Go to the attached link to see one response to why the standard rail gauge in the US is 4 feet 8 inches.
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/railwidth.htm
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/railwidth.htm
Why is 4 foot 8 inches the rail gauge standard? Here's one answer!
- Thread starter Rusty Stumps
- Start date
not quite true, but....
From that site:
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When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its
launch pad, there are two big booster rockets
attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These
are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are
made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The
engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred
to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to
be shipped by train from the factory to the launch
site. The railroad line from the factory happens to
run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had
to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly
wider than the railroad track, and the railroad
track, as you now know, is about as wide as two
horses' behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what
is arguably the world's most advanced transportation
system was determined over two thousand years ago by
the width of a horse's ass. ... and you thought
being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't important!
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Not quite true, but makes a good story. A railroad tunnel is considerably wider than just the tracks.......
From that site:
---------------------------------------------------
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its
launch pad, there are two big booster rockets
attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These
are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are
made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The
engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred
to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to
be shipped by train from the factory to the launch
site. The railroad line from the factory happens to
run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had
to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly
wider than the railroad track, and the railroad
track, as you now know, is about as wide as two
horses' behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what
is arguably the world's most advanced transportation
system was determined over two thousand years ago by
the width of a horse's ass. ... and you thought
being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't important!
------------------------------------------------------
Not quite true, but makes a good story. A railroad tunnel is considerably wider than just the tracks.......
Re: not quite true, but....
Well if the tunnel was straight there probably is much of a problem but if it's curved that could limit the width quite a bit, even a slight curve.
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Not quite true, but makes a good story. A railroad tunnel is considerably wider than just the tracks.......
Well if the tunnel was straight there probably is much of a problem but if it's curved that could limit the width quite a bit, even a slight curve.
I read somewhere that the 4' 8.5" gauge may go back as far as the ancient Assyrians. If I remember the story correctly, Alexander the Great adopted the standard in order to run carts over the old Assyrian roads, and this standard was eventually adopted by the Romans, who built their empire over much of the Greek empire in that region. It was the Romans, I think, who actually adopted it as a "national standard."
I wonder if the Romans ever made narrow gauge carts?
Red, I hope that the treatment was successful. A mother of one of my co-workers is having the same treatment. Feel better soon!
I wonder if the Romans ever made narrow gauge carts?
Red, I hope that the treatment was successful. A mother of one of my co-workers is having the same treatment. Feel better soon!
I seem to remember reading somewhere that in Canada we changed our RR guage to prevent those pesky US troop trains from invading Canada during the War of 1812. Obviously that's not the case now.
Anyone have any real info on this? - mine is a clearly little sketchy.
Cheers
Val
Anyone have any real info on this? - mine is a clearly little sketchy.
Cheers
Val
I've always wondered if the gauge was set at five feet when they used rails with flanges on the outside and flat wheels, and when they went to flanged wheels they kept the same mountings but everything moved in a few inches.
Val, it's interesting the way that governments (and some railways) did whatever they could to hinder interchange. Wasn't the Ontario Government gauge 5'6" ?
Val, it's interesting the way that governments (and some railways) did whatever they could to hinder interchange. Wasn't the Ontario Government gauge 5'6" ?
Yes it was, but it was changed to 4' 8.5" in 1873. Lest you think I'm a big expert or something
I got this info from:http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3ll/rrhist.htm
And then you have the TTC streetcars operating on 4' 10-7/8" gauge track. Why? I've read on one website that it was to accommodate wagon wheels, but an ex-TTC employee told me it was to keep regular trains from using the city trackage! I prefer the latter explanation....
Can't resist this pic
Cheers
Val
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Interesting fact: TTC gauge works out to 1.5 metres as close as you could like, but they quote it as 1495mm for some reason.