Re: Changing the gauge- Farmington Branch

I would be suprised if they went to the expense and complication of laying a middle rail and then extracting the outside rail, except maybe in isolated cases. Switching from std. to narrow gauge is the easier operation, since going the other way often was preceded by the insertion of longer ties in the road bed. I have seen pictures of the re-gauging of the Montrose to Ridgway branch in which the spikes were simply pulled, then the rail was pried over to the new position, and then spiked. Labor intensive to be sure -- but labor was a lot cheaper back when the Farmington branch was re-gauged.