Re: Longest NG Railroad in US and Texas NG questions

Casey,

You probably heard about the "Grand Narrow Gauge Trunk" that was made up of three major lines and had several smaller connections.

The three major lines were the Toledo, Cincinnati & St. Louis; the St. Louis & Cairo; and the Texas & St. Louis.

The TC&StL ran from Toledo to Cincinnati and Ironton (both on the Ohio River and then westward from Delphhos, Ohio to East St. Louis. After its conversion to standard gauge became the Clover Leaf and then part of the Nickle Plate.

The St. Louis & Cairo operated from East St. Louis to Cairo at the southern tip of Illinois at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

The Texas & St. Louis stated at Birds Point, Missouri (opposite Cairo) and ran southerly to Texas where it ran through Tyler and Waco.
The IC's ferryboat at Cairo also had a third-rail for handling ng cars across the Mississippi. At Tyler, Texas, a connecting line reached the Houston East & West Texas RR that connected Houston to Shreveport. This line once operated narrow gauge Pullman cars. After conversion to standard gauge during its bankruptcy the line became known as the Cotton Belt. Before bankruptcy the goal of the T&StL was to built on across Texas to the Rio Grande at Loredo and the Mexcian National narrow gauge.

If these lines were completed to Loredo the combined mileage would have been 1,642 miles in the United States and connected with 803 miles of the Mexican National to Mexico City.

One of the connecting lines was to built from the TC&StL to Chicago. But, was never completed.

More about these lines can be found in George W. Hilton's massive work American Narrow Gauge Railroads.

I was expecting to find a table listing total mileages of the various narrow gauge lines in the USA, but he did not include such a table. But, there is a separate table listing the D&RG miles -- the top year was 1889 with 1,635 miles ng and 226 of three-rail for a total of 1,861 miles. The following year more than 600 miles were converted to standard gauge.

Brian Norden



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2017 11:28PM by Brian Norden.