The Day The Gauge Changed
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- Опубликовано: 15 июн 2018
- The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 was not the only amazing feat of American railroad engineering in history. In 1886, railways in the south managed to convert the gauge on an estimated 11,500 miles of track in a period of just 36 hours. The History Guy remembers the 1886 Southern Railroad Gauge Change, an important moment in railroad history.
The photographs used in the episode are Public Domain images from the age of steam. As photos of actual events are sometimes not available, I will often use photographs of similar events and objects for illustration.
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The episode is intended for educational purposes. All events are presented in historical context.
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11,500 mi of track moved in 36 hours and never a peep in any type of history class or mention in a trivial way.
Thanks History Guy, this was amazing information.
And these days something like that would take 10 years before being half completed and canceled for being over budget.
@@calfeggs The environmental impact studies would take 10 years before anybody even picked up a tool.
Who did the labour?
The laborers? 😊
To give an accurate description of what never happened is the proper occupation of the historian. - Orson Wells
I am in UK. Although I am familiar with the British gauge situation, I had no idea of the US gauge history. Extremely fascinating and educational. Thank you, History Guy.
In case you're wondering why it's not 4 feet 8 inches: The wheel flanges ARE spaced like that. The extra half inch of rail spacing was added to reduce binding on curves.
That's what I always thought happened.. They made the track 0.5" wider-spaced (gauged) so as to allow for sideways play while rockin' and rollin' along, track itself not ever perfectly level along the right of way...
If both same, eventual premature wear on both the flanges and rail head, in other words, introducing leeway to prevent such...
@@MarkInLA even more going on there. on railroad curves, since there is no differential on train wheels, binding as one wheel tries to rotate faster than the other would be an obvious problem. rail wheels running surface is not cylindrical, but slightly tapered, thicker toward the center. as the wheel trucks enter a curve, speed, centrifugal force and that taper combine to effectively make the inner wheel smaller, the outer wheel bigger. there has to be spare room between the flanges and the rails outboard for that shift to occur. that's one reason why train curves all have an ideal speed - which allows sufficient centrifugal force to shift the wheelset to the outside of the curve for the differential effect. too slow, and the wheels scream (cue wear).
Then why not modify the wheels? Someone was lazy?
@@sheikowi At the time, it was easier to move the rails.
and it's only a 1/4 inch on each side.
A couple of points worth making. The British Great Western Railway (GWR) was built by Brunel, who settled on 7 ft and a quarter inch track gauge. The GWR gradually changed their track over the years with many of their lines having a third rail, so that trains of both gauges could run. By 1892, only the final section of the line to Penzance, running through Devon and Cornwall, was still broad gauge.
13 miles of sidings were built at Swindon, Wiltshire and all the remaining broad gauge rolling stock moved here - a total of 195 locomotives, 748 passenger carriages and 3,400 goods wagons. Here they awaited their fate, either conversion to standard gauge or scrapping. Before the changeover, as much advance work as possible was done, followed by the incredible feat of organisation and logistics that meant that that line was only closed for two days.
In Europe, the former USSR Region, Spain and Ireland started off with non-standard rail gauges. In the case of Spain, when new, high-speed lines have been built, these have been to standard gauge to allow inter-country working. In the Republic of Ireland (Southern), many ex-British Rail coaches were imported in the past, but were put onto Irish bogies. Because they bodywork was narrower, the bogies stuck out from the bodies and there was a wider gap between coach and platform edge and one had to be careful.
Great story but In the background part of the story, when the ‘edge rails’ replaced the ‘L’ section plate ways what was skipped over was the significance of the effect of a slightly coned wheel rolling on a rounded rail head.
I have never been able to work out who invented this or first realised that this interaction would permit trains to negotiate bends, allowing for the fact that the outside wheels have to cover a greater distance but that the inner ones the two would always be locked together on a fixed axle.
Perhaps the invention of coned wheels and rounded rail heads could be a subject for a future ‘History Guy’ video. I think this is essential to the story of railroads (railways) and why this technology still works very well with modern high-speed trains and yet little understood even by rail enthusiasts.
Peter, Leeds, UK
I'd certainly watch that.
Greetings from New Mexico!
*The interesting engineering behind the SHAPE of Train wheels* !
22,613,173 views Dec 28, 2021 *Lesics* ruclips.net/video/XzgryPhtc1Y/видео.html
@@williamshockley7692 thanks for that but I definitely prefer the history guys accent! Well done with the invention of the transistor by the way!😉
@@robinwells8879 Thank you very kindly for the acknowledgement of my efforts. You're quite welcome although I must confess that I shared the development of the transistor with my fellow scientists and co-inventors yet we did in fact inadvertently destroy the domestic vacuum tube manufacturing industry as a consequence which had been foreseen according to Schumpeter's creative destruction theory of economic value creation. However it's the legacy of my research contributions into the study of the positive correlation *(0.6)* of genetics(genotype), race(phenotype), and IQ(psychometric testing) which I believe to be my greatest scientific contribution and lasting societal impact.
@@williamshockley7692 Thank you for this William. I have seen other videos explaining the effect with plastic cups etc. Not sure the science is quite correct here but inferring that the coned wheel design was developed [by Siemens] for DB's ICE trains. This engineering principle was known well over a hundred years ago. What I would like to know is who deserves the credit for it - I don't think it is any of the big names in railway history. Incidentally, Lesics doesn't mention that on all modern railways the rails an canted to the centre at about the same angle as the coning, ie 1:20, 1:22 etc. Peter
And yet a simple repair to any small section of Rt. 95 takes months...
👍😂🤣😂🤣
@@grumpyguy2877 and rail work takes even longer. If the highway and railway workers didn't make such good money maybe they would work more quickly.
Months! MONTHS!!! Try years! I-95 in Philadelphia, between Girard Ave and Allegheny Ave (3mi) has been under construction for seven years now, with no signs of completion!
The predominant southern gage was 5’-0” but many other gages were in use. Southern railways often ran from a mine or a cotton mill to the river and did not connect to other railways. Gage was typically set by the equipment being purchased.
The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina RR was 3’-0”, abandoned in 1950, unusual east of the Rockies.
@@twillison8824 right! And by this logic, if the workers were enslaved (naturally working from dawn to dusk and getting whipped) they'd probably work even faster. No question slavery provides the most efficient workforce and the greatest profits to owners. Maybe you were born in the wrong century.
Immensely interesting. Thank you.
What you didn't explicitly state, was, narrower gauges could turn tighter turns, which is an advantage, especially in mountainous terrain.
Also in mountainous territory the narrower gauge means less material to shift to create the line.
Cool to know.
Narrower gauges have also lighter axles and less unsprung mass. That's why high speed rail is better done with standard gauge than with broad gauge.
It is also possible to run heavy ore and coal trains with heavy axle loads on 1000 mm and 1067 mm gauge if the sleepers are long enough.
In former times it was not possible to fit wide fireboxes or very powerful traction motors between the wheels of narrower gauges, but these days you have compact asynchronous motors that fit even between the wheels on 1000 mm gauge, so there are no longer any real benefits from using broad gauge. Look at indian, spanish or irish loading gauges -- they are comparable to what you can see on standard gauge or the slightly wider russian gauge, so in reality nobody makes use of the possibilities that come with the increased stability.
@@doctorhabilthcjesus4610 It seems that narrow guage forces lower speed though. I've seen videos of Brazilian freight trains on narrow guage and you could see the cars wobble even though they were running very slow. Conversely I've seen videos of double stacked containers on Indian railways (only recently introduced on a few lines) and you couldn't see the wobble even at high speed.
@@garethrandall6589 There are also videos of north american standard gauge cargo trains where you can see cars wobble on very low speeds over badly maintained branch lines. There are also videos of swiss metre gauge trains (Rhätische Bahn) or austrian Bosna-Gauge trains (760 mm, Zillertalbahn, Mariazellerbahn) which are running very smoothly and relatively fast. Or look how fast the 750-mm-railway Liesetal-Waldenburg ran before regauging (up to 75 km/h). The line Liesetal-Waldenburg is currently being regauged to metre gauge, not because of speed, but for the use of standardized rolling stock, connecting to a metre gauge tramway and better fitting traction motors and brakes between the wheels. Look at japanese narrow gauge trains and how well that railway system works. There are also some impressive trains on 1067 mm in south africa and australia, take the Queensland Rail's Electric Tilt Train for example.
The brazilian network seems to be badly maintained. If your track is badly maintained, then you need to crawl slowly even on Brunel gauge, and if your tack is well built and maintained, you can run incredible speeds and cargo loads even on metre gauge or 750 mm.
OK ok, on indian broad gauge you could run trains with a loading gauge 6 .. 8 m wide and 10 .. 12 m high, but nobody does this. In fact, all current loading gauges on standard gauge are restricted by bridges, tunnels, overhead wire height and the roofs of railway stations. The indians managed it to get more headroom for their dedicated freight corridors? Yea nice, congratulations. I whish we could widen all our tunnels and bridges in europe to do the same, but that's not possible.
On a side note to the varying railway gauges there was a horrific incident in 1867 that resulted from mismatched gauges. A train derailed in Angola, New York and one of the passenger cars went down an embankment. The cars were heated by coal burning stoves and illuminated by kerosene lamps. Stoves, lamps, and passengers where all thrown together by the impact, and almost 50 people were burned to death in what became know as the Angola Horror.
If you like to play around with alternate history, one passenger who was supposed to be on the train, but missed it by a few minutes was John D. Rockefeller. This accident occurred before he founded Standard Oil, and several years before John Jr. - father of New York Governor and US VP Nelson - was born.
That ‘the photographs were public domain from the age of steam,’ is a cop out. There are plenty of Creative Commons Photos on the American Continent without bringing in photos from the UK and India. Would this same logic be applied to a story of the Wright Brothers? Such a story could be illustrated with Russian MiG Jets or the Hindenburg in flight...I’d gladly assist in getting photos of American trains in this American Railroad Story!
I have to agree. I love his topic. Was disappointed with a lot of non-American railroad equipment photographs.
Lucky 'feller
wow that's wild
True! And instead of shipping the oil by railway he pioneered the oil line! Pipe it instead of ship it! Smart man!
My wife says my brain has a wealth of useless info. I have to agree, thanks to guys like you.
I'm the same. Maybe the three of use should start our on RUclips channel. Useless Information You Didn't Know about. Kinda catchy don't you think :)
My wife is a newspaper reporter. If useless information is truly wealth, we're Billionaires...
Does this mean we have to split the profits four ways.
Nope, five ways! I'm in now too. Cheers, Dan
Okay. Team name. How about we call ourselves The Professors. Having just read that I feel there is something missing. Something to express our wealth of useless information. Maybe something like "The Professors of the Nonfunctional" perhaps.
I learned the seven-P principle from Uncle Sam's Boating Society:
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.
Or as George Patton, the man who moved more faster than anyone in history said. "The way to go fast is to go slow first!"
No! Prior Preparation and Planning prevents piss poor performance.
frankdn #Practice.
Proper prior planning prevents piss-poor pathetic performance
Right On!
74 dislikes?... what is there to dislike???? This is a great story... a footnote of history, but fascinating non-the-less...
He is attacking southern pride sir! Damn Yankees did this so quick I just now realized it! After Alabama repeals roe v wade and Brown v board of education we must bring back southern pride and reestablish the original Dixie gauge and seek ties to mother Russia to stop Yankee tyranny
It was the math. Math hurts!!!
155 dislikes now, although I don't normally do these types of easily-outdated comments.
Check out Napier Deltics that will f**k with you head,honest
How do I dislike this?
This was fascinating! I was blessed to work around rail operations twice in my career, so this topic was of interest. I got here watching a video on the Vanderbilt family. As this video proceeded, I recalled reading S.E. Ambrose's book on the building of the transcontinental railroad.
I also enjoyed watching "Thomas the Tank Engine" with my niece when she was growing up.
I remember the fear I experienced during the two weeks I trained to be a "ground man" - like a switchman - at a facility in Centreville, Illinois. When you're right up on the railcars, boarding and deboarding, counting down cars for coupling, connecting and disconnecting brake hoses, counting down car strings to avoid derailments at the end of tracks - it's exciting and frightening.
One night, near the end of my training, the hostler - switch engine operator - fell asleep at the controls after a double shift. He didn't respond to my radio calls and the switch engine was going to pass a switch and roll into the main line. I had to run and hop on the switch engine to wake him so he could stop before he passed the switch point and derailed.
You'd have to have been there - I couldn't just switch the points at that particular junction.
Anyway, I appreciated this report. It's mind boggling that they could convert over 11K miles of track in 36 hours at that time.
Just a couple days ago I was talking with a friend of mine about train gauges, and whether the US ever had to switch gauge at any point. That RUclips then suggested this video to me today convinces me that my iPhone is bugged. :-P
As someone trained in mechanical engineering, I am astounded at their ability to switch so seamlessly and rapidly. Thanks for the lesson!
burke615 The same thing has happened to me several times. Each time talking on my phone with my brother or friends. And in each case I had never done an internet search on the topic. They are indeed listening, methinks.
Yeah. Your phones are bugged.
No possible way the suggestion was driven by an interest trend by others watching unrelated videos and sharing other common interests with you. That would be too logical.
You're correct that you're being profiled in detail. But it's far more efficient than taking a personal interest in your conversations.
Actually, I think it's far more likely that it's simply a case of counting hits and ignoring misses. For instance, in my case I remembered the conversation I had which came up in a recommended RUclips video, but don't remember the hundreds of conversations that didn't similarly have a video associated with those topics.
I have an Android in this is happened at least three times. I'll randomly be talking to somebody, not on my phone but near my phone. And then a short time later I'll see a video on that topic, which was pretty unique.
Perhaps it’s confirmation bias, but sometimes the coincidence just seems too strange...
Super! I've been a railway enthusiast for 45yrs, and had never heard of this!
@Craig F. Thompson SPRINT is Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telegraph....so I've read.
@Craig F. Thompson I don't know. Could be!!
Originally, the "Pennsylvania Gauge" (4 ft., 9 in.) was considered the "standard" gauge, however, the PRR would eventually switch to the accepted standard gauge of 4 ft., 8½ in., with very little need for modifying it's rolling stock.
But just 1/2" can make a BIG difference in some things.............
@@vj8234 That's what she said.
Size matters . . . @@bluesteel8376
OK, that's just an insanely incredible achievement. Imagine how long such a change would require now.
Yes. The federal government would be involved.
I'd be in my grave 20 years. & it still wouldn't be finished.😲
Rarely mentioned is the "magic" of the standard gauge. In railroad practice, the outer rail of a curved section of track is surper-elevated to compensate for the centrifugal force of a moving train. The magic here is that one inch of super-elevation equals one degree of tilt. The work crews need only a level and a ruler (in inches) to determine the angle of tilt. Other gauges require conversion tables or unusual tools. For math whizzes remember that the trains weight is not on the actual edge of the track (the gauge), but near it. There is a 3/8 inch radius at the edge of the rail which must be accounted for, there are two rails and train wheels are cone shaped to self center on the track and minimize rubbing the wheel flange against the side of the rail. Hence, the weight is not in the middle of the rail. I am not considering any deflections here.
I have always felt that a 200 ton 16 foot high locomotive running on a track gauge with the center line of the wheels approximately the same as the track width of a Toyota Corolla is insane.
@@Greatdome99 Some modern rails are mounted with essentially a piece of milk jug, sneaker sole, boiled nylon block and a paperclip...and it works just fine. (OK it's a pretty thick paperclip but still)
That just made me wonder why we don't see more Toyota Corollas on the tracks, it might make commuting easier.
Until you encounter the locomotive coming your way---
According to my history professor in 1972, Julius Caesar ordered high stone blocks installed at street crossings in Rome, for two reasons. First so people could cross without stepping in muck, and also to force speeding wagon and cart drivers to slow down to negotiate the spaces between the stones. This eventually caused the wagons to be built with a wheel distance of four feet, eight and a half inches. And as mentioned above, ruts worn into ancient stone Roman roads show this to be the standard. Supposedly a section of a Roman road existed near George Stevenson's home, with ancient ruts, and when he was trying to decide what gauge for his first locomotive, he used that as his inspiration.
Excellent👍
If you would have put the comma in the first sentence after professor instead of 1972, it would change the story substantially! LOL
This also determined the size of many of NASA's shuttle parts, and why a random town in ALA became a hub. Railway tunnel size, track curves and covered trestle clearance. It literally impacted propulsion design and innovation
@@alabastardmasterson That's a myth. First, the idea that standard rail gauge descended from Roman chariot axle width over 2000 years is - tenuous. More likely 4'8" or thereabouts is just a convenient width for a cart. But the BIG non sequitur is that railway structure gauge (i.e. the size of wagons) bears only a very loose relation to rail gauge. US or Russian carriages dwarf any rolling stock on English rails. South African 3'6" gauge rolling stock is as big as British standard gauge. So the shuttle was - maybe - determined by a US railway *structure* gauge, but not by rail gauge.
@@cr10001 it's the opposite of a myth... It's a fact
In Australia we still operate different gauges. This is a result of each State being a different colony before federation. Queensland has narrow gauge, Victoria broad gauge and NSW standard gauge.
Western Australia (WA) and Tasmania also adopted narrow gauge to save costs. South Australia (SA) started off using the 5 foot 3 inch gauge following the lead of the Victorians, but then changed to the 3 foot 6 inch narrow gauge when they started building the line from Port Augusta to Alice Springs, for much the same reason as WA, QLD (Queensland) & Tasmania - cost. One effect of these different gauges is that at the time of Federation (1901) a politician from QLD wanting to travel by rail to the temporary federal capital of Melbourne (Canberra wasn't chosen as the permanent capital until 1913, and the commonwealth government didn't move there until 1927) would have to change trains at both the QLD/NSW and NSW/VIC borders.
What an amazing exercise in planning and logistics...and what a wonderful achievement in such a short time. Whoever planned this or oversaw its completion was a tactical genius
Obviously NO relatives of his exist in ANY civil planning organizations now.......
@@vj8234 hahahah so true..
I love this guy. I love how he talks with a sense of genuine excitement and fascination .
This is one of the most interesting channels on RUclips that I’ve had the pleasure of viewing. Thank you for your hard work!
I went to college to be an engineer. After four+ years of working my way through college and graduating I was disappointed. Never saw a train even once.
What country were you in? It is almost impossible to NOT see a huge freight train with tall double stacks bearing down the main line near a highway.
@@christianfreedom-seeker934 - I meant I never saw a train in college. It was a joke. Geeez, people are dense.
I got it! We always said that people went into engineering at Virginia Tech because they wanted to ride the choo-choo.
I studied Ag Engineering, I wanted to drive farm trains. Haha ha ha.
😂😂😂😂😂
All lines in the state of Victoria, Australia were built to 1.6 metre broad gauge (5' 3" in American measurements) and we started converting them to standard gauge in the early 1960s. Most main lines are still broad gauge, but the lines converted to standard gauge mean we can't route freight from one side of the state to the other. If only we were able to narrow all the tracks in 36 hours rather than take 55 years to convert a third of the state. 😖
Dave, you forgot to mention that the PLANNING for this started when NSW and Vic met at the border in about 1870. So we spent 90 years planning and 60 years so far in doing the change. Better to not rush things too much. After all the Echuca road bridge has been in planning for nearly 160 years now. So that is the more normal rate of output.
Then there's Queensland having an almost entirely seperate rail network due to the whole state (Save for a single corridor in the South-East to Brisbane) being of Narrow Gauge...
I wonder what gauge the line to the airport will be?
I'm guessing that in Victoria, it's the government running the project as opposed to the private companies that did it in the Southern United States in 1886?
Martyn, it's even worse. The federal government manages interstate rail tracks while the state government manages most of the rest, but the state government depends on federal government funding to pay for part of the gauge conversions.
Meanwhile the freight trains that run on the government tracks are owned by private companies while most passenger trains are run by the state government. So getting state and federal government funding for gauge conversions at the same time is hard enough, then they have deal with a heap of train operators who don't want their train lines closed for gauge conversion for nearly a year.
Whatever James Watt's achievements were, they were not the creation of steam engines suited to railway locomotives. His inventions were all to do with with static engines, introducing the separate condenser to greatly improve the thermodynamic efficiency of the atmospheric engine and then the addition of low pressure steam to the down-stroke thereby inventing the double-action steam engine. However, these remained bulky, relatively low powered engines for their size, for which the high-pressure steam engine was required. James Watt, and his business partner, who had grown wealthy on royalties from their patents, were opposed to the concept citing safety concerns (not without some justification at the time). Watt made steam power practical in mines and factories, not for transport.
For pioneering the high-pressure steam engine, including the first fire-tube boiler, we have to credit Cornishman Richard Trevithick, who produced the first working steam railway locomotive, albeit not a really practicable one. That required improvements to the fire-tube boiler, pioneered in Lancashire and brought together by the Northumbrian, George Stephenson with the steam blast pipe with the famous Rocket.
Standing engines are still an thing of wonder and well worth having for the sound alone.
I came here to say this.
After each episode all I can say is, "Wow! I didn't know that." Thanks for the lessons.
1:28 That is the Salamanca, which operated on the Middleton Railway (Leeds, UK) - the oldest continuously operating railway in the world. I grew up near there, and there were old tracks scattered around, and the remnants of a rope haulage system system from the early days. I wish I'd 'rescued' some if the items.
Oi Oi a fellow loiner
You managed to make a guage switch on railroads interesting. Amazing.
11+ thousand miles in 36 hours. Absolutely amazing.
One could make the argument that it took 4 months and 36 hours to accomplish. But still a great feat and a great story... it deserved to be remembered.
For some reason this story reminds me of when Okinawa changed the side of the road that automobiles drive on. One morning in the early 1980's, around 1:00 am, they stopped all traffic for 3 or 4 hours and when traffic started again they all had to drive on the other side of the road. I have always wondered how many extra accidents there were and for how long.
This is a fascinating episode, from a variety of perspectives. And the analysis presented at the end is shockingly ironic. Thanks you for this episode.
But of course, the Captains of Industry all learned their lesson, and never again did they take more money than they even knew what to do with, away from growing the economy, and leave it in offshore banks where it can do nobody any good, for the last 42 years.
Amazing this was never taught in schools. It does deserve to be remembered... and learned from
Yes, our politicians should go back to school and learn that large projects can be completed in reasonable amounts of time.
Precious little is taught in school about economic development.
Wow. 11+ thousand miles in 36 hours. Absolutely amazing. That feat could never be duplicated today. Departments of Labor, Transportation, Health and Human Services and the EPA would all have to be involved and coordinate and get along. Impossible. Today it could take months or years to get this same job done.
As usual, great story HG. I knew the south had different gauge tracks, but I never knew how it was reconciled. Thanks.
+ surferdude44444 - And all the stupid MBAs in management wanting focus groups and teams.
An OSHA.
Not just government. The self-bred bureaucracies within corporations would hinder the progress too.
not just USA - same in Australia, and I suspect worldwide (excluding China).
The meetings go on and on - boring participents to death - now there is a subject for another meeting, same time next week.
I think it was done more quickly than today because it's a labor intensive task and labor was a lot cheaper then, especially in the south.
Don’t know how I stumbled across your videos. But I’m glad I did. Even though I live in another country. It’s fascinating to hear the details and your knowledge level is astounding. Thanks from down under 😊
This was really interesting to learn. I'm a big railroad buff, but I must say I had never heard of the big gauge switch. Thanks for sharing!
Being a RR buff, I assume you have read the book by Stephen Ambrose called, Nothing Like It in the World. Book about the building of the transcontinental RR. Fascinating book, in case you haven't read it.
I was familiar with the "Erie Gauge War" of 1853-54 but this is a history lesson for me too.
Thank you for posting this video. It is mindboggling to think that an operation of that magnitude could be pulled off so efficiently. I cannot ever imagine such an undertaking happening now. Gov't regs & red tape alone would kill any hopes of doing such a task quickly or efficiently.
Having seen photographs of gauge unification in other countries to my eye there is a common practice. Where the new gauge is narrower it's replacement rail is prepositioned well ahead of time. The old rail is left in place. Come the official start date the disused rail is thrown to the side and the main focus is on points and the like.
There are still a few non-standard that were introduced here and there even during the 1900's. Two that come to mind are the BART 5'-6" gauge, and Toronto's 4'-10.875" gauge, both used for transit systems.
Has it ever occurred to you that changing the Toronto streetcar system to standard gauge is *way* more complicated than it is worth? Apparently it could not be done without shutting down pretty much the whole network for an extended period of time.
@@Myrtone Yes that's indeed true that changing the gauge would be impractical, but the OP never suggested that it needed to be; he merely pointed out the fact that the gauge for the two respective transit systems are non standard as just a mere point of fact.
@@Myrtone The Toronto Subway also uses that gauge. One wonders why, though. It opened in 1954. It could have used standard gauge, and indeed, the new Eglinton Crosstown LRT is being built to standard gauge, as was the Scarborough RT before it.
@@mosseisleyYT I've seen the explanation that they didn't want the streetcar tracks to end up getting requisitioned for "street running" trains by the railroads, so creating a unique, incompatible gauge would fend off this use.
As for the wide gauge used on the BART, in the initial planning they had considered creating a line across the Golden Gate bridge, and the wider gauge would have provided better stability with the high winds sometimes sweeping across the bridge.
I'm amazed that you are able to find so many momentous stories from history that I've never heard about, and impressed that you are able to present so much information in such a concise yet entertaining fashion. Keep up the good work!
I volunteer in National Forest in Texas. They are criss-crossed with tram grades. The earthern berms on which, primarily, narrow gauge railroads ran hauling timber to rivers and float down to a mill. There were a few standard gauge, but mostly narrow
The forestry museum in Lufkin, Texas has great maps with names of all these short railroad lines. Great video.
The world needs more videos and channels like this. History is entertaining and interesting and if more people learned about it and saw how everything is connected maybe we wouldn't repeat it so much. Awesome channel.
History is not politically correct today. People demand that Confederate monuments must come down because they are ‘monuments to slavery’, yet have no problems with the great pyramids standing...🐒🦍🍗🍉🍌🏀⚰️💈🚿📉🔒♠️🔊
@@rangerjones5531 Great Pyramids were build by workers giving 10 or 20 year labor "tax", not slaves. They were housed and fed well. It's proven through archeology. Sure I can't say there was no slaves used but for the most part it was citizens conscripted to pay tax. If you were poor this was how you "paid tax".
@@rangerjones5531 But you are right. The whole reason those monuments exist is because racist white ladies in the 1920s didn't like how there "good old days" we're gone and wanted to whitewash the past. Hell they are practically banning teaching about slavery today. This country is doubling down on racism and don't even try to hide it. The next 10 years scare the shit out of me.
That kind of efficiency is unheard of in modern times, which just goes to show that all "progress" isn't necessarily a move forward. My grandfather (who passed before I was born) worked on the Pennsylvania RR, so I always find RR history fascinating. Thanks for shining a light on an amazing achievement in this industry.
In 1967, Sweden switched their road system from left-hand drive to right-hand drive in a 5-hour interval. The advance preparation included new road signs, relocating bus stops, and modifying car headlamps (so the high beams would not blind oncoming drivers approaching on the left). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H
Very interesting. I'm from the UK and knew nothing of this incredibly fast switch-over. Just 4 months to plan and prepare - but then they had the advantage of having no computers. A minor point, but James Watt did nothing really for the development of steam locomotives - he massively improved the efficiency of low/atmospheric pressure engines as used in factories, for pumping mines etc. He was very hostile to high-pressure steam which is required for an engine small enough to fit on a loco but powerful enough to pull a train, due to its dangers.
Glad someone else was thinking this. While James Watt did do a lot for steam power it was probably Richard Trevithick who was most responsible for high pressure steam and it's use for locomotives. It's strange but for some reason Trevithick always seems to get forgotten, it's either Watt or Stephenson who seem to get the credit.
thisnicklldo - The Newcomen atmospheric engine operated on an entirely different principle: steam was used only to heat the airspace inside the cylinder. Then water was sprayed in, cooling the air, which lowered the pressure. The pressure that lifted the piston was atmospheric 1 bar or 14.6 psi.
A boy manually operated the steam and water valves.
Not so very different in its basics. to the Watt engine. Yes, the external condenser, Watt's key contribution (together with the associated air pump), avoided spraying water into the cylinder and cooled the cylinder contents without cooling the cylinder walls so much. And yes, valve gear improved - though it was only the first prototypes of Newcomens engine that used manually operated valves - pretty soon they were automated, though not as well as Watts - remember that the Newcomen engine was more than a short-lived toy - it was used in serious applications for 70 years or more and minor improvements to the mechanism were made over that time. But both engines operated at, or very close to, atmospheric pressure. Both used the exact same approach - let steam into a cylinder, seal it, condense the steam creating a partial vacuum, and let atmospheric pressure drive the piston down the cylinder.
As I understand it Richard Trevithick also came up with the double-acting cylinder.
You'd be even more surprised to find that we did the same thing here in the UK, then, when the Great Western regauged itself from broad-gauge to standard-gauge over the weekend of May 21st/22nd 1892. Whilst nowhere near as much track needed to be converted, due to the unique construction method of Brunel's track, it was a bit of a ball ache to dig out the longitudinal timbers, cut through the transverse sleepers, slew the rail over, then nail it all together again.
As a railroad worker and fan, this episode was off particular interest. I thoroughly enjoyed all of your series. Thank you.
A descendant of five generations of southern railroaders here (since the early 1850s). I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know this before now. Thank you.
Thank you so much History Guy for such a great piece of our American history. I am a railfan and did not know about this amazing feat of American ingenuity (planning) and execution. The efficiency and inventiveness of these older companies fascinate me and I appreciate that you are producing these video for the good and education of younger generations to come. Ciao, L (FoMoCo engineering).
British Standard Gauge British is always the best option, Benjamin Outram from our area invented the "L" shaped plates of the old plate ways.
@@kevanparker908 Hi Kevan, I understand that a nationwide/international-wide standard is advantageous especially in our global economic network but if it was to be re-invented (i.e. redone completely from scratch), I am not sure that 4' 8.5 inches would be the best way to do. I also can understand that a "narrower gauge" does have some advantages for some unique situations (mining, forestry in mountainous/curvy areas, etc.) away from major lines.
Having spent my life in the Navy, I must give it to your compatriots - many of our improvements on our carriers are based on British inventions and designs. Peace be with you, Ciao, L
@@lancelot1953 The British used the Metre Gauge when they built the EAR&H in East Africa, Kenya Uganda Tanzania
@@kevanparker908 Hi Kevan, are you British? I can see the advantage of a "narrower gauge" in areas where there are lots of curves or shorter radius turns. Were the Metre-gauge railroad cars full (standard) size or were they smaller. Thank you for the info, Ciao, L
@@lancelot1953 I am British I used to work for the railway industry here in Derbyshire. We built the new carriages for Kenya and Tanzanian Railways, standard size coaches with sleeper compartments back in the 1980's I also lived in Kenya for two and a half years and rode on the coaches we built for Kenya.
Absolutely fascinating. 36 hours - 11,500 miles of track?!? Astounding.
Thank you very much for this.
It is similar to the changeover by the UK's Great Western Railway from Broad gauge to standard gauge over one weekend. Gangs had a certain length of track to change, ie move one rail nearer the other and rebuild any point grouping.
Gauge break also occurred between German tracks and Russian tracks in WWII leading to substantial supply line delays for the Nazi offensive along the Eastern Front.
elli003 - The greatest problem the Germans had with the Russian railways was that the Russians destroyed everything they couldn't take with them as they retreated. A "rail" road with no rails, bridges burned or wrecked, still provided a narrow roadway as the bridges were replaced with trestling.
The Russians made great use of the Fabian method of warfare. When the enemy attacks, retreat, shift your forces to where the enemy is weak, attack there. To them war isn't a ball game.
The wide gauges have been used in Russia since back in the (mid?) 1800s. It made for a feeling of spaciousness in the passenger cars.
Yet the Russians took every piece of German rolling stock they could get their hands on after the war; even though it was of no use to them.
phil giglio It’s easy to swap the bogies of rolling stock. They could have used it.
This was a deliberate ploy when the Russian railways were built, as a military defensive measure.
I'm fascinated with trains. Both of my grandfathers were railroad workers. I think of trains nostalgically, in a sort of romantic way. They definitely have a place in my heart. 🌹
FANTASTIC channel. ( The military hats and helmets in the background are a fine touch. I'm a uniform collector, and for me, the artifacts displayed help bring this channel to life. WONDERFUL and sometimes obscure stories. ) FASCINATING , THANKS.
Thank you for the great story! I love how you bring these things to life. Your video quality is very good and the research is superb.
Its crazy, when here in Australia, when Queensland had 3'6" NSW the standard gauge at 4'8.5 and Victoria 5'3". Thus all the eastern three States, all different. Imagine the problems with railway freight between these three States. A Military concern as well as a time lag to move Troops and Equipment. One Enemy did note this.
All about freight.State leaders were hungry.From Australia
Which enemy?
@@ixlnxs WA?
Ofcourse oztraya is 3rd world compared to rest of the world!
Tells you everything you need to know about Australia...
I really enjoyed this article. Thanks. It's nice to see history being taught on here in an exciting format. Very well done sir.
I first watched this video a few months ago, and just now re-watched it, because it's so impressively unbelievable. I would have thought that doing the changeover in 36 DAYS would have been quite an accomplishment, so 36 hours is amazing. A very interesting bit of history.
I estimated three full days.
Always amazed at the history you find, truly love this stuff. It gets addicting :)
Well done. I knew that the GWR in England had converted, but hadn't heard of this one. A few sidelights are:
1) The "fish belly" cast rail near the beginning is upside down. The idea of fish belly rail was that each segment was a casting, wider at the middle where the bending moment, and hence the tension at the bottom, was a maximum. The ends of the segments rested on cast chairs, and hence were effectively pin-jointed and had no bending moment.
2) The narrower the gauge the tighter the curve the train can get around. That's why the slate railways of Wales were built to 1'11.5" or 2'3" gauge.
3) Bits of broad gauge rail turn up in odd places even now. Some fence posts on the old GWR route are broad gauge rail nearly 200 years old.
4) When Brunel built the broad gauge GWR he also made the formation (earthworks) wider in proportion, so the tracks are still further apart. Later, when the 125MPH HST stock was introduced there were problems with windows breaking as two trains passed each other due to a partial vacuum between them, except on the GWR.
1. Are you talking about the rails at 1:06? Those are not cast fish belly rails, those are plate rails, and they are not upside-down. The curved edge is the flange which holds the unflanged wheels on the track. It also adds strength to the rail, so is curved accordingly to maximize strength and minimize material use.
2. That’s a common misconception. The design of the rolling stock, not the track gauge, is the limiting factor in how tightly a train can turn. Track gauge mainly affects the size of the train. Narrow gauge can fit thru smaller spaces, broad gauge can carry bigger loads. Standard gauge is a compromise, of course.
3. How can you tell what gauge of track the odd piece of rail came from? It’s broad gauge _track,_ not broad gauge _rail._
4. Of course the earthworks were wider too. Everything is wider with a wider gauge. At least they sensibly reduced the gauge by moving the inner rails outward, rather than the outer rails inward. As for the HST, it seems to me like they should have spent more on the original windows!
Your videos are outstanding! I can't believe it took me so long to find your channel, keep up the good work!
Track gage difference was also a huge logistical nightmare for the German invasion of the USSR in 1941 and was one of many factors that contributed to its ultimate failure
"Huge logistical nightmare"? I'm afraid that's hard to believe. Nazi Germany had occupied Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France and Yugoslavia without worrying too much about railway gauge.
Fascinating glimpse of history...
Well, from a train guy to a history guy, I'd say that was really good!
How about an episode of the train that once reached the most southern point in the continental United States? It went over a railway bridge all the way to Key West, Florida. That is until a hurricane came along and had other plans. Parts of the bridge are still visible today in fact. Another bit of (rail) history worth remembering. Thanks for considering this! Cheers, Dan
Hi Craig. The new concrete automobile bridge was built beside the old railway bridge. Some of the old piers can still be seen in places, but mother nature and the sea has just about reclaimed the rest. A RUclips channel called Millenniumforce has a few videos of it over the years. Check one out here: ruclips.net/video/taOucVzN7nk/видео.html Enjoy! Cheers, Dan
The Florida East Coast Railway track to Key West was called “Flagler’s Folly” as it never made enough money to be profitable on the original investment. But once built, the investment could not be extracted by scrapping it, so it was worth maintaining. Car ferries operated from Key West to Havana, Cuba until the 1935 hurricane that blew many miles of track off of the bridges. It was not considered worth repairing, so it was abandoned.
Later, the railway bridge was decked for a two lane highway carrying US1 to Key West. I have been on this highway twice before it was replaced by steel and concrete bridges and a wider roadway with emergency parking aprons. The old bridge has center sections removed to prevent through traveling on them. They are popular as fishing piers.
Pennsylvania had similar issues to this with trucking up until a decade or so ago. It used to be that 44’ trailers were not permitted on Commonwealth roads regardless that every other state on the East coast allowed it. This meant loads taken through Pennsylvania had to be deliberately underloaded so the contents could be placed in the smaller 40’ trailers otherwise they’d need to so,it it between two trucks. And because Pennsylvania has more miles of highway than all of New England, NY, and NJ combined, and more bridges than any state in the country (fun fact) literally making it the Keystone State, you had to play by their rules
Thanks for the awesome clip! I anticipated that you'd say 11000 miles in 36 days which is still a an epic achievement... my mind exploded when you said "hours"!!
Small point, picture at 6:36 is an active steam loco in New Zealand, what's more, she runs on 3'6" gauge 😀😀😀
History guy, I thought you were going to nail it. 4' 8" on Roman roads was due to the width of 2 horses. Thats why everything else pivots there.
It even goes back to chariots, centuries before the Roman Empire.
The Space Shuttle boaster size was determined by the rail size. Therefore the Space Shuttle’s size was determined by two horse’s asses.
@@tracylemme1375 LOL!!!!
Fascinating presentation of an amazing railway engineering achievement. Thank you for doing this one.
The 5-foot gauge of the railroads in the South was quite common. One of the South's railway engineers, Civil Engineer, George Washington Whistler (father of famed artist, James Abbott McNeill Whistler - of "Whistler's Mother" fame) was hired by the Imperial Russian Government to put in one of Russia's first railways, the Saint Petersburg-Moscow Railway. George, who was more familiar with the technology and construction of the United States railways in the South chose, of course, the 5-foot gauge for the line rather than the standard gauge (4' 8½") used in the northern US and many other parts of the world. Russia still has its entire rail system at 5-foot gauge today.
UncleAbdul yes, the five foot gauge is now called the “Russian gauge.”
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Five foot I understand and is logical: but I'd never before heard of 4' 9" ....
On an unrelated but similar note, the reason the Japanese drive on the left may be due to the fact that their first railroads were designed by British engineers (of course British trains also move on the left-side track on double-track lines). That is, another long-term consequence of early engineering decisions and influence.
I got one for you History Guy... I was stationed on Okinawa 76-79. As it was under U.S. control after WW2, it was set up like the U.S. However, when it was returned to Japanese control in the early 70's, they wanted to switch it to the Japanese right hand drive. They worked for two years installing road signs and traffic lights, then covering them up with bags. ALL traffic on the island stopped (I seem to remember at midnight on the 6th) and, at 700 A.M. on 7/7/77, it started back up on the other side of the road. Through the night, thousands of workers removed the bags on the new signs and signals and reinstalled them on the old ones. Needless to say, it was total insanity for weeks with people driving on the wrong side of the road!!! And I had a right hand drive car when it was U.S. and left hand drive shortly after the change, so I was always on the wrong side.
unbelievable! Another winner by the Superman of history! It's time for your story. Your public awaits. Thank you for all you do.
Europe had plans for a simultaneous changeover of couplings from screw links and buffers to the AK69e (Willison) coupler in the 1980s but failed. Nowadays we have the C-AKv which is stronger, safer, automatic and allows mixed coupling, but it's still not widely used as it would only make sense when it is used on the majority of the rolling stock.
Two examples of widespread gauge change in Europe are the Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahnen (1854 to 1855 from 1600 mm to 1435 mm) and the Great Western Railway (1861 to 1892 from 2140 mm to 1435 mm).
The Spanish railways (1668 mm) started building high speed lines at 1435 mm in 1992, with the intention of changing their entire network, but no time horizon. Currently a number of trains are variable gauge, some of them changing track gauge multiple times during their course.
The Indian railways are in the process of converting 1000 mm gauge lines to 1676 mm. For topographical reasons (Himalaya) there's no connection to the Chinese standard gauge network, and few international connections in general, so there is little incentive to convert to standard gauge, but having a mostly homogenous broad gauge network is much better than a mix. (A few lines of narrower gauge, some of which are classified as world heritage, will remain.)
"changeover of couplings from screw links and buffers"
The sight of European carmen (cartoads) cranking on the screw links causes American railroaders to shake their heads at the primitive technology. Soviet Railways had the American type knuckle couplers, and the process of switching out the standard gage wheels for the broader Russian gage at the Polish border was smooth.
@@Dutch_Uncle The Soviet type (Willison) is not the same as the American type (Janney). Meanwhile Europe is moving towards a Scharfenberg-based system, already standardized for high speed trains and units, currently being tested for freight.
@@uncinarynin But both types are knuckle type, and do not require that someone get under each end of a car to connect and disconnect a turnbuckle type screw. The air hose still needs to be connected by hand.
Thank you for this history lesson. It is appreciated.
Thanks THG for another great episode. I grew up in a PRR railroading town. My grandfather and great grandfather worked for New York Central in the first half of the 20th century.
something I hadn't cared less about yesterday made interesting and outright fascinating. You have a unique talent
Even in modern times the former Erie Railroad had generous clearances for oversized loads. this is because it was originally laid in 6’ gauge.
Thank you History guy for never letting us forget these amazing almost forgot moments in history. As a history lover you never fail to teach me something new your hard work is not unnoticed.
This is one window of railroad history of which has now been opened. Thank you!
Well done sir. This is a great example of the value of project management and I plan on referring members of my project management team to this video
This event and the removal of thousands of pieces of B&O equipment seized by Stonewall Jackson (himself a professor at an military engineering college in Va) at Harpers Ferry crossing in 1861, then removing it to the South to be used on different gauge railroads and at massive machine shops in Richmond is an example of how sophisticated Southeastern industry actually was 1850-1900. That is often downplayed by traditional Boston/Philadelphia published history books, that tout the unrivalled might of Northern industry vs Southerners with pitchforks. Simple history lessons often like simple black and white prose.
You do a good job of pulling out singular events, describing them well and fairly placing them into the context of their time.
STHO: You fall into the same "Simple history" trap. Converting trucks at the large rail shops of Richmond in no way says anything about the industry in the rest of the the Confederate States. Your conspiracy theory of history book printing does not speak well for your claims being any more accurate or unbiased.
Pelican1984. Then why did General Canby's/Wilson's command go on a "burn all the industry but keep the sea port" in the Alabama river valley sudden raids actually just days before and right after the war was over via Appomattox. Even General Grant questioned him on it that summer as Grant thought something was afoot. Sherman's march was at the height of the war, but Canby was just destroying things that Grant felt a restored Union could use.
The south built multiple ironclads, sea mines, land mines, a surplus of uniform items (so many they were used for German POWs in WWI AND II), three submarines, Davids, .....etc.... This was done with industry that had grown in the 1860s from earlier small industry shops and mills. Mobile had tens of thousands of international population. They weren't growing cotton there and all those people weren't involved in just shipping it. The industrial North also imported military goods from Europe and Canada as northern industry was still in the shoddy goods stage in the 1850s.
The Yankee is strong with you, but the story is never as clear cut as history books written after a great and terrible rebellion. Part of the writing of that history is to ensure nobody else would try it again, if the rebellion failed. If the rebellion succeeds then the history is written from a point of view of magical PLUCK and determination, typically underplaying foreign intervention. Sound familiar.
@@STho205 see just the factory that you have to call him a Yankee reveals your own bias.
Converting a few locomotives and rolling stock is not indicative of large scale industry. It's clever ad shows they had some skilled maxhinists.
Also no one argues that the south was massive behind technologically. Just that it had much less industry. So your point doesn't even address the 'biased Yankee' view you're trying to respond to.
The northern victory in the war, which among other things deprived the South so many educated leaders, also left the North with an onwheeming pride in its way of life.
@@johnschuh8616 the RR logistics officer for the Virginia Militia under Jackson that planned the trap/raid and handled the removal of standard gauge equipment across the narrow gauge bridge and on wagons to be regauged in Richmond shops (a significant modification for locomotive driving wheels) survived the war. A few years later the President of the B&O hired him as their director of operations. He said anyone that could do that was the man to operate his RR.
It’s hard to imagine how much more such a change would cost today and how much longer it would take, the efficiencies of things back then we’re stunning. It’s a shame bureaucracy and poor management has become the norm.
Trash the Penn Station, needing quick cash!
Bad investing is the only issue, needing quick cash!
Bureaucracy, what did you meant, regulations? What do you suggest, what do you understand?
I Love this stuff! Other candidates - When Sweden Switched from Left-side drive to Right-side drive overnight and when the British Empire switched from Julian to Gregorian calendars in the 1750s
ruclips.net/video/mk4n7XWsY_4/видео.html
Nationalization of gauges &
standardization building of the U.S. railroad system is a fascinating story of industry expertise to develop & produce safe & efficient transportation without governmental interference until the standards are set for economical operation in absence of regulation.
Thank You for explaining this predecessor system of Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Illinois Central, Burlington Northern, Santa Fe, Norfolk Southern, Baltimore & Ohio, Pennsylvania Central, Erie Lackawanna, New York Central, Amtrak, Conrail, etc. railroads.
Thank you. Seems a happy coincidence that the idea of a 'standard' gauge appeared early in railway development, and dominated both in Europe and North America.
Sir, I truly enjoy every video/episode... Thank you for your education that led you to share with us that only have a high school diploma! LOL! I realize that you had to study, read & dig to find this information.. God bless you....
Such a nice video, so well assembled. Good to see this type of quality in youtube!
I enjoy your railroad history. It explains clearly and thoroughly the importance of track gauge.
your enthusiasm and knowledge is very engaging. Thank you.
Nice to see the NZGR Ja locomotive go by a 6:41, 3ft 6inch gauge system in run in New Zealand
I missed that, but yes! The next loco shown, no 2414, appears to be a New South Wales Z24 class (and it actually looks Australian, somehow), therefore, standard gauge. So neither of them will ever have seen a change-of-gauge carried out. I kinda wish the History Guy would choose his illustrations more carefully, it detracts from credibility when irrelevant pictures are used.
Spotted JA1271. Very much a 20th century 3 foot 6 inch gauge loco, possibly from the South Island rather than the Southern USA. Great video otherwise.
Enjoyed this well documented, informative video. Have often wondered why more than one 'gauge' was used by fledgling railroads, or by various countries. Now I know, thanks to you. So, thank you!
Excellent lesson on the power of competitive markets. I like the stinger aim ed at near monopolies at the end.
Fascinating. Wonderful photos.
I grew up in Western NC. I had learned about the Tweetsie railroad: a narrow gauge railroad that operated from 1866 to the 1950s: it was a narrow gauge (3 ft): mainly to be able to stay with windy curves and inclines. Interesting that the general rails in the main lines throughout the South had to change their gauge at one specific time.
tweetsie.com
The US used a fair amount of narrow gauge due to terrain, and some is still in use today.
The decision to do it all at once was actually an anti-competitive decision. The Southern railroads worked together so as not to allow any one to develop a competitive advantage and spark a price war- essentially a version of price fixing.
dsr0116 Tweetsie railroad sounds like something from a Looney Tunes cartoon.
you are the incarnation of Mr. Peabody.
He's the love child of Mr. Peabody and Sherman.
I wonder how many people didn’t get your comment! Well Done 😂
Robert Ratskywatsky: Don't get your knickers in a knot over it, its known as comedy...
@Robert Ratskywatsky Do you think maybe it was a joke?
Someone here is humor-challenged...
Wish my Dad was alive to see this. He worked at a turntable before being drafted in 1945 and was the son of a railroad fireman. He loved RR history.
All that switchover in 36 hours. NOTHING happens that quickly now. Just incredible.
How much time was spent afterwards, fixing the inevitable glitches?
And how much did they pay the work crews?
Also I'm no American but these were Southern states so I can imagine who did all the hard work ...
You can see the 7ft and 4ft on the same sleepers called mixed gauge at the didcot railway centre in oxfordshire Uk where both gauge run also using the original rail that was recovered from the old track paths
Thanks for the great story and telling it well.
Today, it seems to be implausible that our divided country will ever get back on track.
Love your style and presentation.
Another good, compact, and revealing presentation. Rail and military history buffs are often tne same. And the bow ties really create a good academic look, as do the blue blazer and glasses. Good show in every sense, History Guy! (And great volume recording, too.)
Fascinating! so quickly done! I'm impressed that you mentioned the gauge conversion of Brunel's broad gauge over one weekend-organised successfully like a military operation?
Imagine trying to make that kind of system wide change today!!
Could we even muster the cooperation required?
Very interesting as usual. Nice job! Thank you.
Just for grins... Late 50's or pre 1962. Wandering the west side of the right-of-way for C&NW track Milwaukee to Green Bay. About 43 11 31N and 87 54 51w (google earth), I stumbled across a head-lamp assembly from a steam locomotive. It was as big as I was at the time. Never told my parents or anyone else.. I hope someone found it and did something for it...
Thanks "History Guy"!!