I have found my muse.....Milwaukee Road Narrow Gauge

[Mike C]

Well.......From what I have read, #4 started out as DSP&P number 67 built by Cooke. It was then C&S 55 until it went to the Milwaukee Road in 1918.

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr051.htm

I thought it looked like a C16, but hadn't compared dimensions yet.

Ok, maybe I need two locos.

Even though my wife has put up with me and N scale Trains for 25 plus years, she does struggle a bit when I say I'm buying a non running or poorly running brass loco for a couple of hundred, that needs another couple of hundred dollars to possibly ( I say possibly because I have no idea what I'm doing on this project) make usable, for a non existent layout, with no rolling stock or even track to test it on. I can only imagine the eye roll/head shake I'd get if she saw a $450 (Blackstone) loco in pieces on the work bench.

 That's what I like about this hobby, it defies logic and common sense.

Tom L.

  I've seen Blackstone locos going for around 300 on the HOn3 yardsale group ( GroupsIO ) . And I do have an MDC inside frame 2-8-0 that I'd let go for cheep , It does run although not real well .....Mike

[wm3798]

What an interesting curiosity!  I never would have imagined a 3' line in Iowa.  Typically that would be reserved for impossibly tight terrain with grades and curves that dictate the nimble footing of a slim gauge engine... One doesn't think of steep grades and tight curves when one imagines Iowa...

I'm curious to learn more about the road's origins, and how it came to be part of the Milwaukee?

Lee

[Dave V]

What an interesting curiosity!  I never would have imagined a 3' line in Iowa.  Typically that would be reserved for impossibly tight terrain with grades and curves that dictate the nimble footing of a slim gauge engine... One doesn't think of steep grades and tight curves when one imagines Iowa...

I'm curious to learn more about the road's origins, and how it came to be part of the Milwaukee?

Lee

In the 1880s and 1890s, narrow gauge was "trendy" because it could be built cheaper and faster no matter what the terrain.

But along a similar vein was the Waynesburg and Washington Railroad in western Pennsylvania that eventually became a narrow gauge part of the Standard Railroad of the World.

[wm3798]

One would think that with such robust big brothers, these lines would have been standard gauged at some point during their useful lives. 
I mean, even the sublimely impoverished Ma & Pa was able to do that around the turn of the century, and as curvy and steep as she was, probably could have done without the expense!

Lee

[Chris333]

When they standard gauged the line down the street from me there was only one cut that needed to be widened. Most of the railroads around here started as 4'10" (called Ohio gauge) and of course the A&GW was 6' gauge.

[Tom L]

One would think that with such robust big brothers, these lines would have been standard gauged at some point during their useful lives. 
I mean, even the sublimely impoverished Ma & Pa was able to do that around the turn of the century, and as curvy and steep as she was, probably could have done without the expense!

Lee

According to my reading, widening to standard was deemed unfeasable due to curvature and grades and because the line terminated in a small town and ran through villages that are now mostly gone,  there was little traffic base to justify any improvements. I would have to look up the specifics, but I think around 1929, there was a major road project in the area that was pretty much the end of the line.

Interestingly, as I read more of the history of the area, not railroad specific, I get the impression that late in its life, the line was almost a kind of embarrassment to the communities it served and people were either indifferent or glad to see it go.

Tom L
Wellington CO

[Tom L]

Just to give a perspective on how small the rolling stock was, here is a pic of a HOn3 Milwaukee Road 24' flatcar compared to a N scale 40' boxcar. The flat car is a old, partially assembled, Kemtron kit I got on eBay.  Most of the freight rolling stock on the line was 24' with the passenger equipment being 40'.

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Tom L
Wellington CO