Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway

Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway
"Disaster Comes to Long Beach Railway" (Los Angeles Herald, 23 Aug 1903)
Gauge :	14½ inches / 368 mm

The Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway was a profitable park railway with the gauge of 14½ inches (368 mm), which was in service from 1902 to August 21, 1903 in Long Beach near Los Angeles , California .

history

Engine driver John J. Coit laid the tracks for the park railway with his friends for $ 1,200. He had earlier than mechanic master ( Master Machinist ) at the Johnson Machine Works worked. Since he was physically handicapped, he attached great importance to ease of use in his locomotive designs.

On the night of August 21-22, 1903, the entire track bed, sleepers and rails were washed away by an unusually high spring tide . It was the highest water level recorded up to that point. With the experience he gained, John Coit did not rebuild the railway, but instead built the Eastlake Park Scenic Railway (opening May 19, 1904) and the Venice Miniature Railway (opening July 4, 1905) with the slightly larger track width of 18 inches (457 mm).

locomotive

The conventional 4-6-0 ten-wheeler steam locomotive was manufactured by HM Leach of Central Iron Works under Coit's supervision. It took five employees four months to manufacture the locomotive. The total length of the locomotive and tender was 16 feet (4,877 mm). The height was 52 inches (1,321 mm) from the top of the rail to the top of the chimney.

The weight of the locomotive was transferred to the rails via three coupled drive axles with a diameter of 18¼ inches (463 mm) and two leading axles with smaller wheels in a bogie. The Vanderbilt boiler had a maximum pressure of 200 psi (13.8 bar). It had 73 half-inch smoke tubes (12.5 mm in diameter) that were each 41 inches (1,041 mm) long. The entire train was equipped with a Westinghouse Straight Air Brake .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In this article, according to Ken Middlebrook, the last name is misspelled as "JT Crait": East Lake Park steam locomotive 1903
2. ↑ Peter Panacy: Venice Miniature Railway. A Brief History and Its Influence on the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad.
3. ^ Eastlake Park Scenic Railway (Lincoln Park), Los Angeles, California, 1904. ( Memento of the original from January 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.