosophy” but then I’m not a prototype policeman either. (Fer goodness sakes, I model a freelanced small Eastern Class 1 railroad that’s somehow ended up in Detroit).
So, I tend to agree with Mike, *“*Don’t worry too much except about pleasing yourself here and you’ll have a lot of fun with this idea”.
Have Fun,
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
And then there is the East broad Top in Pennsylvania. Narrow gauge connecting to the PRR at Union Pa where standard freight cars were lifted by a crane and the trucks exchanged for narrow gauge trucks and run on the EBT. The standard gauge trucks were put back.on when the cars got back to Union
