A Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train in the railroad station at Silverton. The Denver and Rio Grande Western K-36 class
Steam locomotive No. 480 was built for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (DRGW) by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925.
(Michael Gäbler, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
NARROW GAUGE RAILROAD
A narrow-gauge railroad is a railroad with a track gauge narrower than 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) and 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in).
Since narrow-gauge railroads are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structure gauges, and lighter rails, they can be less costly to build, equip, and operate than standard-gauge or broad-gauge railroads (particularly in mountainous or difficult terrain). Lower-cost narrow-gauge railroads are often used in mountainous terrain, where engineering savings can be substantial. Lower-cost narrow-gauge railroads are often built to serve industries as well as sparsely populated communities where the traffic potential would not justify the cost of a standard-gauge or broad-gauge line. Narrow-gauge railroads have specialized use in mines and other environments where a small structure gauge necessitates a small loading gauge.
In some countries, narrow gauge is the standard; Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Australian states of Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania have a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge, whereas Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand have metre-gauge railways. Narrow-gauge trams, particularly meter-gauge, are common in Europe. Non-industrial, narrow-gauge mountain railways are (or were) common in the Rocky Mountains of the United States and the Pacific Cordillera of Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, and Costa Rica.
Nomenclature
A narrow-gauge railroad is one where the distance between the inside edges of the rails is less than 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in). Historically, the term was sometimes used to refer to what are now standard-gauge railroads, to distinguish them from broad-gauge railroads, but this use no longer applies.
United States
This site is primarily about railroads in North America. The largest and most well-known narrow-gauge railroad in the United States was the Denver and Rio Grande Western. At one time, there were many narrow-gauge railroads located throughout the United States. Nowadays, most narrow-gauge railroads are found at Heritage Railroads, Tourist Trains, and Theme Parks.
