B1G - The Big Train
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AFAIK Michigan's narrow gauge lines were largely abandoned or regauged by the turn of the 20th century. Aside from the obvious holdout of the Q&TL, I can think of the AuSable & Northwestern, which was regauged upon the D&M's lease of the remaining trackage in 1912. As to why it wasn't standard gauged at an earlier date: It was a primarily log-hauling operation with several different temporary arteries feeding to its mainline from McKinley to AuSable. Narrow gauge was likely better suited for quickly constructing or ripping out these short-lived branches. Of course, once D&M gained control of the remnants, it was quickly converted to standard gauge for ease of operations.MQT1223 wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 12:43 pmAnyone know what Michigan narrow gauge lines held out the longest and why? Excluding tourist railroads of today (Huckleberry, Toonerville, etc), where were some of the last survivors of Michigan narrow gauge? The only one that really comes to mind was the Quincy and Torch Lake, but surely there were others yes?
I am actually quite familiar with the AS&NW. Probably the last of the 3 footers in the Lower Peninsula before the Huck came around. Definitely a larger network serving a lot of rural towns. I've done some exploration of their grades in and around Lewiston.MiRailProductions wrote: ↑Fri Jun 02, 2023 11:59 pmAFAIK Michigan's narrow gauge lines were largely abandoned or regauged by the turn of the 20th century. Aside from the obvious holdout of the Q&TL, I can think of the AuSable & Northwestern, which was regauged upon the D&M's lease of the remaining trackage in 1912. As to why it wasn't standard gauged at an earlier date: It was a primarily log-hauling operation with several different temporary arteries feeding to its mainline from McKinley to AuSable. Narrow gauge was likely better suited for quickly constructing or ripping out these short-lived branches. Of course, once D&M gained control of the remnants, it was quickly converted to standard gauge for ease of operations.MQT1223 wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 12:43 pmAnyone know what Michigan narrow gauge lines held out the longest and why? Excluding tourist railroads of today (Huckleberry, Toonerville, etc), where were some of the last survivors of Michigan narrow gauge? The only one that really comes to mind was the Quincy and Torch Lake, but surely there were others yes?