Re: Huntsville & Lake of Bays - Merrilees Collection

Early on, the direction of the engines was reversed from the way they were originally delivered. For most of their lives they left stack-first from both terminals - due to the switchback along the way***. The elevation at South Portage was 1030’, the “Summit” at 1074’ was roughly in the middle of the line, the switchback was at 885’ and North Portage was at 839’. The steepest gradient was 11.4% for a short stretch near the switchback, so no wonder they needed both engines most days.

The engines sported a couple different styles of headlights over the years. These as well as whistles and bells were apparently taken off and stored over the winter, (the railway only ran during navigation season), and never necessarily went back on the engine they were taken off. From photos it appears they both ran without headlights by WWII. Number 2 had a homemade smokebox door with no number plate for a while.

And you’re spot on about Porter supplying replacement parts. Apparently company records for the locos list the parts and the dates they were ordered over the years. Samples of this are given in the book.

Anyway, more to follow when I sit down at the computer again......

Cheers,
Ralph

*** PS Edit. It was a single switchback shaped like a Y, and not a double switchback like on the D&RGW Monarch branch.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2020 05:19PM by tgbcvr.