NG could get to places standard gauge couldnt, a little more cost effective using narrow gauge equipment as well, lighter rail, made it easir to get the get goin.
WOW ! Mark, you must’ve been really impressed with the White Pass. All these posts. I have to admit that its a really scenic railroad. I rode it clear to Whitehorse in about ‘75’ and still remember it. Like an idiot I lived in Sitka AK for 28 years and rode that train only once. Traveling in AK ain’t cheap and it was cheaper to get to Seattle where the family and decent shopping was so we didn’t go north much. In ‘75’ there was no steam running and the new road into Canada was still under const. Keep the photos coming,BILL
One of the things that led to the downfall of NG lines (most in the US were started during a relatively narrow window in the late 1800’s) was the assumption that a narrow gauge would be significantly cheaper to build, 1/3 smaller gauge would = 1/3 smaller equipment = 1/3 cheaper construction. Unfortunately it didn’t work that way. A narrow gauge engine wasn’t that much cheaper than a similar weight standard gauge engine. Same for freight cars All the expensive parts, the metal fixtures and the joinery, were virtually identical between the two types of cars (grab irons were the same, the door fixtures were the same, the brake rigging was essentially the same, etc). While there was less earthwork on a narrow gauge line they tended to be built on worse alignments so the cost was about the same or higher. Maintenance was the same (takes the same number of men and the same time to repair and maintain narrow gauge track as standard gauge). Supervision was the same.
Unfortunately the one really striking difference between the two was capacity. The narrow gauge cars were much lighter capacity at 10-30 tons where the standard gauge cars carried more at 20-50 tons. And the speeds were much slower due to typically higher curvature and grades on narrow gauge.
The narrow gauge common carriers that survived into the 1950’s were the ones that had a higher capacity track and equipment (EBT, DRGW) or little other competition (WP&Y)
While it was a noble try, in some cases size does matter. 
That’s really a great shot! I love it.[:)]
The fact that narrow gauge rolling stock and locos are smaller also helps. Most NG freight cars are 30-35’ long. So they still look OK on 18" radii in HO. If you tried running standard gauge cars on those tight radii they wouldn’t look so great.
-G-
Wow, Mark–keep thos WP&Y photos coming! [:P] If I can possibly manage it, I’m going to do that Inside Gateway cruise this year.
When I was growing up in the Nevada City area, a buddy of mine and I walked almost the entire length of the abandoned Nevada County Narrow Gauge roadbed–at least as much as hadn’t reverted to private property–and I was absolutely amazed at how well that particular railroad had been laid out. Even though it had been abandoned for over 10 years, the roadbed was still almost pristine. My buddy, who was pretty much an expert on the line, informed me that the NCNGRR had originally been laid out with wider curves and easier grades just in case the railroad was ever standard-gauged.
Even the huge Bear River Trestle, at one time the highest bridge in California (180’) was designed and built to handle standard-gauge equipment.
Time and progress have managed to obliterate a lot of the roadbed now, but there are still portions of the roadbed that can be observed from Highway 174 between Colfax and Grass Valley. That little railroad was built to LAST! Too bad it didn’t. It was still in pretty top-notch condition when it was scrapped in 1942.
Tom
A big bugaboo with narrow gauge railroads was the cost and delay of tranferring freight between railroads of different gauges. The longest-lasting ones typically had minimal freight interchange. Examples include the East Broad Top where the bulk of the freight was coal that the narrow gauge took to the washer plant from which standard-gauge cars were loaded. The White Pass had no connection with other railroads. Freight was imported/exported directly from ships at Skagway. The parent company owned both the railroad and a shipping line. The company was a pioneer of intermodal shipment. The railroad went out of the freight business when an all-season road was constructed from Skagway to inland Alaska, coinciding with the decline of ore exports. I think that was in the late 1970s.
When most common-carrier narrow gauge railroads were built, capacities of standard-gauge freight cars weren’t much more than the narrow-gauge, but by the beginning of the twentieth century, standard-gauge capacities zoomed.
That is one nice photo.