Spanning Half of a Century by Zina Abbott

As I prepared to focus on my year-end reviews of my 2024 books, I realized my stories had covered a wide span of years. Only seven this year—I planned on the time off in the summer to heal from my full knee replacement surgery—yet I realized what I wrote required quite a bit of research in order to keep them true to the decades and locations in which they took place.

I did not write my books in chronological order. My book with the earliest calendar setting—1855-1858—was Wyatt’s New Bride. My book with the latest calendar setting—1896-1898—was Phoebe. Here are the book timeframe/calendar settings in chronological order:

Between 1850 and 1869, except for very short spurs of rails in Kansas as the Kansas Pacific Railway began to build its line starting in Kansas City, Kansas, there were no transcontinental rail lines between the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers and the Pacific states. All long distance travel was accomplished by steamship, steamboat, carriage, covered wagons (or other wagons), carriages, or horseback/mule teams.

Wyatt in Wyatt’s New Bride (1855-58) probably covered the longest distance when he traveled by steamship, steamboat, and stagecoach from Maine to Sonora, California. It is interesting that Tuolumne County attracted many gold prospectors from Maine and other New England states. When he sent for a bride, she traveled by riverboat, covered wagon, and local freight wagon from Michigan to Sonora, California. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

Lucy and her Aunt Caroline plus the other characters in Lucy (1863-1865) traveled by covered wagon from Lawrence, Kansas, to a foothill community between Placerville and Sly Park, California. The Genoa, Utah Territory, characters who met them in Atchison, Kansas, (Oregon and California Trail travelers stopped using Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri, at that time due to the Civil War) traveled east from Carson City by Stagecoach on the Overland and Central Overland Trails. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

In A Surprise for Christmas (1864-1867), what was left of the North Carolina household of Analia’s family traveled by carriage and steamboat to her aunt’s house in Baltimore, Maryland. A couple of years later, train travel was available as far as Topeka, which was in east Kansas, where Analia met the husband she married by proxy. That was just about the limit of where the Kansas Pacific Railway tracks reached at that time. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 Starting after the end of the American Civil War, the effort to expand railroad service between the Missouri River west to California began in earnest. That was when the West opened up to many. Since men were the first to head to the West—some to escape the Civil War, some seeking opportunity, or both—the issue of their being a far greater proportion of men to women continued. The number of women who made arrangements to travel to the West seeking husbands and families increased. Although it still had its drawbacks, rail service made travel much quicker. Since train service did not go everywhere, there still was plenty of stagecoach, covered wagon, and steamboat travel.

 

In Florence’s Good Deed (1877), Florence travels from West Virginia to Wisconsin to meet her groom she met through letters, only to end up traveling back after he rejects her. In Columbus, she meets Ash, who was bound for New York. He had traveled by steamboat from Fort Benton, Montana Territory, before taking the train from St. Joseph, Missouri. They continue on the train together to allow Florence to perform what could be a dangerous good deed. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICKHERE

Jocelyn’s Wedding Dilemma starts with a prologue in 1877 and ends in 1886. However, the bulk of the story takes place in 1881. She travels by buggy while still living in Columbus, Ohio. When she leaves to meet her groom, she travels by train. Too back her mother is following close behind. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

Lisbeth in Lemon Cookies by Lisbeth (1883-1884) is not a mail-order bride romance. Her father’s job with the Denver & Rio Grande Railway resulted in the family moving to Cleora, Colorado. However, my hero, Roy Hobart, is also an employee of the same railway—much of the time working track, then later part of the section crew based out of Gunnison, Colorado. He travels between his job and visits to his family—his cousin in Lisbeth’s brother-in-law. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

In the 1890s up until the end of the century, many of the travel conditions of the previous four decades still provided the means of transportation. However, there was a new development—the invention of the automobile.

In Phoebe (1896-1898), her love interest, Graham, embraces the future of the automobile to the point he is anxious to position himself to help finance the development of the oil industry in Oklahoma Territory and neighboring Indian Territory. Part of the conflict involves the attitudes of his father and Phoebe’s parents—both parties insisting they prefer to travel by train and in a well-sprung carriage. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

That is my writing year in review as far as place settings, and how my brides and grooms got from here to there, depending on the decade in which they lived. If you do not already receive my newsletter or follow me on BookBub, I would love for you to sign up to do so. Please click on the links below:

Zina Abbott Books Newsletter:  http://eepurl.com/clx3tn

Zina Abbott on BookBub:  www.zinaabbottbooks.blogspot.com

I wish all a very happy and prosperous New Year. Happy 2025!

 

Gauging the Railroad Tracks by Zina Abbott

 

Originally, various railroad track gauges were used in the United States. Some railways, primarily in the northeast, used was called standard gauge, which was a span of four feet, eight and one-half inches (1,435 mm). Other railways used gauges ranging from two feet (610 mm) to six feet (1,829 mm). The Pacific Railroad Acts of 1863 specified standard gauge was to be used throughout the United States.

Where did this unusual width for parallel railroad tracks come from? Train technology was developed in Britain in about 1825. The new technology came to the United States the following year. Britain based the distance between the rails on the standard width of wagon ruts worn in the roads all over Europe, including the British Isles.

The reason these ruts tended to be uniform in distance from each other dates back to the time of the roads built by the Romans. Their chariots were built to be compatible with the width of a pair of warhorses. Since wagons ran into difficulty if their wheels did not fit inside existing ruts, that same gauge became the standard for wagons. Axles were built to accommodate the hubs of wheels so the rims would be four feet and eight and one-half inches.

 

During the Colonial period in North America, wagon sizes and widths followed the same standards as found in Europe—wherever the Roman roads and accompanying ruts played a role in transportation. Like Britain, the railroads followed the same pattern, including using what is known as standard gauge to determine the width between a pair of train rails.

There is a notable exception: Narrow gauge railroads built to allow trains to travel the windy mountain areas.

The Denver and Rio Grande Railway, which opened the mining and lumber operations of the Rocky Mountains to the rest of the country, was one such railroad. Later, much of the track was converted to standard gauge.

Narrow gauge railroads were used throughout the Sierra-Nevada Mountains, particularly for logging operations. The history of the Heisler #2 locomotive gives a picture of a narrow gauge locomotive used. From 1900-03, it was used by the Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley Railroad, mainly to transport logs to be cut into lumber. Then, from 1904-1960, the railroad’s name was changed to the West Side Flume and Lumber Company. There the locomotive played a vital role in timber production by working both the woods and the lumber company switchyard. This little workhorse was also used to push a wedge plow to keep the tracks clear of snow.

 

The narrow gauge Denver & Rio Grande Railway, where my heroine's father and the hero work, was mentioned in my recent Christmas romance, Lemon Cookies by Lisbeth, part of the Old Timey Holiday Kitchen series. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

In Phoebe, my Christmas romance in the Christmas Quilt Brides series, my hero—a proponent of the brand new automobile industry—compared the potential of motorcars to the progress of railroads from when they were first brought to the United States. He described a picture similar to the one above as compared to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe standard gauge railroad in Oklahoma Territory. To find the book description and purchase options for Phoebe, please CLICK HERE

 

In my next publication, A Surprise for Christmas, part of the Confederate Widows, Spinsters and Proxy Brides series, my proxy bride travels by train shortly after the end of the American Civil War. She arrived in Topeka, Kansas, on the Kansas Pacific Railway, which used standard gauge tracks. This book is currently on pre-order and scheduled for release on December 9th. To find the book description and pre-order link, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

Sources:

https://truewestmagazine.com/steam-engines/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_gauge_in_the_United_States

Tuolumne City Park Heisler #2 display, Tuolumne, California