| Urbita Lake Railway | |
| Linelength: | NaNmiles |
The Urbita Lake Railway was a NaNmiles long miniature railway with a gauge of, which operated from approximately 1910 to at least August 1915 at Urbita Hot Springs park (since 1966 the location of the Inland Center shopping mall) in San Bernardino, California.
In 1910, the Pacific Electric Railway took-over the San Bernardino Valley Traction Company and thus became owner of the Urbita Hot Springs. At this time the Hot Springs were a very profitable business, which had been originally developed by R. Paragette in 1901.[1]
According to a contemporary newspaper, the railroad was unique, because it had probably the youngest president and oldest engineer in the world, the president being Buster ‘Buddy’ Courcy, at the age of two, and the engineer being the retired railway worker Bill Simpson from the San Bernardino Valley.[2]
The locomotive had been built as (Original) No 1903 by John J. Coit[3] and has previously been used on the Long Beach and Asbury Park Railway, the Venice Miniature Railway and the Eastlake Park Scenic Railway. The oilfired steam locomotive with a total length of 5.8m (19feet) from tip of pilot to end of tank couple and a height of 1295mm from the top of rail to the top of stack was of the 2-6-0 type.[4] The locomotive had some technical innovations, such as a valve control without eccentrics, which was easy to adjust and to maintain. The locomotive had automatic couplings and a bespoke oil burner, for which Coit filed a patent.[3]
The locomotive had a weight of 3628kg (7,998lb) including the tender, and 2328kg (5,132lb) excluding the tender. The tender had a capacity of 780abbr=inNaNabbr=in water and 322L oil. The weight of the locomotive was spread over six driving wheels with a diameter of 4632NaN2 and two smaller wheels of a pony truck with the diameter of 2540NaN0 onto the rails. The Vanderbilt type boiler had a maximum pressure of 10abbr=onNaNabbr=on and delivered 25hp. The cylinders were 5inchesx7inchesin (xin) bore x stroke. The locomotive had a pulling power of 4.8abbr=onNaNabbr=on.[5]
