1924, A Narrow Gauge Railroad Used To Build State Road in Garrattsville

1924 Garrattsville State Road coming in and materials were hauled by a temporary narrow gauge railroad.
The Garrattsville School is visible on the right.

Back of card with notes.

Image provided to Rene Elliott by Howard Turnbull. Batch mixer on site. School in background.

Crane and other equipment used to load the train for the road building.

Back of card.

Image provided to Rene Elliott by Howard Turnbull. Batch mixer on site in travel mode.

Busy day in Garrattsville.

Batch mixer.

Notes below by Rene Elliott.

The project was started before WW1 but delayed, originally the state tried to save money by only making it something like 14' wide, concrete road, allegedly so Dr. Morris "could drive his red devils home from the station" in Mt. Upton. No doubt he had influence then, as 51 was said to be one of the earliest rural stretches of concrete highway, at least in our area.

The state had contractors build the road c. 1912? with local shale and tar macadam with little success. By 1919 they were progressing north towards Gilbertsville, Dave Olds told about working on this project before he went to Meridale Farms for several decades. It appears they must have left Main Street in Morris unfinished as they worked towards Garrattsville?

The tram in the Garrattsville photos of course is only temporary, and ironically the only rails ever laid in the Butternut Valley despite many repeated attempts, proposals and surveys. Of course from Garrattsville it goes over the hill to West Burlington. This is what a concrete batch mixer looked like, each rectangular section of concrete road being individually poured, one lane at a time.