Here is a shot of something rare in world of Railways. Dual narrow gauge lines! The location is in the Burdekin area of north Queensland, and the line is shared by the 2 foot gauge Invicta Mill, and the 3'6" gauge Pioneer Mill. Pioneer Mill is the only sugar mill in Australia that uses 3'6" gauge. And in case anyone is wondering, I was quite safe standing where I was. The 2' line ended a few metres in front of me Cheers David Rowie's Railway Photography
David, I would say that is rare indeed. The only other place that I have seen dual gauge track is in Colorado, USA, where standard US gauge (4ft 8in) and 36in gauge ran together. The switches were very complicated.
Never seen double narrow guage track before. Very cool I've seen pics of mixed standard and 3ft guage. FYI, the California Door Company in Diamond Springs,CA operated dual guage track to connect their 3ft. guage Diamond & Caldor RY to the SP. Actually, now that I think about it, the Nevada County Traction has two different narrow guages but I don't think they have any sections of dual guage.
I believe the East Broad Top had dual-guage trackage at their interchange with either the Pennsy or Reading?
I seem to recall there were seceral places in South Australia, Port Pirie and maybe Port Augusta among them, where 5'3", 4'8 1/2" and 3'6" track could all be seen together, and Port Pirie had the main line running down the main street. Must have been interesting for a newcomer after several cold ones in a hostelry, seeing a train pass down the street
Indeed Pt Pirie and a number of other "break of gauge" stations in South Australia did have triple gauges running into them. Evidence of the three gauges are still in place in the PtPirie grain terminal. We still have dual broad and standard gauge line running into the Pt Adelaide grain terminal to accept grain from the country grain silos on the interstate lines and the older broad gauge system through the Lower North of SA. Similarly dual gauge lines run through some parts of metro Adelaide for the mixed interstate and suburban rail traffic.
Dual gauge parts between standard gauge and narrow gauge are found in several places in Europe. Mostly it is standard gauge plus meter gauge, at least in Switzerland.
Dual tracks in Mexico Mexico used to have dual tracks in Mexico city. The old station in the East of the city was called San Lazaro. It was demolished in the 1980's and is now the congress building. Here is a link were you can see pictures, and it shows something strange which is a narrow gauge steam locomotive switching standard gauge boxcars. http://www.rypn.org/RyPN/articles/viewarticles.asp?filename=041114020646.txt There was a railroad called "Ferrocarril Oriental Mexicano", which conected Mexico city with the gulf coast in Veracruz, once that railroad was extended to a town close to Acapulco in the Pacific coast, the railroad was named "Ferrocarril Interoceanico". Eventually was absorbed by N de M during the nationalization in the 1930's The narrow line going east from San Lazaro was removed in the 1980's, and only a small portion remained in the city of Cuautla Morelos, were they run a tourist train. In that city you can still see the dual gauge as their normal cargo trains are standard gauge. http://clik.wordpress.com/2007/09/09/tren-escenico-en-cuautla-morelos/ I still had an opportunity to be a passenger in the old steam railroad going from Mexico city to Cuautla, a beautifull ride as it went past the lower part of the snow capped volcanoes. The train was very slow, and it made flag stops to pick up and drop passengers, but it did not really come to a complete stop, you had to get in and out at walking speed, I do not know the technical reason they had for not making a full stop. This video might make some people think this is currently Mexico, it is just part of a film, but it shows the train still in operation in Cuautla. http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=tren cuautla&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv# This other video, is realistic. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx5lPXIn8MU"]YouTube - LOCOMOTORA A VAPOR EN MEXICO NDEM 279[/ame] And if you have MSTS, the units are in train-sim.com I hope you enjoy them.
There are some remains in Yucatan, such as here at Tunkas, between Merida and Valladolid. You can see them just "above" the loco's side handrail. That line was 3-feet gauge until 1986, when it was standardized. Dom
