Twenty First Century Narrow Gauge: A Pictorial Journey

By James Waite

James Waite has been a skilled railway photographer for many years. In this book he has brought together photographs of many of the world’s steam-worked narrow gauge railways in the twenty-first century, concentrating mostly on views which show the scenery, both natural and man-made, through which they ran. They are accompanied by extended captions, the fruit of extensive research containing much historical information about the railways and their locos. He also offers many fascinating insights into the districts and communities which they serve, along with anecdotes about his adventures while visiting them which are often amusing and always informative.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Jan 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781473887695

James Waite

James Waite was brought up in Devon within sight and sound of one of the GWR’s prettiest branch lines and can’t remember a time when he wasn’t an ardent enthusiast. He was introduced to the narrow gauge at school which, conveniently, was within sight of the old Lynton & Barnstaple Railway. Its route was then largely intact even though the track had been lifted twenty-five years earlier. A family holiday in North Wales saw the start of an affection for the little trains which has continued ever since. Many years later, retirement from full-time work has enabled him to discover for himself the many fascinating railways still running in far-away places. He is a regular contributor to 'Narrow Gauge World', the UK’s leading magazine in its field.

Book preview

CANADA AND THE USA

Tanana Valley RR 0-4-0ST No 1 (Porter 1972/1899) approaches her shed at Fairbanks, Alaska, on 8 June 2011 and passes totem poles still being carved, a much-loved tradition in the region. Few locos can deserve to carry the number 1 more than this little 3ft gauge machine! Gold was found in the Klondike River near Dawson City in August 1896 and she arrived in the district during the goldrush years, becoming the first loco to work in the Yukon. In 1903, she moved to the new Tanana Valley RR at Fairbanks as its No 1, the first loco to work in the interior of Alaska. In 1917, the US government bought the Tanana Valley to use its route into the town for the Alaska RR; they operated the narrow gauge for a few years with the little loco as their No 1 and later passed her on for preservation on account of her role in the state’s history. Enter the Friends of the Tanana Valley Railroad who started to overhaul her in 1992 and she now makes occasional outings over a circle of track at Fairbanks. They very kindly steamed (and let me drive!) her on what would have been a bright sunny evening but for a forest fire, the smoke from which had got into the upper atmosphere ‐ strange photographic conditions indeed. A great little railway and one that’s well worth visiting!

Word of the Klondike find reached the outside world in July 1897 and at once the goldrush was under way. So many stampeders, as they came to be known, headed north that a railway through the mountains became an attractive economic proposition despite the heavy engineering involved. The 3ft gauge White Pass & Yukon RR began at Skagway, Alaska, and headed inland for 118 miles to Whitehorse, now the capital of the Yukon. 2-8-0 No 69 (Baldwin 32962/1908) is one of two steam locos still in working order. Here she takes a freight train around the loop at Fraser, British Columbia, on 12 June 2011.

2-8-2 No 73 (Baldwin 73352/1947), the White Pass line’s youngest steam loco, crosses the Thompson’s River near Fraser with a passenger train on 13 June 2011. Times became hard for the railway over the years, but it kept going until 1982. Six years later it reopened as a tourist line when Skagway became a popular port of call for cruise ships. Most trains are now diesel-hauled but there’s also a steam service.

On 1 February 2014 W.H. Eccles No 3 (Heisler 1306/1915) heads west from McEwen on the 3ft gauge Sumpter Valley Railway in eastern Oregon with the Elkhorn Mountains as a backdrop. The old line ran southwest from Baker City, entered the broad Sumpter valley at McEwen and continued for about five miles to a junction near Sumpter town before heading further west. The valley was dredged from the early 1900s during Sumpter’s goldrush, leaving this barren landscape composed of ditches, ponds and pebble banks in place of the old meadows. No 3 was built for Eccles’s logging line which connected with the Sumpter Valley. She ended up on another logging railway in Cascade, Idaho, and still carried her original Eccles paint scheme when she entered preservation.

After the gold fever ended, the Sumpter Valley settled down to serve the logging industry until closure in 1947. Enthusiasts began to restore the section between McEwen and Sumpter in 1970, a difficult task since much of the trackbed had slipped away into the pebbly ditches. No 3 stands on a siding at McEwen as 2-8-2 No 19 (Alco 61980/1920) heads along the mainline on the very cold morning of 2 February 2014.

Sumpter Valley No 19 stands at McEwen water tower on the evening of 1 February 2014. She’s one of two similar 2-8-2s which were sold to the White Pass in 1940. Their tenders were retained to run with two Mallets and after 1947 moved with them to the International Railways of Central America in Guatemala. Eventually the Mallets were scrapped but happily the tenders survived to be reunited with the 2-8-2s back at their old home.

Southern Pacific 4-6-0’s Nos 9 (Baldwin 34095/1909) and 18 (Baldwin 37395/1918) meet at Laws station on SP’s old 3ft gauge Owens Valley line in the early evening of 22 September 2017. This railway was originally part of the Carson & Colorado RR which opened between Mound House, Nevada, and Keeler, California, about 300 miles away to the south between 1881 and 1883. With their distinctive round-topped tenders, marking them out as oil-burners, these were two of its last three steam locos, all acquired by SP when it took over the Nevada-California-Oregon RR in