NG but not CO - Atlantic & Danville

I'm still going through USA narrow gauge shots from Library & Archives Canada's Andrew Merrilees Collection. There's something I like about lanky 4-6-0s like D&RGW 168, so here's a couple Atlantic & Danville shots.

According to George Hilton's "American Narrow Gauge Railroads", this Virginia line had construction begin at Claremont Wharf in 1883 and was completed to Belfield in 1885, but construction beyond that point was done to standard gauge. The entire railway went into receivership, and then was leased by the Southern in 1899, but the Claremont branch was never converted to standard gauge. The Southern added the "N" prefix to distinguish the locos as narrow gauge. A different photo of N5 in Hilton's book says it was a Baldwin ten-wheeler of 1886, so I assume the N6 would be of comparable vintage. Service on the line was discontinued in 1932, although Hilton says it was used by the Gray Lumber Co. for private haulage, before final abandonment in 1938. The branch was certainly a little-known contempory of lines like the C&S and the Maine two footers that were abandoned during the Depression. At least I didn't really know about it till I saw these photos.

Anyway, they're great looking engines, and maybe even a bit lankier than 168. I'm a sucker for long-legged ten-wheelers.....

Cheers,





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2019 09:11PM by tgbcvr.