On30 De Witt Clinton

[riny]

Mr Bachmann - any chanced of ever producing a pre-civil war type train as you have with the HO De Witt Clinton?

[Royce Wilson]

I hope I am not the only one to chime in on this, but the D.Clinton was a pre civil war locomotive and narrow gauge did not come into use till after the civil war.
Since On30 depicts narrow gauge then I doubt it.

Royce

[BillD53A]

I would doubt it.
There was no such thing as standard gauge before the Civil War.  There were some as small as 18",there were 2'. 3' and the Erie was 5', with every imaginable gauge in between.
Narrow gauge modelim\ng is a minority interest.  Pre-Civil War railroads are in the minority.  On30 is in the minority.  Add them all together and the chances are slim.

[Royce Wilson]

I thought the Erie was 6' and the railroads in the south were 5'

I never heard of the pre civil war narrow gauge . were they powered by steam?

Royce

[mabloodhound]

Royce,
I believe you are correct.   The 5' gauge in the South proved to be a problem when the North tried to move items onto the South by rail during the war.   The Erie was definitely the odd ball out.

[ebtnut]

The first "significant" commercial narrow gauge line was the 3' gauge Denver and Rio Grande, which began construction around 1871.  There were likely narrow gauge industrial trams here and there, but they weren't for public service.  The Billerica and Bedford in Massachusetts was the first 2 footer, and began about 1877.  A few months back there was a Trains magazine issue on the Civil War railroads that includes a map of the lines in existence at the time along with their track gauges. 

[kcsivils1]

There were several 3 ft. gauge railroads in the Confederacy during the war.  Will have to pull out the history books and find which they were.

The Rio Grande was the best known advocate of the narrow gauge movement in the U.S. but not the only one.