naturalplastic wrote:
cute.
But its gotta be the narrowest narrow gauge I have ever seen. Have heard of two foot wide tracks. But those arent much wider the length of the feet of the adults crossing the tracks (must be 13 or 14 inches between the rails).
There are little tourist type passenger railways right down to just 6 inches and it has been done with 3 and a half inches. 7 and a quarter is popular.
Have you seen the Vale Or Rheidol Railway here in Wales. Ok. It is just under 2ft wide but look at the width of the locos! The line was made to this gauge as they had steep drops with sharp curves, and it was the only way they could get the line to work around such sharp curves. Initially it was going to be a 2ft3inch gauge line as there were plans to join three... Actually four other local lines in the area which used that gauge, but the VofR would have had to do some more substancial work in building their line in 1902 if they had. 1902 was rather late in Wales to have a new line built in those days, and it was built to serve the lead and silver mines. It was not in operation for that long when lead and silver became cheaper to import from abroad, so the line was left with little income had it not had been taken over by the Cambrian Railways, and then the Great Western Railway and then into the nationalized British Railways in 1948 where the line became ideal for tourism, especially due to its coastal destination of Aberystwyth, and the famous three arched bridge (Not what you think. See the internet) which is known as Devils Bridge. The Victorians invested heavily into Aberystwyth for the early tourist trade and built a little cable hauled inclined railway to get to the top of a local landmark of a little mountain. Today (Though I have never had the chance to see this myself) there is a camera obscura in a building on top of the hill.
23 Dec 2020, 7:36 am
