Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad

Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad
Mixed passenger and freight train on the Bear River Bridge, 1895
Route length:	22.5 miles = 36.3 km
Gauge :	914 mm ( English 3-foot track )
Maximum slope :	22  ‰
Minimum radius :	92.3 m
Legend 0.0 Colfax Oilville Smith Flat You Bet before 1908 Chicago Park Colemans after 1908 Storm's Picnic Grounds Buena Vista Hatton Cedar Kress Grass Valley District Fair Grounds Glenbrook Town Talk Gold Flat 36.3 Nevada City

The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad (NCNGRR, Nick: Never Come, Never Go - fails and does not drive ) was a narrow-gauge railway with a track width of 3 feet in the Northern California Counties Nevada and Placer .

history

The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Company was founded in Grass Valley on April 4, 1874 . After two years of construction, passenger and freight traffic began in 1876 and continued until 1943. The 36.3 kilometer (22.5 mile) route ran from Colfax through the Grass Valley north to Nevada City . When the new Bear River Bridge was built of steel in 1908, it was the tallest bridge in California.

Mining in the wake of the California gold rush required a railroad line in the hilly and wooded areas of Grass Valley and Nevada City. In addition, the timber industry wanted to make their products available to the Southern Pacific Company in Colfax. On March 20, 1874, during the tenure of Governor Newton Booth , the California legislature approved the right to build and operate a 3 foot (914 mm) narrow gauge line from Colfax via Grass Valley to Nevada City. On June 20, 1874, a law of the United States Congress relating to railroad rights of way over public land was passed.

JH Bates estimated the cost of construction and equipment to be $ 411,132 . There was only one offer and that was for $ 500,000 from MF Beatty, which he got as a lump sum. Construction began in January 1875. Turton & Knox were awarded the subcontract to move the earth. John Flint Kidder was the chief engineer. Within two months, 600 employees were busy building the railway.

The route required the construction of two bridges, two tunnels and five wooden trestle bridges. One of the first stops was You Bet at the Goodwin Drift Gravel Mine. The route led through Chicago Park in a wine-and-fruit growing area to Grass Valley. All locomotives and cars had Westinghouse air brakes. Since the main contractor, Beatty, was unable to complete the project, JK Byrne was hired instead. The building was then completed in the spring of 1876. The line from Colfax to Grass Valley was opened on April 11, 1876 and from there to Nevada City on May 20, 1876.

NCNGRR №

The company's first president was John C. Coleman, president of the North Star Mine. Kidder, the builder, decided to settle in Grass Valley. He became first general superintendent and in 1884 the second president. After his death in 1901, Kidder's widow, Sarah, took on this role as the world's first female railroad president.

In September 1907, a 3.56 mi (5.73 km) shortcut was built for $ 132,285 , making the route less steep. The following year, 1908, the new steel bridge over the Bear River was inaugurated. In 1912, three mixed passenger and freight trains operated daily between Nevada City and Colfax and a fourth mixed train operated between Grass Valley and Colfax. Sarah Kidder sold her shares in 1913 and retired in San Francisco .

In 1926, Earl Taylor and his partners bought the railroad for $ 1. After the outbreak of World War II, they sold the train to the Dulian Steel Products Company for scrapping for $ 251,000 in 1942, and the last train left the line on May 29, 1942.

Each car for mixed baggage and passenger traffic had a small iron safe in the luggage compartment. Although $ 200 million in gold was transported during the operation of the NCNGRR, there was never an attempted robbery.

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  Bridge over the Bear River under construction, 1908

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  Locomotive No. 2 on the new steel bridge, December 1908

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  Circus train derailed, 1893, with lions and bears remaining in the wagons

Technical specifications

• Length:
  • Placer County: The main line was 9.04 km long and had 2.78 km of sidings and sidings
  • Nevada County: The main line was 27.02 km long with 3.35 km long sidings and sidings
• Minimum radius: 302.9 feet (92.3 m)
• Weight per meter : 17.4 kg / m (35 pounds per yard)
• Arches: 7944 °
• Straights: 16,431 m (53,908 ft)
• Maximum gradient: 22 m per km (116 ft per mile), 1: 45.7, or 22 ‰
• Height difference:
  • Ascent from Colfax: 353 m (1,159 ft)
  • Descent from Colfax: 318 m (1,042 ft)
• Initial Fares:
  • Passenger Transportation: $ 0.10 / mile
  • Freight: $ 0.20 per ton-mile
• Driving time:
  • Travel time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
  • Mixed passenger and freight trains: two hours
• Average stops: four

Locomotives

The NCNGRR used eight locomotives from Baldwin Locomotive Works as follows :

• Locomotive No. 1, nicknamed Grass Valley , built July 1875, used from 1875 to 1936
• Locomotive No. 2, nicknamed Nevada , built July 1875, also used from 1875 to 1936
• Locomotive No. 3, built in September 1877, used from 1877 to 1915
• Locomotive No. 5, name Tahoe , built March 1875, used from 1899 to 1940
• Locomotive No. 7, built in August 1881, used from 1929 to 1934
• Locomotive no.8, built February 1882, used from 1933 to 1942
• Locomotive No. 9, built April 1914, used from 1933 to 1942
• Glenbrook was built in 1875 and used as a spare parts dispenser for the sister locomotive No. 5. This locomotive was never in service on the NCNGRR.

Other locomotives were:

• Locomotive No. 4, nicknamed Santa Cruz , built by Porter-Bell in 1875 , used from 1899 to 1916
• Locomotive No. 6, built by the New York Works in 1883, used from 1915 to 1921
• Locomotive No. 10, built by the Fate-Root-Heath Company of Plymouth, Ohio , only used for the first six months of 1936
• Locomotive No. 11, built by the Whitcomb Manufacturing Company of Rochelle, Illinois , in service from 1936 to 1942.

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  Locomotive No. 3 at the Nevada City Depot, 1913

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  Locomotive number 3 in Colfax station, 1878

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  A passenger train comes around the curve

Known passengers

There were a few well-known passengers including Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt , singer Emma Nevada, and Britain's Prince Albert .

Historical meaning

To mark the centenary of commissioning, The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus unveiled a memorial plaque in Colfax ( location coordinates: 39 ° 6 ′ 0.7 ″  N , 120 ° 57 ′ 9.5 ″  W ) at the old NCNGRR depot at the southern end the way. The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad & Transportation Museum opened at the north end of the line in Nevada City.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c d e f g} Decisions , California Public Utilities Commission, 4th Edition, Railroad Commission of the State of California, 1914, pp. 552-554.
2. ^ Commissioners of Transportation, California: Report of the Board of commissioners of transportation, to the Legislature ...: December 1877 , digitized on February 14, 2009. Edition, FP Thompson Supt. State Printing, Sacramento 1877, p. 415.
3. ↑ NCNGRR . ncngrrmuseum.org. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
4. ↑ Alexander Thompson Britton (Ed.): Laws of the United States of a local or temporary character, and exhibiting the entire legislation of Congress upon which the public land titles in each state and territory have depended: December 1, 1880. Embracing, also a digest of all Indian treaties affecting the titles to public lands , United States Public Land Commission, Volume Digitized Oct 24, 2007, Government Printing Office, 1881, p. 1075.
5. ↑ Journal: Appendix. Reports , Volume 3. California Legislature, 1891, p. 21.
6. ^ ^{A b} Gilbert H. Kneiss: Bonanza Railroads . Stanford Univ. Press, 1946, ISBN 0-8047-2413-X , p. 170.
7. ^ ^{A b c} Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad, Transportation In Nevada County . ncgold.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
8. ↑ California journal of mines and geology . In: California State Mining Bureau (Ed.): California Journal of Mines and Geology . December 18, 2008, 1893, p. 317.
9. ↑ Biennial report ... , Digitized Jul 11, 2007. Edition, State Board of Horticulture, 1892, p. 398.
10. ↑ Kneiss (1946), p. 146
11. ^ ^{A b} Syd Whittle: Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad 1876-1942, Placer County Terminus . hmdb.org. December 15, 2008. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
12. ^ Locomotive Firemen's Magazine , Digitized Mar 5, 2008. Edition, Volume 46, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, 1909, p. 821.
13. ^ Maria E. Brower: Gold Rush Towns of Nevada County . Arcadia Publishing, 2006, ISBN 0-7385-4692-5 , p. 40.
14. ↑ ^{a b} A catalog for narrow gauge locomotives . JB Lippingott. P. 10. 1885. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
15. ^ ^{A b} Engines of the NCNGRR, 1875-1942 . ncngrrmuseum.org. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2009.