Steam & Excursion > Next To The High Iron These Locomotives Toiled Away Daily!

One of the best places to see the contrast between big mainline big mainline steam and the quaintness of small narrow gauge shortline power was at Colfax, California. The contrast was striking.

In this late 1930's photo Nevada County Narrow Gauge RR #9 is backing a string of freight cars up the 3-foot gauge track next to the large standard gauge of the Southern Pacific line over Donner Pass.

The sight of these little narrow gauge trains working right next to the might SP continued on until 1942 when the NCNG quit for good and it's 3' gauge track disappeared for all time from Colfax.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/17 03:09 by LoggerHogger.

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It would be interesting to see what that area looks like now.

A visit to the "Never Come Never Go" museum in Nevada City CA is worth the trip

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> It would be interesting to see what that area looks like now.

It still looks pretty recognizable. There are a few less tracks, and of course no narrow gauge, but other than the expected growth of the trees, and the fairly recent change out of the searchlight signals, it is pretty similar. The overpass is still there and in daily use. It was built in 1938 I believe, so it must have just been finished shortly before the photograph was taken.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1003719,-120.9528957,3a,58.6y,30.36h,88.95t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUrFgszIoqJOD7Nces7bUHQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Thanks for this link.
Although you are not "entirely" correct in saying "no narrow gauge".
When you look at the location in map/satellite view, you can see that the location of the train on the OP photo lives on as "Narrow Gauge Rd"!

ble692 Wrote:
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> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It would be interesting to see what that area
> looks like now.
>
> It still looks pretty recognizable. There are a
> few less tracks, and of course no narrow gauge,
> but other than the expected growth of the trees,
> and the fairly recent change out of the
> searchlight signals, it is pretty similar. The
> overpass is still there and in daily use. It was
> built in 1938 I believe, so it must have just been
> finished shortly before the photograph was taken.
>
> https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1003719,-120.95289
> 57,3a,58.6y,30.36h,88.95t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUrFg
> szIoqJOD7Nces7bUHQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656