Skip to main content

Lionel 3-rail track in 1871

Someone sent me an email message which included this photograph.

The caption under the photograph was this:
"Early rails: A wooden balanced incline used for gold mining, at the Illinois Mine in the Pahranagat Mining District, Nevada in 1871."

2149899-134A6539000005DC-963_964x647

Attachments

Images (1)
  • 2149899-134A6539000005DC-963_964x647
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Well, if it is wooden, it would seem unlikely to be a rackrail, and doesn't look like it.

Wonder if the center rail was a guide or retainer that ran under, a notch in?, the ore cars, to keep them on the rails, and it was gravity operated.  Doesn't look like much useable wood in that terrain of juniper and sagebrush, so it must have been hauled in some distance.  That early, you'd think the Paiutes would burn it.  Mining district names don't tell much without other research...wonder what metal mine this was?

Silver?

It was taken by Timothy O'Sullivan:

http://www.edotmagazine.com/na...d-a-half-century-ago

 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/...mothy-OSullivan.html

 

 

A wooden balanced incline used for gold mining, at the Illinois Mine in the Pahranagat Mining District, Nevada in 1871. An ore car would ride on parallel tracks connected to a pulley wheel at the top of tracks. (Timothy O’Sullivan/National Archives and Records Administration)


Jerry

Post

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×