Brian Norden Wrote:
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> Back on your subject.
>
> Two ideas/guesses.
>
> Number 1
> Do you have any idea who built the first
> locomotive? Somebody other than the regular
> locomotive builders?
>
> My guess is that the locomotive may have been
> built with 48" from outside of flange to outside
> of flange. Or maybe even 48" center of flange to
> center of flange.
>
> Then to accommodate it the track gauge was pushed
> out to 4'-1"
>
> Number 2
> Before the railroad was there some kind of a
> tramway that was incorporated into the railroad?
> The tramway or its cars might have had a nominal
> gauge of 4'. Again maybe 4' between center of
> flanges. But to accommodate the use of regular
> railroad construction the gauge became 4'-1"
>
> Brian Norden
Brian,
The origin of the first locomotive is a mystery. My understanding is that it arrived by water, possibly to the east end of the H&TL RR on Torch Lake. But I am not certain if navigation to that point was possible at that time.
H&TL operated as a normal adhesion railroad featuring a cable incline tram at the east end to get down the steep escarmpent to Torch Lake. My understanding is that this incline tram was constructed with the rest of the railroad, and did not exist prior to that. However, there was wagon haulage of ore from the mine to the mill at Torch Lake prior to the introduction of the railroad. I have wondered if that incline preceded the rest of the railroad, and was used with the wagon haulage.
At some point, the cable incline was eliminated and replaced with a regular adhesion railroad on an acceptable gradient.