THE MAINE NARROW GAUGE RAILROAD

I visited the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad on March 13th 2008. It is located at 58 Fore St. Portland, ME. The first thing that caught my eye was the actual train with an engine, two passenger cars, and a caboose.
The museum accompanying the train was established in 1993 and entails a history of how all tracks running through Maine were once only 2 feet from each other. The standard track width today is 4 feet. The museum operates the train and runs a 1 ½ mile long span of track that is used to give museum goers a ride on history.
OBSERVATIONS: The train is left as it appears all year long. The train itself and its tracks are well taken care of by the museum curator located to the right of the train. At the time I arrived and took the picture, the museum and the train were not open or functioning.
History of Narrow Gauge Railroads: A narrow gauge railroad has tracks that are narrower than about 4 feet. If the gauge of track is narrower than 4 feet as in the case of the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad, the wheels on the trains must be narrower as well, making it impossible for these trains to run on modern tracks. Narrow gauge railways are usually easier to build and costs less money because of the lessened amount of material that has to be used to construct them. Although the tracks are not used in Maine anymore, the narrow gauge is still used in for different application throughout the country. It is easier to build the tracks in mountainous territories or in the coal mines of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Of course if narrow gauge is used, the lessened amounts of tunnels have to be built for the amount of coal being mined.
In Maine, these narrow gauge railways were built to help supply ships to take any cargo being brought to Portland. This was definitely easier to use when the railroads came to Maine in the early 19th century than the canal systems that were being used at that time.
In other countries, the narrow gauge railways are still being used extensively today. They are built and used to feed rail traffic to other larger standard gauge lines. It is easier to have these more narrow gauge lines when getting large amounts of timber, livestock and the like from the countryside to the main railroad.The narrow gauge railroads are also useful if an advantage that wants to be used is greater speed in order to get the trains to their destinations quicker. Because the tracks and the wheels are closer together, and the cars themselves are smaller, if reduced wind friction, lessens the center of gravity and can be pulled at a greater speed by the engines. Famous narrow gauge railways around the country include, of course, the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad, the Diamond and Caldor Railroad, and the Monterey and Salina Valley Railroad.
More information can be found at http://www.mngrr.org/indexa.php
REFERENCES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Narrow_Gauge_Railroad_Museum
http://www.narrowgauge.net/