How long it take for the standard gauge to establish itself as de facto gauge on the railways in the USA?

Question

i'm trying to figure out how many years it took the railroad industry in the US to "come together" so that trains could ride on all networks in the USA without having to worry about the tracks not fitting the trains... any help is appreciated

Answer 1

The Colorado narrow gage operations of the D&RGW, were still in operation by the Class I railroad until the 1980's when it was bought by owners intent on operating it as a tourist line.

Up until that time it was considered passenger service that the Rio Grande had aplied to the ICC for abandonment several times.  Although allowed to discontinue winter operations, they could not get permission to completely abandon the operation because of the demand for the service each summer.

Connections to it were abandoned in the 50's and 60's so interchange was not an issue.

So, I would guess that would be the last narrow gauge class I operation, and except for excursion locomotives, last class I scheduled revenue steam operations.  I believe it was 1982-83.

Though freight service was not offered, as I recall, a local utility had a power station along the river and needed some equipment there for a repair sometime in the seventies.  When asked, the railroad opened the line early and hauled the equipment, which could be the last freight hauled by a class I on narrowgauge.

Answer 2

George Stephenson, whose railways and locomotives had such an influence on railways throughout the world determined the gauge would be 4' 8".  The only reason why, is this was the gauge he opted for in his colliery operations.  He later added 1/2 inch, for reasons now known only to him.

There was a great diversity of gauges in the early years, with no coordination between the railways of different states.  Because the South Carolina Railroad was 5' broad gauge, this became the standard for most railroads in the south until 1886.

The Camden and Amboy chose 4' 10" and for decades this was the gauge for New Jersey and for Ohio.  Some railroads built freight cars with wide wheels, called "compromise cars" which could run on both standard and 4' 10" guage.

The 1st international railway between Portland, Maine, and Montreal, Canada, chose 5' 6" guage, the Erie railroad opted for 6', between 1865 and 1871 and by that year, there were 23 different gauges in the USA.  The twenty-fourth, and widest, was on an Oregon logging railroad in the 1880s with a gauge of 8'.

The 1st transcontinental line was originally to be 5' gauge, but the bill that finally authorized the construction, the Pacific Railway Act, specified a gauge of 4' 81/2", which went a long way towards establishing standardization, which was becoming increasingly urgent as the different states were tied into one great economic system.  By 1887 all the important broad gauge lines had changed to standard gauge.

Narrow gauge operations didn't disappear overnight, and the D&RGW was the last class 1 carrier to operate regular revenue freight by narrow gauge.  They were also the last to use steam as a part of that same service, until 1961.  Of course it turned seemlessly into a tourist road, and still does a booming business today.