USA and 2ft6in gauge

For my own amusement I am modifying a copy of the Crimson Desert route to the standard 3ft American narrow gauge. This set me thinking.

Some years ago there was flurry of 2ft 6in gauge "American" locos and rolling stock up to a Mallet. However what 2ft6in American railroads were there. Looking through Hilton (American Narrow Gauge Railroads) I can only find three common carriers; two in Hawaii and one in Michigan. Of these, the Ahukin Terminal & Railroad Co. used two Porter 0-6-0s, the Harbor Springs Railway used three small Shays and Hilton gives no information on the Kauai Railway.

So were there any more or was this merely a Trainz creators' fantasy frenzy?

There were a couple in California that I know of. One was a small lumber road, the Empire City Railway. The other, the Yosemite Short Line, was intended to be a common carrier to take people to Yosemite but they only built a few miles when they ran out of money due partly to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.