Brian's memory is correct. The TC&Stl (the Little Giant) was drawn and quartered, quite literally, in the courts.
The road was one of the largest narrow gauges ever. The heart of the operation was Delphos, OH...more important to narrow gauge history than, arguably, any other town (and much more so than modern well knows: Chama, Durango, and Orbisonia). At the start of receivership, it had 3410 freight cars, 82 passenger cars, 11 cabooses, and had rostered over 100 locomotives. The lines all converged on tiny Delphos, OH where the shops were located.
The Toledo-St. Louis main became the TStl&KC...converted to standard gauge in 1887 (this became the Cloverleaf and a part of the Nickel Plate). The Delphos-Dayton stretch was at least partially abandoned, I don't know when, but I doubt it lasted terribly long. The Cincinnati connection, which was partially double tracked, became the Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Northern and later Pennsy (portions of it are gone, others survive...some as a tourist train). The Ironton link, if memory serves me, was split up with the southern most part reverting to broad gauge and eventually portions of the line became DT&I (Henry Ford's railroad). Today, you can ride a tourist train over a portion of the line in between Delphos and Toledo (Grand Rapids-Waterville, OH). If any was abandoned early on, it was the Celina-Dayton link...I know a portion of the line north of Celina was intact into the 1990s.
For those not familiar with the TC&Stl, wikipedia has a map: [
en.wikipedia.org]
As Brian mentioned, the authority on the subject was John Rehor and his book The Nickel Plate Story. Two of the four major components of the NKP were built as narrow gauges. Rehor thoroughly covers all the narrow gauge predecessors. The other relevant books are Narrow Gauge in Ohio by John Hauck (son of Cornelius Hauck) and the Detroit, Toledo, and Ironton by Scott Trostel.
How much of the South Pacific Coast was abandoned with the San Fransisco Earthquake? Sure, they were in the process of converting some of it, but was any abandoned that early?
Michael
Brian Norden Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dougvv Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > As for narrow gauge, the Grand Narrow Gauge
> Trunk
> > was abandoned - much of it was became the SSW
> in
> > standard gauge. The eastern end was the TC&StL.
> I
> > do not recall off-hand what become of its
> lines.
>
> As I recall, The TC&StL became the Clover Leaf and
> went into the Nickle Plate. It's been years since
> I've looked at it, but the story is included in
> The Nickle Plate Story by John A. Rehor and
> published by Klambach.
>
> But, the original question was to identify
> significant lengths of railroads abandoned prior
> to the First World War -- not gauge conversions.
>
> Brian Norden
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