Author Topic: Bangor Industrial Two Footer?  (Read 53996 times)

Mark Hendrickson

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Re: Bangor Industrial Two Footer?
« Reply #15 on: March 08, 2016, 10:33:42 PM »
I have the 1978 edition of Northern Rails.  Published buy The 470 Railroad Club.  It states that the gauge is 18 3/4"  locomotives are 3-ton Plymouth Model AL.  SN 750 purchased 1919 and SN 895 purchased 1920.  Original built with Continental 4's replaced with Chrysler 6's.  For 1978 it states the locomotives are store, but cars are hand pushed.

Benjamin Campbell

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Re: Bangor Industrial Two Footer?
« Reply #16 on: March 09, 2016, 07:29:41 AM »
Great info Mark! Are there any photos? I imagine that 18 ¾ inch gauge may in fact be a metric gauge.
The majority of the equipment was manufactured by Arthur Koppel and several of the bearings I have
are marked “Berlin” rather than with their Pennsylvania address.

The layout of this industrial line is super cool! There is at least one ‘diamond’ – there was at least one
turntable which still exists down here in Mass. We see some sort of ‘transfer table’ presumably
for transferring the bolts(squared up pieces of wood are called bolts) to the spool turning lathes.
Behind the transfer table we can see the line pass through a ‘tunnel’ in the building. Amazing that
this remained active into the 1970s.

Hard to tell whether the ‘bolts’ are arriving in the standard gauge cars or being shipped out in
them.

On a side note - I read somewhere that 18 inch gauge was the narrowest gauge that could
accommodate center aisle passenger cars.

It would be great if someone with better computer skills than I could permanently post the photos
in this thread. When the Ebay listing is pulled these historic photos may disappear into a private
collection. 

Benjamin Campbell

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Re: Bangor Industrial Two Footer?
« Reply #17 on: March 09, 2016, 07:36:27 AM »
Here is a link to a discussion about the Koppel bearings over at Practical Machinist.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/early-light-railway-roller-bearings-274092/

Mark Hendrickson

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Re: Bangor Industrial Two Footer?
« Reply #18 on: March 09, 2016, 10:02:04 PM »
Odd gauge.  Works out 47.6 cm seems like I've read about it some where but can't find where yet.  My guess is the line may have been hand or 1 horsepower originally and then add locomotion later.  18" was fairly common in the mining world.  Used extensively at Homestake mining in South Dakota.  which was originally mule driven.