Talk:Newfoundland Railway

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Wasn't this called the Newfie Bullet?

Only its passenger train was called by this name. Peter Horn 01:33, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Newfoundland Railway#Canadian National

Did they change the wheelsets or the complete trucks? Peter Horn 01:39, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

My understanding is that they changed the trucks/bogies completely. This would make more sense, since it would take much less time to swap the entire bogie assembly then the wheels on it.Vulcan's Forge (talk) 05:13, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Longest narrow gauge?

I'm a little skeptical about the article's opening-paragraph claim that the Newfoundland Railway was the longest narrow-gauge system in North America. While it was certainly true at the end, I'm pretty certain that the Rio Grande's narrow-gauge network was substantially larger at its peak. Pitamakan (talk) 18:52, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

If you're referring to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, according to the linked article, it was both a standard and narrow gauge railroad; the 1930 map supplied with the article indicates the narrow gauge line was limited to Colorado and the link to Santa Fe in New Mexico, which I think is smaller than the narrow gauge line in Newfoundland at it's full extent, including spurs.Vulcan's Forge (talk) 05:22, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Yep, that's the railroad I'm referring to, and by the twentieth century it was indeed a mix of standard and narrow gauge. Until about 1890, though, nearly all of the line was narrow gauge, including the entire main line between Denver and Utah; much of the narrow gauge was later converted to standard. So perhaps the Rio Grande was North America's longest narrow gauge, but the Newfoundland was North America's longest twentieth-century narrow gauge? Pitamakan (talk) 14:17, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

I think the problem might be we're comparing apples and oranges here. The reference at the bottom of the article is a historical paper from Memorial University, so I would expect their facts to have been checked, and it very clearly refers to the railway as the longest narrow guage in North America. However, they are referring to narrow gauge as meaning 3 feet 6 inches - which makes sense, since the narrow gauge wiki page refers to 3 feet 6 inches as the common British narrow gauge, and Newfoundland was a British colony at the time the railway was constructed. But the common US narrow gauge was 3 feet; so it's entirely possible that both statements are correct. I'm going to clarify the article to refer specifically to the 3 foot 6 inch track gauge.Vulcan's Forge (talk) 02:46, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Makes sense to me, and yours is a good solution. Thanks! Pitamakan (talk) 03:53, 7 February 2008 (UTC)