The N-C-O bought direct from the F&CC (or maybe its scrapper) in 1915. This was the big sale of the F&CC equipment (5 passenger train cars and 75+ freight cars).
The Montana Southern was a smaller purchase in 1914. The cars sat around for years after it quit, abandoned, and dismantled. That is now Bob Richardson got a car for the Colorado RR Museum. Some equipment may still be up there in Montana.
It was when the N-C-O was purchased and converted to sg by the SP that the F&CC cars spread to the many more west coast narrow gauges. These include the SP's Mina to Keeler ng operation, the Nevada County, Narrow Gauge and the Pacific Coast. Some of the NCNG and maybe PC cars went to the US Navy at Pearl Harbor at the start of WWII,
Brian Norden