The Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway was a profitable but short-lived miniature railway with the unusual gauge of , which operated from 1902 until 21 August 1903 at Long Beach in California.

History

John J. Coit John J. Coit (1875 – 21 September 1910) was an experienced railroad engineer, who built and operated four miniature railways in California. Life and work John J. Coit worked initially as a master machinist at the Johnson Machine Works but co ...

, an experienced locomotive driver, built the track of miniature railway together with his friends at cost of $1,200. He had previously worked as a master machinist at the Johnson Machine Works.Peter Panacy
Venice Miniature Railway. A Brief History and Its Influence on the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad.
/ref> Due to being physically handicapped he focused on a user friendly design of his locomotives. In the night from 21 to 22 August 1903 the whole roadbed, rails and ties of the Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway were washed away by a historic high tide. With the experience gained, Coit did not rebuild the track at this location, instead building the

Eastlake Park Scenic Railway The Eastlake Park Scenic Railway was a long miniature railway in the List of scale model sizes, 1:3 scale with a gauge of , which operated from 19 May 1904 to 11 May 1905 in the Eastlake Park: Replaced by The Now Venice Miniature Railway! (now Lin ...

(opened on 19 May 1904) and the

Venice Miniature Railway The Venice Miniature Railway was a long miniature railway in the 1:3 scale with a gauge of , which was in operation from July 30, 1905, to February 13, 1925, in Venice near Los Angeles in California. Location Trips on the loop track started ...

(opened on 4 July 1905) with a larger gauge of .

Locomotive

The

4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...

ten-wheeler steam locomotive of this railway was constructed by H. M. Leach of the

Central Iron Works Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

under Coit's supervision. It required four months for the five men who worked on it to complete the locomotive. The combined length of the locomotive and the tender was . The height was from the top of the rail to the top of the stack. The locomotive had six driving wheels with a diameter of and four smaller leading wheels in a bogie. The Vanderbilt type boiler had a maximum pressure of . It had 73 pieces of diameter flues, which were long. The complete train was equipped with a Westinghouse straight air brake.

References

Long Beach, California 14½ in gauge railways {{US-rail-transport-stub

History

Locomotive

See also

References