Syd Schofield

Editors note: Welcome to the ninth article of a series on narrow gauge by Syd Schofield. The previous article is available by clicking here, or by filtering with the category “Narrow Gauge”. Syd welcomes discussions and feedback, which can be made by clicking on the comment link at the bottom of the post.

In the early days of railroading the track gauge was still up for grabs in many areas and the idea of rolling stock interchange was a question of common track gauge. The typical accommodation is to install dual gauge track. While there were a few exceptions where some lines actually had provisions for swapping the undercarriage on rolling stock to accommodate the gauge change, the Russians and Chinese actually still do that on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Then, too, they have more serious cultural and political problems than did the North American lines where the typical accommodation was a dual gauge track. There were a few lines in the Colorado neighborhood that did exchange equipment on cooperative business arrangements too complex for this discussion.

As with standard gauge lines when the transportation needs of a private enterprise became too great for an internal division of resources, outside assistance was sought. While the mainstay of the region may be logging and/or mining, often the individual operations could be serviced economically by a railroad with greater financing and organization. Since rail lines are linear in nature, some planning and coordination was undertaken for a string of pickup and setout customers. Locations that did not fit into that configuration were serviced by spurs or by other transportation means. There are many opportunities for modeling in the common carrier branch lines.

As the railroads grew, the regulators, ever mindful of opportunities to engage, looked for safer equipment and operation. As the neighborhood and regional needs created situations such as rights-of-way and easements questions outside the properties of the private lines, more communal agreements were pursued. All this activity had to fit in the business plans of the affected railroads. The moving of freight and passengers got a little more complicated, and for the most part, the railroads were creative enough to fit all this activity together to the benefit of all concerned.

And so we have lots of historical examples to model even with the considerable creative license needed for our modest space, time and financial resources. A wealth of information can be found on railroads in each state through typical online searches such as Google or Wikipedia as well as numerous local historical museums and modeler publications.