Why size is important: The story behind railway widths.
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 17 авг 2023
- Most of the world's railways have the same gauge, or width between the rails. Why was this gauge chosen and what are the alternatives? This is also a story of one man's vision against convention.
![[ GUILTY GEAR STRIVE: DUAL RULERS ] Teaser Trailer](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/e4TDqaE3XAg/mqdefault.jpg)
The stone sleepers weren’t phased out because wood was cheaper, but because wood handled the vibrations of steam locomotives much better. Stone would crack, but the wood would flex. It also did a better job of keeping the gauge because it physically connected the rails.
The Americans call them railway ties, which is very appropriate!
@@Dudleymiddleton- We call them "railroad ties" here in the States!
The wood was also far cheaper, so they killed two birds with one stone (sleeper) !!
Exactly! That's what I said.🙂
Don't forget, reinforced concrete ties are often used these days on high traffic lines.
My favourite gauge story is the one about the KURJ railway in Sweden.
It was supposed to have the gauge of 3.5 feet, and had its track built to that. The locomotive builder contacted the railway company to confirm the gauge to build the locomotives to. Unfortunately the Bigshot who received the request for confirmation didn't know much of the technical side of railroading, but didn't want to let this on either, so he went out and measured the track and sent his measurement back to the locomotive builder. Unfortunately he either A) didn't know that track gauge is measured between the insides of the rails, and instead measured between the middles of the rails like you would on a roadgoing vehicle, or he B) didn't know that the locomotive builder used English feet and inches, and gave the measurement in Swedish feet and inches.
Either way, the locos were delivered, and they didn't fit the track. Huge scandal and panic! After working out the cost of regauging the locos, it was found that moving one rail on the track was the cheaper option.
And that's how the Köping-Uttersberg-Riddarhyttans Järnväg ended up with the unique gauge of 3.59 English feet.
Really interesting. Thank you! If that happened in Britain, the Bigshot would be pensioned off with a huge severance payment.
Another reason for going metric. Unless you want to have continental meters and imperial meters that are slightly different. And of course, the US will have US meters, somewhat smaller than the British meters, but bigger than the French.
A similar reason might be behind the very unusual gauges for the Dresden (1450 mm) and Leipzig (1458) trams in Germany. When the tracks were laid, standard railway sleepers were used. But the railheads were designed differently to allow for paving between the rails. Thus the actual head was slighly off-center, with a small rail on the inside, creating a slit for the rails to run in. Thus, the gauge was slightly wider for the rails, resulting in 15 mm resp. 23 mm in addition to the standard gauge.
@todortodorov940 I think the US could start with adopting the Swedish mile. Since one Swedish mile is exactly 10 kilometers it makes conversion much easier.
@@todortodorov940 We'd also have to have Texas meters, because everything's bigger in Texas.
It was originally 4'8". The extra ½" was added when the wheels of Stephenson’s steam railway had problems with binding and derailing that were solved by adding a little play. It was easier to reset the rails slightly wider than to cast new axles for each rail car.
The Washington DC Metro uses a gauge of 4' 8 1/4". Apparently that has something to do with the wheel profiles being less conical than usual, for less hunting oscillation at the cost of more noise going around corners.
And I read somewhere that indeed the same happened to Brunel: he started at 7' and thought he had accommodated the issue that led to the extra ½" on Stephenson's but not quite, so he had to add only a ¼".
I was wondering why the extra partial inches came to be - that must have annoyed them immensely 😮
I always wondered about that.
'Standard' gauge does not mean the distance between rails is constant. It is variable, and in the curves it is wider than in straight lines, proportional to the radius of the curve.
One thing putting pressure on the spread of standard gauge throughout the world, which wasn't mentioned, was that foreign railway startups (as we'd call them now) would often buy British locos and rolling stock.
This is absolutely true. Britain was the world leader in the railway business for a long time.
@@warmbrucuriosity For our first train "Adler" from Nuernburg to Fuehrt, just 4 km long one way, the director of this train company earn 4000 Gulden, the train driver 6000 (how was importet from England). After teach them this work to young boys he earn some years later only 1000 Gulden. Of course, the first locomotive and wagon was imported from England and/or the blue print for that. Later make "Germany" (it was only same language, one own country starts later!) own companies around the world (main land and colonies) and spread so the glorious german technology. 😊
When the Crimean War sarted, the British actually ordered a lot of rail stock and rails to install once the victory was won. Eventually it got off-loaded to Argentina.
Or American rolling stock. Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia had a lot of export business.
British companies and engineers built railways all over the world. Strangely many British colonies do not use standard gauge. In the Southern hemisphere it was probably to save money more than any other reason
The southern states in the US had a variety of gauges that caused great problems during the civil war by slowing the movement of supplies for their armies. The gauges were standardized after the war and with enormous planning only took one day to accomplish.
Thanks! this might make an interesting video
Imperial Russia decidet to use different gauge to rest of Europe to prevent any potentional invasion to get supplies for their troops.
Ironic that "states' rights" or the independence of states - the very issue they were fighting over - potentially cost them the war.
@@petrfedor1851 George Washington Whistler, an American railway engineer worked as a consultant in Russia when the first Russian railway line between St. Petersburg an Moscow was built. He probably had some influence in the choice of the 5 ft gauge, which was also in use in the US. In 1970, on a day when the Soviet leaders didn't have any better to do, they decided that they are done with imperial units of measurement and decreed that the gauge shall be 152 cm, 4 mm narrower than 5 ft.
@@danielbroadbridge886 the states rights they fought over was the right to own slaves.
I worked for the UN for decades trying to get agreement on formats for data exchange: "The great thing about standards is that everybody has one".
One thing about a wider gauge, is that it doesn't give you greater carrying capacity by weight. It can be good for bulky but light cargo, but the wider cars tend to have higher tare (empty weight), reducing carrying capacity. Maximum weight is limited by elements of the Permanent Way. For example quality of the ballast rock, crosstie spacing, weight per yard (or meter) of the rail. and especially capacity of the bridges.
Meanwhile much of Japan has slightly wider rail cars than the UK despite using a narrower track gauge, but I felt that the cars were more prone to roll when in motion, probably as they are less stable (they're almost 3x wider than the track gauge)
Wide gauge has a special use case which is when u wanna transport a lot of people. People don't weigh as much as goods but people do need a lot of space for their given weight. It's the reason why wide gauge is prominently used in India where passenger numbers are insane
@@commieSlayer69 I think later on we realised that standard gauge was sufficient
The BART System in San Francisco uses 5 ft 6 in Broad Gauge, the only purpose is it does offer a much smoother ride compared to the MTA cars in New York or the CTA in Chicago which are standard gauge, those cars are notorious for rocking around, the BART gets around that problem with broad gauge
Australia isn’t actually shown correctly - Australia uses four different track gauges for trains (varying depending on the state you are in).
Yep. Standard gauge connects the capitals of all the mainland states and is the main gauge in NSW. 1067mm narrow is the main gauge in Western Aus, Queensland and Tasmania, and South Aus also built some 1067mm, Vic built its entire network to the Irish broad gauge 1600mm and SA did most of theirs to BG too, some Victorian BG lines also extend into NSW. WA and Queensland both have huge NG networks that facilitate a large amount of trains, NSW is the same with SG, whereas Victoria has made a half hearted effort to standardise and many lines are suffering from major underutilisation as a result. Most of its network is still BG, thankfully there is still freight on both gauges, though nowhere near what NSW sees on its SG network. Victoria also built four experimental 735mm NG lines in mountainous areas, some of which have been preserved (see Puffing Billy and the Walhalla Goldfields Railway). In SA, there is virtually no freight rail, besides what is hauled on interstate intermodal and ore services. There are a few grain trains that run but those are restricted to out loaders located on the interstate lines (which is basically all that’s left). There are only a couple freight services left on the 1067 NG lines on the eyre peninsula, a network that was mostly closed in 2019 when the track owner and sole operator lost their contract to haul grain. It pays to use a uniform gauge in Australia.
We learnt that at school a few weeks ago!
Well that's certainly very comprehensive but you forgot the steal works train that runs past my place every four or so hours in SA lol
@@lachlanbaker2031You neglect to say that the disparity between Victoria and NSW on its rail gauge came about as a result of the NSW colonial authorities changing its mind on what gauge was to be used three times! In this context it’s unreasonable to expect other states to rip out their own systems and replace them all at once!
If you count all the little bush tramways etc over the years, I’ve counted over 30 different gauges used!
In India, we have broad gauge, 5 ft 6 inches wide. We also had meter gauge, 1 m wide. Most of them have now been converted to broad gauge, or have been shut down for gauge conversation. New lines that are under construction are also broad gauge.
Narrow gauge is there for hilly areas as well. There is no standard gauge in main railway network, barring metro trains.
Standard gauge is being implemented on the new HSR lines though. Which seems to me to be a bit crazy. Sure, having Ukraine, the Baltic states, Finland and even much of Africa convert to Standard Gauge makes sense IMO, but to have it on a few lines in India? India with an immense & well used network already? Nonono.
@@GustavSvard HSR is new Corridor that runs only in Viaducts and Tunnels, No where it comes in contact with regular Lines.
@@GustavSvard Standard gauge is the best option for high speed rail. It provides more than enough stability, and the axles are lightweight enough to provide a low amount of unsprung mass.
You want:
1.) as much stability as possible
2.) as little unsprung mass as possible
Both are contradictory. So you are searching for an optimum. Meter gauge and cape gauge provide less stability than we want, indian broad gauge provides less lightness than we want. The optimal gauge is anywhere between 1.3 m and 1.5 m, russian gauge provides no noticeable advantages over standard gauge, we want to use a gauge that already exists and don't want to invent a new one, so standard gauge is the best choice.
Same in Argentina, 1.676 mm, but we have a line with standard gauge in the northeast and a complete network of narrow gauge, especially in the northwest where we have the "Train to the Clouds", crossing the Andes at 4200 m and connecting with Chilean network to the Pacific Ocean.
@@GustavSvard standard gauge is better and more modern.
The original rail gauge was a round 5 foot but the flanges were on the rails. The rails had an L section and the gauge was the distance between uprights - the uprights were on the outside of the track. Then it was found that putting flanges on wheels was much more practical. The gauge was redefined as the distance between the inside of the rails. This took 4 inches off, reducing the gauge to 4'8". Subsequently it was eased to allow for extra room on corners. Incidently, Brunel's gauge was originally 7'. They added a quarter of an inch to help with the (admittedly very shallow) bends.
True. I could include all of these details in a short video. It was just a taster to see if there was much interest in this subject. Now that I see that there is, I'm going to produce follow-up episodes in November. Thanks for your comment.
@@warmbrucuriosity The old problem. How to stop a short very interesting video from becoming a long rambling one. I only put this in because I've seen too many posts claiming that 4' 8½" was derived from some imaginary ordinance of the Romans.
@@telhudson863 I agree that the 'Roman story is imaginary. Living in Rome makes it easy to check these things out and I'll come back to this in a future video.
I'm surprised to see this video only have so many views, it was well put together and engaging throughout. Well done
Thanks for your feedback. I hope the number of views will increase.
I read, in Model Engineer magazine, of - I think 1958 - a letter from an elderly gent. who was replying to earlier correspondence on this subject: He vouchsafed that his own grandfather had been George Stephenson's works manager and had told his grandson about how the earliest railway wheels had flanges on the outside, so the gauge was the dimension taken over the outside of both rails, which G.S. had set as a sensible five feet. When flanges moved, the dimension shortened by the thickness of two rails, leaving what we call standard gauge.
Thanks for this. It will be useful for an idea for a video about early railways that I have in mind.
Interesting explanation! Thank you very much for sharing it!
@@hugorietveld9257 That would get you to 4ft 8in with. It has been documented that Stevenson built that first railway at 4' 8" with. When it had binding problems in the curves, he kicked the rails out 1/2" to give more room for the flanges in the curves. This was really the first truly successful steam railroad. Stevenson then went on to design and build other railways and make equipment for them too, and he copied what had worked with his previous installation, and then a lot of others copied him. Thus, the standard gauge came about by (1) the change of measurement from the outside of the rail heads to the inside, and (2) Stevenson's need to give some flange clearance to his locomotive.
I am today years old before knowing how and, more importantly, why standard gauge is fixed at the very arbitrary-looking 4' 8 1/2"😊
Stephenson originally set his gauge at 4’8” as he had done on the colliery railways he built around Newcastle upon Tyne. However when building the Stockton and Darlington Railway, on curves the wheels were binding against the rails. He then decided to have the rails widened by a half inch, which was easier to do and cheaper than having the axels narrowed, to stop the wheels binding on the rails on curves. So standard gauge became 4’ 8.5”
So only widen in curves?
Most trams in Germany also use the standard gauge of 1435mm, just as almost all trains. Only where tight curves are necessary, the 1000 mm (we call it Meterspur - as opposed to Normalspur) is used. In some places, trams also use tracks that originally were built for trains. They need to be able to use the two different voltage systems and the drivers have to be certified to drive the trams on tram tracks and on train tracks. This is the case for the lines 16 and 18 between Köln (Cologne) and Bonn, which used to be trains of the Köln-Bonner Eisenbahnen, but later integrated into the tram systems of the two cities.
the Victorians saw so many things: steam, steam transport, the humble postage stamp and affordable public access to it, the telegraph, photography, and at the end electricity.
Spain uses the wide Iberian gauge for its local trains, but high-speed trains use standard gauge for interoperability with the rest of Europe. There are some places where trains transfer between the two gauges, and I think there are train sets with adjustable bogies whose gauge can be quickly changed using automated equipment at the transfer point.
Yes! In Spain the main rail companies have developed the best and most unique gauge changing technology in the world! As far as I know it is the only technology that allows to change gauge without having to change the whole bogies of train for hours at a transfer station. Even more, the train doesn't even have to stop, it only has to slow down and the process takes only few minutes!!
@@pizzaipinya2442 There are several such systems, but the Spanish ones are arguably the most advanced and widespread. Although one, between Sweden and Finland, was removed because it kept freezing over. 🙂
The Japanese are also developing a system, allowing for even higher speed than the Spanish systems, but as said, it's still in development. Knowing the Japanese, it'll be technically perfect, and feature some sort of cute mascot, like a cat or a bear.
@@SeverityOne yeah, they'll have to put a mascot there xd
Interoperability is not the only reason for chosing standard gauge for high speeds. You want to limit unsprung and oscillating masses, so you want to limit the weight of your wheelsets and that of your bogies by using shorter axles and narrower frames. Standard gauge provides the desired stability as well as the desired lightness.
Btw: Everything the indians and spanish do with their broad gauges could be done with standard gauge as well. Sure, broad gauge provides more stability, but this is never fully utilized on broad gauge railways.
In India the 5'6" guage (we call it broad gauge) is the most common gauge. Almost all metre guage line have been converted to this guage. We have standard guage too - but only for MRT/Metro/subway. Narrow guage is there in some select heritage railway in hilly areas. In India, we do not use Continuous Welded Rail so our rail joints give that clippity-clap sound when wheels move move them. Given this limitation, broad guage suits us over standard guage.
Its just due to the original engineer in India was Scottish, so he copied the 5'6 that was used in Scotland at the time, so the subcontinent is the rare user of broad guage till today.
CWR is becoming widespread now.
Note in passing that, as was said in this video, Isambard Kingdom Brunel organised the replacement of the entire railway from London to Penzance (300 miles) in a long week-end of three days without any of the heavy lifting or digging machinery that we have now. Such project management could not be done today: it would take years.
Er, Brunel was dead in 1896...
Thank you for the correction. Brunel died in 1859 and the GWR was re-gauged over three days in 1892. I had always imagined that Brunel was the general manager of the GWR at the time, but I must have been mistaken. However, I stand by my story. In Edinburgh, moving a bus stop and replacing a stretch of pavement at Hillend has taken several months. It would take at least ten years to re-gauge three hundred miles of railway these days.
I like how shower curtain liners always line up and have the same number of holes punched as the shower curtain no matter the brand.
It is a shame Brunel didn't win and we had the broad gauge. Would mean faster and more comfortable travel now.
Today, gauge doesn't determine speed and comfort anymore, however trains could be more spacious.
@@kaengurus.sind.genossen Correct me if I’m wrong but I think especially in the UK our trains aren’t very spacious because our loading gauge is so restrictive. Whenever I’m on European trains they usually feel significantly more roomy.
@@jamesu8033 European trains are indeed wider, because the have a larger standardized "overhang" beyond the rails. In the UK, this was never introduced because it was deemed too expensive to reconstruct old platforms to fit newer trains, a very bad decision imo.
@@kaengurus.sind.genossenBritish and overseas railways selected their loading gauge very early on and stuck to it. A general widening of the loading gauge in Britain has never been considered because it was not only the platform but bridges and tunnels would also be affected.
as someone who knows nothing about railway, this interesting..
good pictures/photos too,
i like the historical ones
thankyou for sharing this 🙂
Thanks for watching.
USSR standard gauge, of course, was what its successors got. I don't know whether all of them kept it (most of them did), but Russia, being the vast colossus that it is, definitely did. And the gauge is not the same with Europe. But it is only slightly different.
Once I travelled across Ukraine-Bulgarian border on a sleeper train. The trains which can change from one gauge to another have the whole wheelbase (bogie??? I don't really know terms, sorry) changed from under the train. It took hours, with the whole train hanging raised up on a row of special railroad jacks. It is a vision to behold, a unique experience. Especially when you are a kid, and especially when it's very hot, and there are no conditioners on, really, any Russian trains (it was about 25 years ago).
My mom worked as a railroad design-engineer (I think, this is the term), but a), engineers are not historians to know that, b) there are so many jobs, including those not directly relevant to the trail system or the moving stock (like designing service and diagnostic machines, for example), so I don't think she ever knew. But I definitely heard from someone (her colleagues?) that either Imperial Russia or USSR later kept its gauge different from the surrounding states to prevent swift invasion by trains. It was a strategic decision to have a different enough gauge.
See Wikipedia's "5 ft and 1520 mm gauge railways" article.
Not "many of these" but 90% of Indian Railways Network are 1676 mm BG...
In 1947, during our independence, India had around 47% BG network and 45% 1000 mm Meter Gauge network. Rest were 2ft or 2.5ft Narrow Gauge. In 1993 we had "Project Unigauge" when most NG and MG networks were upgraded to BG except 4 Heritage Mountain Railways ( Darjeeling Himalayan Railway [ NG ], Kalka Shimla Railway [ NG ], Matheran Railway [ NG ] and Ooty Rack Railway [ MG ] ) and very few that might remain preserved or Gauge Conversion stalled due to certain issues...
I'm a big fan of what India has been doing recently in regards to its rail infrastructure. The amount of electrification work India has successfully undertaken in such a short space of time is genuinely impressive. The fact that it comes in on time and on/under-budget as well is even more impressive. The UK government should seriously concider asking the Indian Government to come and do the same for us.
Recently, I was also lucky enough to go and see a Narrow Gauge Steam Engine that had come back from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and the Indians had looked after it incredibly well.
One thing you can not say about the Indians is they don't know how to do a Railway. I can't wait to see what they will inevitably accomplish in the future.
Great that India’s moved further to broad gauge. Not cheap but many longer term advantages
Standard gauge is far from standard in Australia. Rail freight transport is standard gauge, but passenger train gauges are a mess, resulting in long stretches of dual gauge track, and places where two gauges run next to each other. It also results in some long distance passenger trains using the freight tracks, and not stopping for extended distances because there are no stations on those tracks.
Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco uses a 5’-6’’ gauge.
The Stockton and Darlington Railway of 1825 was built to 4ft 8in and was later widened to standard gauge. It only became standard gauge at the end of the Gauge War with the passing of the Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act of 1846. This didn't ban Brunel's Broad Gauge but limited its use to new lines physically linked to existing GWR lines. The Act also standardised the Irish Standard Gauge at 5ft 3in.
Interesting. Thank you.
The first railway to use the 'standard' gauge was the Willington Waggonway, circa 1800. This was horse drawn. A section of it is preserved in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.
@@chriswarburtonbrown1566 it could just be a coincidence and not linked to the later work of Stephenson. Afterall he first major public railway, the Stockton and Darlington was build to only 4ft 8in and later regauged to 4ft 8.5in.
Always wondered about this. Thanks.
Btw. loading gauge and track gauge are two different things. There are 1000 mm gauge systems that have wide trains and 1435 mm systems with narrow trains. The "narrow gauge" train could not run on the "standard gauge" system (if you replace the bogies), because it would collide with stations, masts, other vehicles (especially in curves). However you can run a "standard gauge" train on a "narrow gauge" system, if the loading gauge is identical or smaller. Any narrower and smaller vehicle can run on any bigger system, regardless of the gauge (if re-gauged). The problem might be at stations where a huge gap would be between the vehicle and platform. To remedy this, vehicles are being widened where the doors are.
Yes. What you say about loading and track gauge is very interesting. I will add something about this when I return home.
This video explains the loading gauge quite well.
"The "narrow gauge" train could not run on the "standard gauge" system (if you replace the bogies)" Yes it could. You just widen the wheels. "because it would collide with stations, masts, other vehicles (especially in curves). " No it wouldn't. You've got this the wrong way round. I think you mean a _standard gauge_ train could not run on a _narrow gauge_ system (even if you replace the axles/wheels). The tunnels, bridges and track side equipment would be too narrow.
@@simontay4851 There's no direct connection between track gauge and loading gauge. For example, Japan's 3'6" lines generally have a wider loading gauge than the Great Britain standard gauge network.
The East Broad Top Railroad in Pennsylvania is built to 3-foot gauge. They merely interchanged standard gauge trucks (bogies) for narrow gauge to allow standard gauge rolling stock on their road.
This was genuinely interesting and informative.
Enjoyable vid.
Thanks.
I enjoyed this video. Great commentary. Thank you
Thank you for a great explanation
Really interesting bit of history.
In America before the civil war, all train companies had their own gages. There were even some states that had laws to keep it that way. It was because of the work it created in the transferring of goods from one to the other. The problems with this were quickly seen when the war started. It caused delays in army transport in the south while the north adapted standard gages for all trains lines except mountain mining and logging.
There’s a town in Australia where railroads of 3 different gauges meet. I was on an outback bus tour from Melbourne to Alice Springs and back, and yes we drove through that town except I barely remember that since I befriended a gal from Victoria and we often stayed up late fooling around. Oh if I could be young again and get that much attention being an American in a foreign country.
Most likely Port Augusta.
We all wish we were young again. I wish I had taken lots of movies when I was 16 (1956), of railways that have since disappeared. 😢
Port Augusta has only two gauges and has never had broad gauge. The three towns with three gauges were Port Pirie, Gladstone and Peterborough.
Fascinating video thank you for sharing. I vaguely remember a documentary, I think either Michael Palin or Michael Portillo, featured a place that actually swapped the carriage bogies from one gauge to another to enable the passage. Subscribed btw!
trans mongolian?
Back in the ‘80s I did some of the work on that broad gauge track and the transfer shed platform edge slabs at Didcot.
And ?
Wider gauge has strategic implications such as the limits placed on military vehicles and equipment to allow transport through tunnels designed for a particular gauge width.
The reason that Abrams and Challenger tanks being the width that they are for example is because of railway tunnels.
That limitations come from loading gauge, not from track gauge. You can handle the british loading gauge very easily on cape gauge or meter gauge tracks, and you can easily handle indian loading gauge on standard gauge tracks.
THanks very informative
India and Bangladesh operate many 3 rail systems with Metre and Indian gauge trains. Australia also has multi rail systems as they still do not have a common system for the whole country.
Thank you for a very interesting and informative talk regarding the widths of railway track .
Thanks for watching.
The Leicester and Swannington Railway was the first to have 4'8.5". Until then, Stephenson railways ran to 5' gauge - but the gauge was outside flanges. The complex trackwork of the L&SR was better suited to inside flanges, which ny extension were instead 4'8.5" apart - using the same Stephenson gauge as before, but this times the wheels were narrower.
Pretty sure that Stephenson's gauge was 4ft 8. The "problem" was that some other companies used 4ft 9. Close but not quite interoperable. The point about "standard" gauge was that by adding or subtracting half an inch rolling stock built to either of the previously mentioned gauges would work. That then spread throughout the country....except for GWR (as mentioned in the video).
Fantastic video, very informative!
Thanks a lot!
I remember seeing documentaries where you had to change the train several times just to get across Australia
Not any more. You can go from Perth to Sydney on the one train - Indian Pacific - Indian ocean to Pacific ocean. Takes 3 days. Been there since 1990's.
@@wizzard5442 I believe the standard gauge track on the Indian Pacific rail line from Perth to Sydney dates back to the 70’s.
Yes, as an Australian, that happens to work on Railway Equipment, I find it Crazy to have 3 Different sizes in one country.
As I heard it, carriage grooves worn in old horse-and-buggy roads were 4'8" apart, and converted horse carriages were first used for Stevenson trains. As someone below said, the extra 1/2" was added later to keep wheels from binding on curves.
This is based on what seems ton be a myth involving the wheels of Roman war chariots. Only the Romans didn't use war chariots.
this has been debunked. this only appeared for the first time about 4 years ago!
Excellent presentation
The narrow gauge line you showed whilst talking about 2' being the norm is in fact 2' 3" (it's the Talyllyn).
And to be even more pendantic, 1' 11½" is the more common. Still, what's ½ an inch?
This was a very interesting video,.in India I had seen the days of what was called standard gauge (we call.meter gauge) and the GWR ( broad gauge) and have seen that 3 rail.line system also to accomodate both gauges. What a history I wasn't aware of. In India most are broad gauge now in 2023 with some.heritage railways in narrow gauge and standard gauge... immensely enjoyed this video
Thanks for your comments. It is interesting to hear what you say about the different gauges in India. I will make a video about gauges internationally and the motivation for their adoption as soon as I can.
A similar question's been quietly altering the British Loading Gauge to the larger European size as trains running through the Channel Tunnel have exposed the UK to the larger wagons.
This is a big different. In countries with no tunnels the freight trains can be wider as if you use tunnels. Every Lord country at Europe have it different since they starts with wagons to transport things. But for transport people, folk, personnel, military folk, aso. do you need the same wide at every station of course, if do you want work effectively! This contract between big companies and/or countries was early, I think around 1870. The once what be not same is the high for platform, high of walk floor inside train and high for couples! This can be different till these days 2023.
Yes, this is where the UK's history as a railway pioneer works against it. There's so much infrastructure built round the smaller British loading gauge that it's almost impossible to change it. It's also why the uniquely British model railway gauge/scale of Double O exists - the early manufacturers couldn't fit electric motors in British HO scale locomotives because they were smaller than their Continental counterparts so they stretched the scale while keeping the same track width.
I'm not really into trains, but this is good to know. I have wondered why RR rails were a certain distance apart. Thanks. I used to have a 1967 Schevy that would run the rails if I let some air out of the tires.
I read somewhere that the railroad gauge was defined by carts already in use. But the carts were evolved from carts that had to drive on old fashioned rutted roads. It was easier to standardize axles to stay in the ruts. But the axles were standardized back in the day when they were making chariots, and the axle width was defined by the the width of two horses. Ultimately, when designing the Space Shuttle, they had to engineer it so the parts could be shipped by rail, meaning the Space Shuttle's dimensions were ultimately defined by the width of a horses ass.
That's a persistent urban legend.
And bloody near impossible to kill.
Just a small correction. The Great Way Round nickname had nothing to do with avoiding hills or natural obstacles but was due to the fact that in the early years their route from London to Exeter went via Bristol and as such was many miles longer than the LSWR route via Salisbury and Yeovil. Similarly their route from London to Weymouth was even more disadvantaged. As a result they built the cut off from Reading to Taunton through Castle Cary which put them back on a competitive footing.
Interesting. Thanks.
Here in Ireland our railway gauge is 5ft '3 which was a compromise between the ulster railway (6ft) and the dyblin and Drogheda Railway (5ft) gauge.
The Ireland railway gauge is an interesting and unique situation, due to the "land-locked" nature of the Irish rail system. I've often wondered what might change if they concept of an Irish Sea bridge/tunnel actually ever came to fruition, potentially connecting rail systems.
Thank you for this good overview about track gauges, I would like to emphasize that there is often the legend that a broader loading gauge means necessarily the need for a broader track gauge. There are relations, but not in a way of a necessary condition: For example take the narrow gauge lines in japan with their loading gauge with a maximum with of 3.0 meters, while Great Britain for some reasons has (mostly) a maximum with of less than 3.0 meters.
Studying loading gauge regulations and necessities it shows that those are far more complicated than the question of track gauges - buuuuut… noooot if you try to built a tram-train system, connecting an existing tram-network with the national rail network, then you will some extra fun with wheel flange configurations, shape of the wheel surface and gauge widening factors in curves… 😂
In Canada, the province of Newfoundland had narrow gauge rails. Rail cars coming off the ferry had to change trucks so they could continue on the narrow gauge track. Rail service there was discontinued several years ago. Also, the Toronto, Ontario streetcars and subways have their own gauge, used nowhere else in the world. There are various stories about why the different gauge. However, the new LRT lines are standard gauge.
Thanks for that. Very helpful. One still sees different gauges used in the same country on mainline railways, as in Australia and Japan. And i have read that, years ago, Russia deliberately avoided using the standard gauge, used in Europe, to prevent foreign trains from traveling on its tracks, for security reasons.
Yes. Because the mountainous character of Japan, much of the rail network is on a narrower gauge. 83% of the national Rail network by distance is on Cape Gauge, 1,067 mm (3' 6”). Basically mainly the "New Trunk Line" (Literal translation of Shin-kan-sen) was then built in standard gauge. Which has the advantage in comparison to other countries with high speed rail, that the slower local trains and high speed long distance trains *have* to use different tracks. Which is one of the reasons in my opinon that Japan has was massively fewer delays on their rail network then other countries. (one other factor being the more disciplined passengers. ;-) )
Thanks for that. Cheers. @@aixtom979
That actually slowed Hitler down during his invasion of Russia. He tried to regauge to standard.
this video is 1 month old yet it feels like it was made in 2015 (it doesn't detract from the high quality of content tho)
A 'train' is a procession of railway vehicles coupled together.
A 'locomotive' or 'engine' is the power unit that pulls the train of vehicles.
A 'railway' is the system of tracks on which they run: It is a permanent 'way', constructed of 'rails'.
I know America has a different way of naming things, but this is about UK, not USA.
GWR stands for 'Great Western Railway' ; not 'Great Western Train-track''
The same applies to other 'Railway' companies in the UK..
I know that you're not talking about America, but here, the permanent way is the right of way on a railroad. What you call the driver, we call the engineer. Two countries separated by a common language!
Most of India's 58,000 Kms rail network is Broad gauge network. Very few are meter gauge or Standard. But all the new Metro systems have standard gauge and also the Bullet train will run on Standard gauge owing to its Japanese technology.
They should have stuck to Broad Guage, but they decided to conform to Standard due to future wagon import possibility.
Very good video. In Canada between Kingston and Ottawa, they built to the 5foot 6inch gauge called the "Provincial Gauge" to prevent the Americans from invading ! Isn't it amazing that so many gauges prevailed ? "My way is better !". International Standardization is essential but fraught with human interfering. Power plugs and sockets are a good example.
Power plus and sockets is a great example.
Meanwhile, there is little standardization in power plugs in Europe, where they use 240V, 50Hz. North America has standard plugs/sockets at 110V, 60Hz.
Wonderful video this
Thanks!
You could have mentioned the Gauge Act of 1844, that Ireland (then part of the UK) standardised on 5’3” and that the colonials in Australia make a complete mess of their railways despite the knowing they should use the same gauge.
This reminds me that in the San Francisco Bay Area, people complain about the standard gauge Caltrain getting a very bumpy ride at points, while BART uses a 5 foot 6 inch (1676mm) gauge for stability purposes
I came here to say this! BART is somewhat infamous for using Indian gauge on its system. Lots of theories exist as to why (including that Southern Pacific, the dominant rail travel provider at the time, didn't want the new system to use a compatible gauge lest it fully usurp their monopoly), but the most likely reason was concern that using standard gauge would make the cars more vulnerable to the gusty winds of the Golden Gate. Initially, BART was meant to cross under the car deck of the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County...though this ended up not happening for political reasons.
As to why Caltrain has a lower ride quality than BART: It's not the gauge, but the age and design of the cars/track: BART almost entirely uses direct fixation track, which is more expensive but gives a smoother ride, and has large wheels plus air suspension. Caltrain cars, on the other hand, are quite old (most date back to the late 80s), and the shared freight/passenger tracks are just rougher in general. Upshot, the new electric KISS trains being introduced into service should be much, much nicer to ride in.
Back in the 1960's I travelled from Perth in Western Australia to Sydney on the east coast by train. I had to change trains six times because of changes in the rail gauge. Sometimes in the middle of the night!
2:04 - that's the Little Eaton Gangway in Derbyshire. It was originally 3 ft 6 in. gauge but by the time of this photo (1908) that had been increased to 4 feet.
It is my understanding that the origin of this spacing can trace its beginning back much farther. Supposedly, the original railroad stock was built by wagon makers. This stock matched the spacing of their wagons, to minimize changes. Wagon spacing had to be consistent, because a wagon whose wheel spacing didn't match the ruts in the road would break wheels. The first ruts in the English roads were left by Roman chariots, and were based on the width of a horse, as mentioned in the video. If this is true, untold thousands of miles of track owe their spacing to the width of Roman horses.
1:54 Actually each wagon way had its own gauge, although many northern rails used 4ft 1 gauge. That was also the gauge on the first successfull commercial train type (John blenkinsops and Matthew Murray type)
I believe it was the Stockton and Darlington line that first used the "standard gauge" although at first it was 4ft 8, the ½inch was later added to help with turning in curves.
The 4ft 8in gauge was based upon Roman "standard" carts which had wheels 5ft 0in apart, centre to centre, which became 4ft 8in, inside edge to inside edge, two inches being deducted either side to allow for wheel width.
Interesting.
In Australia, the present day states, being originally separate colonies ended up with an assortment of gauges. History of the problems that this caused as the country consolidated and developed after Federation would be worth a video in its own right.
The Australian gauge situation makes me wonder if there are other issues from the past that still cause problems. Brits tend to see Australia as one nation that is efficient and streamlined. Untrammeled by the past like us. This could be an interesting video. I really need to visit.
The Australian gauge system is not as bad as it first seems. All mainland state capitals (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin, Perth and Canberra are connected by Standard Gauge for both freight and passenger services. So standard is the 'interstate service' gauge.
Services within a state usually retain the original chosen gauge (which in NSW is standard, but in other states varies). These services are predominantly for internal purposes so transferring to a different gauge is usually not an issue. Not only would there be little benefit in standardising them, there are sometimes advantages in using existing gauges. Narrow gauge (3 ft 6 in) for example is suited to cost effective railways in remoter areas. There are also a few oddities like this one - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skitube_Alpine_Railway
Separate private railways for transport of minerals to ports are usually not only standard gauge, but are full American loading gauge (size of locos/carriages) as well, regardless of the gauge otherwise used in that state. Double stacking of freight containers is usually possible once west of Parkes (most of the western part of the country).
What is less well known is that different states use different signalling. Not my subject area, but I understand Victoria is more like USA practice and NSW is more like British practice, but they all have their own idiosyncrasies.
There are no third rail electric power systems AFAIK. Older suburban / inter-city systems like Sydney and Melbourne have used 1500v DC on overhead catenary since the 1920s, while much newer systems (Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth) use 25,000v AC.
The early wagonways originally used carts with flanges on the outside of the wheels. The made the distance between the outside edges of the rails important and (to accommodate a horse) it was set at 5 feet. Later it was found that carts were less likely to derail on curves if the flanges were on the inside of the wheels. This made the inside gauge the important measurement and with the rails then in production, it happened to be 4ft 8.5 inches.
Indeed. They sometimes put the flanges on the outside of the rails as in Shropshire. The idea being the waggons could use both road and rails being without flanges. I wonder why this idea was abandoned. Cost, I suspect.
The BART system in the San Francisco Bay Area uses one of the Indian wide gauge tracks.
Just a couple of points about the waggonways (with my ex- Tyne & Wear Museums curator hat on)...
1:55 "A standard gauge was agreed between the mine owners so that all their wagons could use all the wagonways"?!? Hardly; there was huge variation amongst north east waggonways; gauges varied from 3' 10" to 5' 0", with the most common being between 4' 0" and 4' 6". Even adjacent lines built around the same time but by different owners would often have different gauges. Killingworth Colliery, where George Stephenson worked, just happened to use 4' 8". Wylam was 5' 0", Tanfield 4' 0"...
2:12 "In fact, the wagonways didn't use long wooden sleepers that we associate with railways today, but small stone sleepers...". In fact, all the waggonways used long wooden sleepers, for about two hundred years until c.1800, and most continued to use them thereafter. These were completely covered with ballast to provide firm footing for the horses. Only a few waggonways tried stone block sleepers in the early 19th century.
Didn't mention tilting tracks to offset the requirement for broad gauge. Interesting video.
That was very interesting.
It's reminded me that I have a solid copper GWR wall lantern. It's a really lovely thing from a bygone era.
I will at some point get to a railway museum that has a broad gauge locomotive if there are any left !
After watching this I really want to see one up close !
Thanks for doing these snippets of history videos.
Thanks for your comment. The only railway museum I have seen with broad gauge trains running is the Didcot Railway Centre where I took the photos. Even there, most of the exhibits are standard gauge. I recommend a visit.
I live a long a 680km narrow gauge railway allways hear people saying its dumb and we should or should've use standard gauge even though its a hilly and valley filled rail network (nz rail network main trunk line) currently converting to concrete sleepers from wooden also we use 2nd hand mk2 coaches
Wicked video! Something i do think of much when lookjng at trains, i wihdk ahev guessed thwy were 1 or 2 foot woder! Are the tubes in London the same gauge?
Yes, the running rails are standard gauge.
The real importance of train tracks is the WEIGHT it can carry . meter gauge can carry virtually as much weight as standard gauge but broad gauge does get weaker at similar costs of building .
As many countries try to outdo eachother by having the fastest trains , I've often thought an interesting scientific question is....
What gauge is best for the highest speeds?
Perhaps there is a perfect gauge to obtain maximum velocity?
Fast cars are low and wide, but we cannot have independent suspension on a train. So the bogies always want their space for turns. Still I like the idea of street cars suspended between bogies. If you are in a wheel chair you need to pass many lifts as does the caterer. Maybe invent a way to switch from independent for tight turns to solid axle for high speed?
It would be interesting to look at the loading gauges of railways. Even though the high speed trains of Europe use standard gauge their loading gauge is different hence the need for new tracks. Also, loading gauge is not just the separation between two adjacent tracks it is also the maximum height of the trains which affects the height of the bridges. Some US trains carry containers stacked two high on routes where the bridges allow that.
This is a well-structured and quite informative video, but it seems to me to distort some issues. The wagonways of the north of England had a variety of gauges at the beginning of the 19th century, and Stevenson himself originally chose 1422mm as his gauge. The variety of gauges were very similar to the ruts which could be seen on roads throughout the Roman Empire and on prehistoric tracks. So this original gauge was not invented in the North of England, it was part of a Europe-wide heritage. Obviously Stephenson’s development of the 1435mm standard was hugely influential and ultimately decisive.
The difference between the ruts on tracks and railways is that railways need a precise agreed distance between the wheels so a measured gauge becomes necessary.
I think th eimplication is that the width was choosen based on existing carts. The story of the horse needing to fit between them is secondary because a horse can fit beween many guages and would not lead to a specific measure like 4' 8 ½"
I saw a story about the purchase of gurneys (wheeled hospital stretcher) to retrieve tourists who suffered some medical emergency sightseeing in Pompeii. The wheel spacing had to match the ruts left by Roman wagons two millennia earlier.
As I understand it, the tracking width of wagon wheels was standardized to fit the ruts worn by a team of horses side by side. This took sideways stress off the wheels. When railroads were starting in this country, the tracks were laid to the same gauge so that existing axles and frames could be used. Railroad and vehicle bridges were built to conform to this "standard". Rocket boosters had to be built to pass on these roads. So the size of a moon rocket is based on the width of a horse's ass.
In India to this day all over the country Indian Railways use Broad guage including three Metro lines in New Delhi. However rest of the metro lines in Delhi and elsewhere in India use Standard gauge.
Kolkata metro which is India's oldest Metro system also uses Broad Gauge.
OH! yes, had missed out. Thanks.@@saharatul
And now for something completely different... I mean, on a different note. As probably many of you know, there's this joke/ urban legend about "bureaucracy and standards that live forever" linking "modern standard gauge to the width of Roman war chariots" (that had to accommodate two horse arses, side by side in front of it, and which made ruts in early European roads, built by Romans, so latter builders of wagons and couches had to set the wheel spacing to match those ruts to prevent those wheels - and axles - from frequent breakage, and them this "gauge" was inherited by tram builders, and so on...) - but there's another, less known joke about Russian gauge (5 ft or 1524 mm, latter redefined as 1520 mm, or 4 ft 11-27/32 in).
So the story (joke) goes like that: when it came to standardization of railways in Russian Empire, foreign engineers tasked with the job asked the Tsar whether he wants them to build it "to the European/ English standard, or broader?" - to which Tsar barked back "на хер шире" (na kher shyre - literally "on a dick wider" - but the phrase "на хер" is best translated as "why the fuck/ what for [wider]").
However, the tsar's response was uttered without a rising tone (indicating a question in Russian and other Slavic languages), which is often the case when asking a rhetorical question with an obvious answer, AND since you don't argue with Tsar (or ask him for explanations, however extravagant his request may seem), after couple of measurements taken among themselves they arrived at some median figure and added it to the standard gauge width...
Or so the joke says ;-)
And yes, saying that "most of those broad gauges are still in use in India" is an understatement of the year, since virtually ALL of Indian rails are built to broad gauge (1,676 mm or 5 ft 6 in), till today.
Brunel was right to have 7 foot gauge. No extra steel. But longer sleepers would add to the cost....as well as wider tunnels and wider bridges. Much more stable, much more capacity.
ThankQ
The standard ghage derives from the war chariots which were wide enough for two people to stand side by side, when the wheel a fitted either side they end up at 'standard guage'
I've heard lots of similar claims. In Rome, where I live, people talk about chariots being the origin of the standard gauge. The problem is that if you go to the preserved parts of roads like Via Appia, you can see that there was no standard gauge.
I was wondering whether we will ever introduce wider gauges
A really nice video, with a good story. Also, you have a pleasant voice to listen to. Thank you for making this video!
However, I urge you to see if you can improve the recording quality of your voice. I'm not a sound engineer, so I can't tell you exactly what to do. Maybe another microphone could do the trick.
The world gauge map mis-states just one gauge in Canada. The Newfoundland railway had narrower gauge than North American.
Interesting. Do you think that it's because Newfoundland didn't become part of Canada until 1949?
In a way partially yes. The Newfoundland Railway was completed in 3'6" gauge in 1898. Some terrain but probably mainly budget issues affected the choice. Ownership/management of the line changed hands a few times. From 1923 until Confederation, it was operated directly by the Dominion of Newfoundland. With Confederation in 1949, the line was transferred to then-crown corp Canadian National (CN). CN discontinued regular passenger service circa 1969. They re-organized the Nfld freight service as Terra Transport in 1979, but ultimately decommisioned the railway in 1988.
@@liamobrien6151 Thanks for sharing this. I have a lot to look into.
@@warmbrucuriosity
I enjoyed, from six years ago ...
Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website [youTube]
The Newfoundland Railway Part I: Entering the Railway Age
The Newfoundland Railway Part II: The Era of the Reids
I personally believe that standard gauge should have been used from the start for economic considerations of scale needed for serious natural resource extraction, concentrating on profit to dictate extensions until an island wide system was complete. Also, the main line section built over a snow belt plateau - a tremendous chronic drain of revenue and disrupted service.
I suspect that this is the case. Maybe they didn't think that a unified gauge was a priority. Considering the distances involved and the situation then, who could blame them.
👍👍
4' 8-1/2" is the ideal width for two-way mule traffic, leaving room for ideal sized panniers ... and that's why Roman chariots all had the 4' 8-1/2" wheel base ... to fit on existing trails ...
Can understand standard gauge being wide enough for a horse but why 4' 8 and half, why not 5 feet? Where did the 1/4 inch come from in the GWR wide gauge? Weird.
5ft gauge was used in many places early in the history of railways but most were converted to standard gauge. For example, the Eastern Counties Railways between London and Colchester was originally 5ft gauge but converted to standard gauge in 1844. 5ft was also used a lot in the southern United States - in 1886 there was over 11,000 miles of 5ft gauge track.
As a child in the NE England I was told that the guage was the same as the wheel base of a Roman chariot as measured in wheel ruts at Hadrians wall LOL
The history of the standard gauge goes back a lot further than just 200 years, it in fact dates back more than 2,000 years. Following Alexander the Great defeat of the King of Kings 331BC in which he defeated the war chariots of the Persians by funnelling them into a box of spears causing them to halt, Chariots ceased to be a war weapon since there was now a military tactic that made them ineffective. This understanding of military warfare in the ancient world continued into the rise of the Roman world.
However once Julius Caesar crossed the channel to conquer Britannia in 55BC in invasion attempt was hampered greatly by the war chariots of the Britons. The different design and especially the terrain made a defence as employed by Alexander the Great very difficult to employ in time. On the continent wide plains with long ranges of visibility gave time for infantry units to organise a defence. The hilly wooded country of Britain however allowed Chariots to emerge quickly out of no where, with little time for an organised defence.
When Britannia began to be brought into the empire during the reign of Claudius and Romans copied the Britons war Chariot design realising its potential military value. The British Iron age Chariot gauge width was designed on the width of the backsides of two horses that pulled the Chariot. Although these horses today would be considered ponies as the size of horses were much smaller in the past Horses today are much larger from centuries of selective breeding.
In order to facilitate the army throughout the empire more effectively the Romans built roads, onto which these chariots ran. Over the centuries ruts were created in the roads being the same gauge of the Chariot, being the same gauge as the British Chariot they were based on. When the Romans left centuries later, the road with those ruts remained.
Into the Medieval period there were cart builders who had to build carts that ran on the Roman roads. Naturally they built to the same gauge left by the Chariots so the carts could transverse the roads as smoothly as possible by remaining in the ruts. As times past coaches for mail were invented, but at first there were no coaches builders so there used the next nearest profession, the cart builders. Naturally the cart builders used what they knew worked and so built the coaches to the same gauge as their carts.
Then comes the industrial revolution and the need from trams then trains. Naturally at first there were no tram or railway engineers, so people turned to the nearest next profession, the coach builders. Using the knowledge knowing what works they built the trams then the trains to the same gauge. So two thousand years later we are still building things to iron age designs.
On a side note: Due to empire building and colonies in America the same gauge was copied in the USA. In some cases those railways ran through tunnels. Factories in the US building parts for the International Space Station required those parts to be shipped by rail to Florida before being launched into Space. Thus in order to fit through the tunnel parts of the International Space Station had to be built to the same gauge of the railway, which is the gauge of a British Iron Age War Chariot design.
If you're looking for a plethora of guages in a single nation, Australia is pretty unique, in that it uses no less than 3 main rail gauges 3'6" (Narrow Gauge). 4'81/2" (standard) and 5'6" (wide). plus 2', of which there is about 4,000km to service the cane fields of Queensland, I'm sure that there is a video in there somewhere, without evne mentioning that the nationalities of the cheif engineers of each of the colonies all brought his preferences to the debate, as did the scarcity of good, long wood (for sleepers) over much of the continent.
And if you throw in tramways, it's another kettle of fish - or rather, can of worms!
5' 3".Not 5' 6"(Indian gauge)
Original railways in Australia ...we're going to be 5'3". But N.S.W. Changed its mind in the Last moment, leaving Victoria and South Australia with Broad gauge connections (plus their respective narrow gauges) it's still quite a mess.
Random britcuck on the internet: "and as It is with everything, It started out in Great Britain."
And then proceeds to literally quote J. Perner - the guy that taugh Brunel how to lay tracks.
Excellent. Thanks.
I'm really glad you liked it!
Best story I've heard of the origins of "standard gauge", comes from the width of cart wheel ruts in English road, which come from the common width of two horses' ass widths, from Roman chariots.
Wrong. This is a persistent urban legend. BTW, the Roman army never use chariots. They were long obsolete.
The states of South Australia and Victoria were prominently broad gauge 5' 3", standard gauge was built to connect with New South Wales in 1962, then South Australia built standard gauge connection in 1970, and Adelaide to Melbourne was gauge converted from broad to standard in 1995. So relatively recent, as far as history goes..
and queensland uses narrow gauge
@@bonza167 - yes, of course, as does Western Australia. South Australia had quite an extensive narrow gauge system too! Now only lines are Thevenard to Kevin and Iron Knob to Whyalla. The gypsum to Thevenard, and iron ore to steel works at Whyalla, both travel on narrow gauge track. 😉👍