American Narrow Gauge Railroads

by George Hilton

This is the first comprehensive, extensively illustrated account of the growth and decline of American narrow gauge railroading, a singular and still not fully understood episode in the history of American transportation.

Genres: Railways

600 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1990

Reviews

[Ruppert Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the advent of railways around the world, the arguments around track gauge (the distance between the inside of the two rails) were profuse and myriad. The revolutionary transportation method of railways hid the dangers of breaks of gauge and the problems of transloading.

In the US, as well as the rest of North America, standard gauge was eventually adopted as nearly universal and today narrow gauge railroads, the few that there are, are isolated or captive to industry, or in the realm of entertainment or tourist fare.

But at one time, narrow gauge rails provided effective and mostly efficient transportation to communities across the country, from the 2-foot gauge lines centered in Maine, to the legendary 3-foot gauge systems in Colorado.

Hilton is one of the great rail historians in the US and in this book he tackles the subject with aplomb and exposes the reasons and failed logic behind the narrow gauge mania in America.