Dan:
To deal with these questions, the early history of these railroads was complex in ways that would influence any research on the questions. As a very brief background, here is a summary of that history IIRC as best as I can off the top of my head.
As discussed on another thread, the C&C ng was built by the owners of the V&T from Mound House to Keeler -- the "300 miles/ 300 years" statement of Darius Ogden Mills near the end of his life.
Then Ben Butler of Belmont, NV, in 1905 discovered silver in the Tonopah region and another silver rush was born -- the largest since the 1860s Comstock Lode. The ng Tonopah Ry. was created very shortly thereafter because the C&C was still ng. The demand for much more adequate shipping in and out of Tonopah was such that the ng C&C and ng Tonopah Ry. were standard gauged. At the same time, th Tonopah Ry. was extended down to Goldfield and became the Tonopah & Goldfield RR. It connected with the Las Vegas & Tonopah Ry. there, coming up from Las Vegas. It also connected with the Tonopah & Tidewater RR through the Bullfrog RR which ran from the Rhyolite mining area to Goldfield. Several owners were involved in all these and all RRs were standard gauge. Shortly thereafter, Mound House was bypassed by the Southern Pacific by the much more direct Hazen Cutoff that went from Ft. Churchill, NV, directly north to the Fallon Branch that connected directly with the SP's transcontinental line at Fernley, NV.
A division point was established by the Espee at Mina, NV, with roundhouse, shops,housing, etc. Running south from there was dual gauge track to Tonopah Jct., where only the narrow gauge headed southwest over Montgomery Pass and down to Laws, CA. [the line over the Pass was abandoned in the late 1930s and the Laws to Keeler ng became known as the "SPNG" to railfans]. The standard gauge (only--no ng) headed southeast out of Tonopah Jct. to Goldfield with a branch up to Tonopah. The Mina to Goldfield line and the short Tonopah branch were abandoned in 1945 or 1946.
In short, Tonopah Ry's time as a ng was a pretty short one.
The NCO's history also is a little complex but as to whether the NCO ever used the sleepers in its ng days, I have no thoughts.
I haven't done any research regarding the use of the sleepers on the ng lines to Tonopah so someone else with more details available may be able to answer the questions.
Hart Corbett
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Posted by: Dan Robirds (IP Logged)
Date: November 07, 2009 11:04PM
Now the real question is - did Tonopah or NCO use them as sleepers?
Did Tonopah initially run them through on the C&C/N&C from the V&T at Moundhouse? Tonopah did not expect their connection to be standard gauged, so their initial heavy investment in narrow gauge equipment was understandable.
