Death Valley railroad, Borax car plans and turntables??

whecsailor

New member
Hello all.
Doing a little research on the Death Valley railroad.
Are there any plans out there of her borax Hoppers.
Also, was there a turntable in Ryan?? I can see no evidence of one. It looks like it was a single track in, and then backed all the way back to the main line (some 20 miles)
Grateful for any help. Thank you!
 
There was no turntable at (New) Ryan, but there was a wye. At "Old" Ryan, where the Lila C. mine was located, there was no wye or turntable and the locomotives backed up to Death Valley Jct. I've explored the route and assembled a Google Earth map using my own notes and the ICC valuation maps, you can access it here: http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?page=roads/ca/dvrr/routege.htm Be sure to zoom all the way in, many of the yard tracks have been drawn. The map covers the DVRR, the Baby Gage, Ash Meadows branch and some of the Tonopah & Tidewater. Unfortunately, I do not have Horton drawn completely on my map (yet). The history of the Lila C. branch is interesting as it was initially a standard gauge branch of the Tonopah & Tidewater, then torn up, and few years later rebuilt a few years later as a narrow gauge line which used a diesel. A very brief history of the Lila C. Tramway can be found here.


The best drawings for the hoppers were made by Rich Dunn and published in the March / April 2014 issue of the Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette.
Prior to publishing his drawing, he shared some information on the forums at PacificNG. The cars were built by Kilbourne & Jacobs, a manufacturer of industrial railway equipment. The cars are a standard catalog product #619, but with air brakes and taller sides.

Take a look at these two posts for discussion on the cars:
http://www.pacificng.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=547&p=2186
Rich uploaded a partial drawing in this first post, look for "Truck Drawing.tif".

http://www.pacificng.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=613&p=3418
 
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