Jump to content
 

Narrow Gauge meets Standard Gauge ?


Recommended Posts

Hi Guys

 

Can anyone point me to some information / pictures where narrow gauge lines meet standard gauge lines

 

I suspect these most commonly take the form of some kind of sidings that are joined by some kind of common platform / loading bay ?

 

More interestingly is there (or was there ) a case where a passenger carrying narrow gauge line joined a passenger carrying standard gauge line ? - I guess I am asking was there a multi gauge station ?

 

I am sure there must be pictures but my google skills are failing me today 

Edited by ThePurplePrimer
Link to post
Share on other sites

Aberystwyth after the closure of the Manchester & Milford line saw the Vale of Rheidol move into the mainline station shared with the Cambrian.

 

Also the Welshpool & Llanfair had NG and SG interchange, as did the Talyllyn at Towyn, the Festiniog Railway at Minffordd yard and a further siding interchange with the WHR East of Porthmadog SG station (All Cambrian) and at Blaenau Ffestiniohg the FR, GWR and LNWR all came together. The Plynlimon & Hafan tramway also made for Llandre station on the Cambrian line too. 
 

Bit more esoteric but the Hendre Ddu tramway joined the Mawddwy railway at Aberangell and the Kerry tramway came into Kerry station, again Cambrian lines. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

The Leek and Manifold Railway- at Waterhouses, there was a dual-gauge interchange between the North Staffordshire Railway's branch from Leek, and the L&MLR's line to Hulme End. There were transporter wagons that allowed standard gauge wagons to be conveyed; these were mainly, but not exclusively, for the dairy at Ecton.

The stock had a distinct 'colonial' air to it, the locos having very large lights on the front, whilst the coaches had verandas (allowing passengers to benefit from the bracing North Staffs summer); E R Calthorp, the engineer in charge of building the lines had worked on Light Railways in India. There used to be a very nice little book, with lots of photos, available from Moorland Press.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The combined Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland network had five seperate standard-gauge interchanges at one point. The WHR had the joint station at Dinas and an interchange siding with the Cambrian just north of Porthmadog (Where the WHR museum railway now runs). The FR had the interchange at Minfford, and two at Blaenau, one with the GWR and one with the LNWR.

 

Can't think of any mineral-carrying railways bar the isolated Campbeltown and Machrihanish that didn't have a standard gauge interchange at least for freight.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Port Talbot had a narrow gauge line alongside the South Wales Main. If I can find the book, I'll dig out some more info. 

 

Industrial Railway Society would be the boys to ask.

 

As said before, The Vale of Rheidol had a narrow gauge/standard gauge interchange siding just outside Aberystwyth. It's how they got the rolling stock out for major repair, etc.

 

Ian

 

Trifle Quality Control 

Link to post
Share on other sites

The Sand Hutton Railway at Warthill (NER?)

Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway at Ravenglass (FR), originally 3ft/Standard, then 15in/Standard with a tipping gantry, then later the standard gauge siding was extended all the way to the Crushing Plant at Murthwaite (2.5miles) with interlaced 15"/Standard track

Link to post
Share on other sites

Not a "traditional" NG railway, being 4' gauge, but the Saundersfoot Railway had an interchange siding with the Pembroke & Tenby line at Saundersfoot station and both lines served Bonville's Court Colliery.

 

I believe there were also standard/narrow interchanges at both ends of the Bowaters system.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The Leek and Manifold Railway- at Waterhouses, there was a dual-gauge interchange between the North Staffordshire Railway's branch from Leek, and the L&MLR's line to Hulme End. There were transporter wagons that allowed standard gauge wagons to be conveyed; these were mainly, but not exclusively, for the dairy at Ecton.

The stock had a distinct 'colonial' air to it, the locos having very large lights on the front, whilst the coaches had verandas (allowing passengers to benefit from the bracing North Staffs summer); E R Calthorp, the engineer in charge of building the lines had worked on Light Railways in India. There used to be a very nice little book, with lots of photos, available from Moorland Press.

 

I know that you have made a start in 7mm Narrow Gauge - if you are interested in the 'Transporter Wagon' mentioned above that could carry standard gauge on the narrow gauge, then a resin kit is available from Phil Traxson of Port Wynnstay Models (illustrated on the EDM Models site here)

http://www.ngtrains.com/Pages/Port_Wynnstay/Images%20Large/PW59-b.jpg

 

 

Mike

Link to post
Share on other sites

Your exam question did not restrict answers to UK examples, so here are some from India - which generally followed UK practice.

Firstly,  Kalka, which is at the foot of the narrow gauge line to Shimla, illustrating how narrow gauge stock is shipped in and out on the standard gauge.

post-9472-0-32003000-1394804330_thumb.jpg

This one is cheating since it is in the Indian Railways museum at New Delhi, but it shows three gauges.

post-9472-0-73292500-1394804397_thumb.jpg   

Siliguri on the line to Darjeeling, showing the approach to Siliguri station.

post-9472-0-52136700-1394804426_thumb.jpg

Mettupalayam, at the foot of the line to Ooty, showing the standard gauge line on one side of the platform and the metre gauge line on the other.

post-9472-0-20637000-1394804479_thumb.jpg

post-9472-0-19788800-1394804566_thumb.jpg

Hope these are of interest

Best wishes

Eric    

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The Sand Hutton Railway at Warthill (NER?)

Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway at Ravenglass (FR), originally 3ft/Standard, then 15in/Standard with a tipping gantry, then later the standard gauge siding was extended all the way to the Crushing Plant at Murthwaite (2.5miles) with interlaced 15"/Standard track

The Ravenglass one was interesting as the 15" ran in the centre of the standard gauge from a place about 200 yards out of Ravenglass known as the big points.  Here they had a special point to carrow the narrow gauge across the soutthern rail of the standard guage where the flangeways were incompatible.  There was a swivelling frog that ensured that the wheels were supported through the point on either gauge.   The same arrangement was repeated at Muthwaite where the standard gauge veered south to go under the loading hoppers.

 

There was also a mixed gauge tramway in Bradford used for delivery of rail and P way materials into the tramways PWay yard with a mixed gauge siding where the standard gauge met the 4' gauge tramway.

 

In model form I actually created this on my Long preston layout where I used modellers licence to allow the 3' gauge dam construction railway to meet the standard gauge in the station goods yard.  I had a mixed gauge siding that worked with a point at each end of the loop to allow the 16.5mm track to meet the 32mm.   One end worked with no moving parts and the other needed a point motor but it did work.   This also happenned in real life at Masham where another reservoir construction line met the standard gauge and for a short time at Pately Bridge before the Nidd Valley Light railway was converted to standard gauge.

 

Jamie

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Mike

 

That's interesting

 

I saw something like this in a youtube video that showed the standard gauge wagon getting put on a transporter - it might have been smaller and more crude than that

Transporter wagons to allow standard-gauge wagons to be carried on narrow-gauge wagons are still used on a regular basis in Austria and Switzerland. To allow for longer modern wagons, they generally consist of a pair of multi-axle bogies joined by a rigid bar coupling, whose length can be adjusted to suit. This is a link to the relevant Wikipedia page:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollbock

The Leek and Manifold ones had two bogies on a rigid frame; in busy periods, such as Potters' Fortnight and other holidays, they were adapted to carry passengers on removable benches..

Link to post
Share on other sites

that old film on youtube of the leek & manifiold is called "A quiant little railway"

 

there was also many engine manufacturers that had mixed gauge tracks in their works because they made engines for many different gauges, there still is some surviving mixed gauge track, at the site of the John Fowler works in Leeds http://www.leedsengine.info/leeds/photo.asp?phby=www.leedsengine.info&photo=/leeds/images/John Fowler/Works Site/jf works site (4).jpg&loco=Jf Works Site (4) you can see the rails in the concrete, there would have been a rail on the left in the doorway to make up the 3 different gauges shown here

Edited by sir douglas
Link to post
Share on other sites

ive seen somewhere recently (maybe on RMweb) someone has modelled the Bilton sidings, just done a site search and found it, modelled by Jessy1692. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/1506-on-the-go-at-the-mo/

 

the Statfold Barn railway is mixed gauge

http://www.statfoldbarnrailway.co.uk/

and some other views of the mixed gauge

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magpie967/3415908998/?rb=1

http://railwayherald.com/imagingcentre/view/253085/TW

Link to post
Share on other sites

Going back to your original question Rob.

So far as I know, all mainland British narrow gauge railways were buit as light railways and kept separate from the running  lines of the main line railways they connected with (though level crossings were allowed) That didn't stop them making cross platform connections as at Barnstaple, where the L&B had a bay platform, and Aberystwyth. Mixed gauge track was though pretty well unknown on running lines and I can't even think of any examples of it in public goods yards.Mixed gauge trackage was though fairly often found in industrial systems in places like factories, dockyards, military depots, and quarries.

 

In the rest of the world it was a very different story. In very many countries such as India narrow gauge railways, especially metre or thereabouts (3 foot in America)  were and still are a secondary standard gauge and operated alongside normal standard gauge (Broad Gauge in India) under the same rules. They often shared track in stations and there were sometimes quite long sections of dual gauge. A good example of this was the famous and only recently closed dual gauge section of the Vivarais line in France that left its station at Tournon via a busy double track main line. There's still a long section of dual gauge track on the Baie de Somme railway (CFBS) in Picardy between its connection with the SNCF at Noyelles and St. Valery Port. I've attached a few pictures of this below.

 

In countries such as France there was often a distinction between metre gauge lines built to complete the national rail network and those built to serve purely local needs.

The "national" narrow gauge lines were more likely to be integrated into the main line station as here at Tulle http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1341/24x36kh21vh9.jpg where the P.O. Correze metre gauge line that ran through the station shared it with the SNCF main line that has a reversing junction here.

 

The purely local lines were often kept well separated from the "proper" railway and, where they did  meet,  often had their own station. This could  sometimes be just a line running into the mainline station forecourt or a more complete set up as with the CFBS at Noyelles.

 

These images taken at the triennial Fete de la Vapeur on the Baie de Somme last year and on a earlier visit in 2005 show the mixed gauge track quite clearly.

This newly rebuilt section of four rail track enables SG visitors, such as this vintage ex Paris Metro "Sprague" set,  to run onto the quay normally used for metre gauge trains.

post-6882-0-60451100-1394884747_thumb.jpg

This is the main mixed gauge section that crosses the foot of the bay with a metre gauge service train travelling towards Noyelles in 2005

post-6882-0-69249200-1394887205_thumb.jpg

This image taken last year from the Baie de Somme's new metre gauge railcar (which the photographers are getting very excited about) is of the mixed gauge approach to Noyelles station, the line's junction with the SNCF where its two branches also meet. The track on the left is the metre gauge line from Le Crotoy, the mixed gauge track in the centre is the line from St. Valery with the SG separating to connect with the main line while the metre gauge goes into the CFBS's own station alongside the SNCF's. The tracks to the right are for the jumble of mixed, standard and metre gauge sidings in the former goods yard.

post-6882-0-94803400-1394884788_thumb.jpg

This image is of the same pointwork from the other side taken in 2005

post-6882-0-57381800-1394887223.jpg

This does shows the extra complexity of using four rather than three rails for mixed gauge but there seem to have been administrative rather than engineering reasons for this.

 

If you love narrow gauge, even if you're not particularly interested in overseas railways,  the Baie de Somme is well worth visiting as it is a complete local narrow gauge system in a beautiful setting that's been preserved in its entirety and is only about an hour from Calais. The local fish restaurants are well worth visiting as well!!  

Edited by Pacific231G
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...