Re: Another Narrow Gauge Mystery Location...

Here's more on my Death Valley Railroad adventure from last week:

Here's a map of the Death Valley Railroad from Wikipedia:


One of the interesting things about the Death Valley Railroad is the first branch was built to the Lila C mine at the bottom of the page but as a standard gauge branch of the Tonopah & Tidewater. When that ore body played out, and the new body was discovered further west, it was decided to build the entire railroad as a 3 foot gauge line, probably to reduce the expensive rock work it would encounter. The first three miles of the line used the old Lila C branch with a third rail laid down. Later the standard gauge portion was removed. This makes the first few miles of the DV RR one of those rare instances of a standard gauge line being converted to a narrow gauge line.

Here is a map drawn by Gordon Chappell and David Quitevis of the buildings and trackage of Death Valley Junction:


To help orientate yourself, here's a Google Earth image of Death Valley Junction:
Death Valley Junction

Here's a photo from Wikipedia taken from the Borax Plant at Death Valley Junction looking towards the company town:

On the left are the tracks and part of the wye of the Death Valley Railroad including a DV ore car, tank car, and flat car. The three rail trackage is joint trackage of the DV and Tonopah & Tidewater

More later...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2021 06:12PM by Dave Peterson.