[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

Re: (erielack) The Piermont Branch 6' guage



Blake D. Tatar wrote:


> Eleazar Lord decided

No, the State of New York did

> to go with 6 foot gauge when he learned that the
> government (who should have nothing to do with commerce at all)

Now THERE"S a statement that could be debated!  Jay Gould/Jim Fisk, John D
Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J P Morgan, maybe even Bill Gates . . . no, we
don't need rules for commerce at all . . .

> was going to
> force the Erie to haul traffic for many other railroads in payment for
their
> charter.

This is approximately 180 degrees backwards.  They were worried that if
there was interchange, that the Erie's cars would be "stolen" and never be
retrievable.  They wanted CAPTIVE equipment.  Also know that some cities,
Erie PA being famous for it, would not permit railroads to be joined in
their limits, so as to ensure labor being needed to break bulk from one line
to another.

> He figured

No, the STATE figured

> by building it 6 foot gauge, it would prevent this from
> happening. It semi worked

But was immediately found to be a major problem

> but in 1875 they had to convert because they
> wanted (or needed) to interchange with other railroads.

Needed is the word you want.  Even "had to."  Either convert, or die.

>  It was an expensive
> operation, first the went to dual gauge and then to standard gauge. We
> adopted standard gauge from the English.

Well, sort of.  The English had a plethora of gauges, from I think it's 16"
on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch, which is the British equivalent of a
common carrier, to the 7' gauge of the Great Western, and many many in
between.  The English also provided many locomotives for American railroads,
to a variety of gauges, including the Erie's 6', 5' for many southern roads,
and others.  Some were what later became standard 56.5" gauge, but not
because anybody either here or there thought of it as "standard gauge."

Understand also that 6' was a seriously competitive gauge for what was to be
"standard", as it wasn't just the Erie built to this gauge.  DL&W, Pennsy,
A&GW, and others running to Dayton, Cincinnati, and even to St Louis built
to this gauge.  As I said before in another post, it was Lincoln's selection
of 56.5" as the gauge for the Transcontinental that really set the Standard.

SGL


 ------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the erielack photopage at http://el-list.railfan.net

------------------------------