Re: Old, Odd Narrow Gauge...

Jeff A. Wrote:
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>Most were cheaply and rapidly built, and only lasted a short
> time until the particular project they were built
> for was completed or the timber or mineral were
> worked out. The rail, locomotives and cars were
> often sold to another operator for re-use
> elsewhere rather than being scrapped on site.
> Southern Iron & Equipment of Atlanta GA was a
> large broker of used equipment, but there were
> plenty of others.

Take, for example, the Crescent Tramway in Utah: Originally built in 30" gauge (hooray for On30!), it owned two shays. When the line was abandoned in 1900, both shays were sold to George M. Dilley & Sons, a used equipment dealer in palestine, Texas, where they were converted to different gauges each time they were leased or sold to different industrial and logging lines. They finally wound up as standard gauge locomotives. 2 1/2 feet to standard is a huge change, and I'd love to see a picture of them in that state.

It might be possible that one of these shays wound up somewhere near this clay pit.