Victor Smith said:
Mik I dont think narrow gauge existed in the 1850's, building NG was a newer technology when the DRG was built
Thank you for the reminder, Vic. As I said in the timeline thread Cape Gauge, Bastard Gauge or whatever you wish to call it was invented in 1862 in Norway... HOWEVER --- Construction on the REAL Allegheny Valley began in 1852 and the main was completed by 1870. So I was faced with the following choices: 1, scrap any connection at all to real history. 2. Change the location (let's move the river!) and/or the name. The Pittsburg and Western WAS NG and built in the 1870s... I just never lived along the route, so - other than it becoming B&O property at the turn of the century - it simply doesn't really DO much for me. My lines inside and out in several scales have been called the "Allegheny Valley" for about 20 years, making it a bit late to jump ship now. 3. Sell off everything, and I mean everything, that I have already done to convert to standard gauge. -OR- 4. Try to reconcile two very incompatible FACTS with a summat plausible 'what if?'
Having, for better or worse, chosen option 4, … Which gave me 2 choices; Either the original AV failed, was abandoned, and rebuilt narrow gauge at a more reasonable date - unlikely, unless something drastic happened like a stock swindle, or a major failure of a company directly involved in financing it during the panic of 1857… (but the area was pretty built up by the 1870s so such a prime RR route would not have lain dormant for 15 years unless it was REALLY, REALLY bad.) -OR- It was built as narrow gauge from the beginning - also unlikely and improbable but thinly possible… So I now am trying to reconcile what ACTUALLY WAS with what COULD HAVE been, hence this exercise.
(Once again, what really WAS (for those who care and missed it): The AV WAS real, it was standard gauge from the very beginning in 1852, leased in 1900 by the Pennsy, then gobbled up in 1908 - losing all corporate identity. It became part of their major route between Pittsburgh Pa and Buffalo NY for a brief period, survived the Penn Central wreck into the Conrail Era but was then promptly abandoned when it became unprofitable… and is now mostly a trail or rich folks yards. There is also now a shortline using the AV name and about 15 miles of the mainline down near Pittsburgh. ------)
My alternate timeline (http://www.the-ashpit.com/mik/timeline.html) simply offers more for ME creatively. - Especially since I don’t have to either sell everything off and get other stuff that is too damned big for the small curves I have room for - or undo years of MY work (If you say Allegheny Valley to folks on the large scale forums, if they recognise the name at all, many will think of my messterpiece… not the real historical or current ones — I guess I have a big mouth?) You can call me pig headed on this. It won’t be the first time… nor the last.
Now, if you wish to participate in my little pipe dream exercise, great! I really could use a few suggestions at this juncture. And you are a very creative fellow. – If you prefer to point out stuff I’ve already consciously chosen to ignore, that’s quite OK too. But don’t expect quite as big of a thank you.
With ALL THAT out of the way, I’ll ask once again. What do you (all) think would have been most likely on a NARROW GAUGE, conservative, frugal, often cash strapped, water level route with not much in the way of grades, but many, many curves ? The route hauled coal, coke, oil, lumber, finished machinery, sand, glass, iron ore, and at one point pig iron - So shorter, but very heavy trains are the most(?) probable.
