Bangor Industrial Two Footer?

[Mark Hendrickson]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[Bruce Wilson]

Your memory has not played tricks on you, there is a Koppel dump car (and several Koppel chassises) at Sheepscot.

 

Just reading this great information about the industrial railway at the American Thread Co. in Milo. After many years if not having an internet connection and working nights, I constantly find something new in this discussion forum everyday. I equate that thrill to (say) being given a big stack of old 1950's (ish) railroad magazines.

Anyway...regarding the Koppel tip cars and chassis at the W.W. & F. Ryan. Museum, one complete car with dump body/hopper came from the Ramsdell estate in W. Thompson, CT. and therefore I would assume it to once have done duty on the original W.W. & F. Ryan. Recall that Linwood Moody is shown in a photo at the Wiscasset shop, with such a car among the abandoned equipment.

Two Koppel tip car chassis were brought up to Sheepscot (with the Brookville) from Paine Enterprises Marine Ry. that was a 1,000 foot operation in South Wellfleet, MA. The Brookville and chassis were used to convey beach-goers, coolers and picnic baskets from a well made shop building, right down to waters edge.

The wooden tip car decks were rotted out when a group of museum members salvaged the rail and equipment. Later, steel plate was applied temporarily and stake body sides attached for use hauling small batches if crushed stone, etc.

The steel plate decking was later removed and the chassis were then used as shop trucks, for the caboose.

There was a 4 ton Plymouth gas/mech'l engine in the So. Wellfleet shop, and I heard it run after doing an oil change on it. The wheel flanges on one side were worn to a knifes edge however. Mr. Paine told me he sold that engine to the Beaver Brook Museum, though it may have actually gone elsewhere.