Don McErlean posted:P51 : I noted when I looked at the picture posted your signature block indicated you modeled in On30. We have a house on Tybee Island, Ga which was once connected to Savannah by the "Savannah & Atlantic Railroad" which opened for service in 1887 but went bankrupt nearly immediately. In 1890 it was rescued and became part of the Central of Georgia RR and lasted until December 1933 but was more or less in trouble with the creation of the coast road in the late 1920's. It handled little freight and mostly holiday passengers / commuters from the city to the beach, in summer often needing double headed trains. It had its own independent stations both in Savannah and on the route to Tybee with a total trackage of just 18 miles. Locomotives were American type 4-4-0 converted from coal to oil to reduce smoke and these were run from the early 1900's to the roads closing. They only had two engines and never really modernized except for the coal to oil conversion.
I have searched and find little vestige of the road today either in real life or even in pictures. Yet the route crosses several streams and 2 rivers so must have had bridges-yet nothing remains. Local history seems remarkably absent any information on the RR and the internet, while it does have some entries is pretty thin.
I am thinking of developing a model RR of this route because it would be small, not very wide (the real RR ran is an approximate straight line) and yet have some interesting buildings, trestles,and bridges. My current thought is to use On30 although the line was not narrow gauge but the loco's and passenger cars were always small, light weight versions even in their day . I don't have too much room and the space I have is narrow.
Just wondering if you thought that might work. It seems that it would be possible to include more content then using full O'gauge which would be much larger.
Don,
Sounds like a fine concept for an On30 layout. Go for it!
