In the uk. the standard gauge is 4'-81/2:ie:four feet and eight and half inches how did this come about.thanx

Question

In the uk. the standard gauge is 4'-81/2:ie:four feet and eight and half inches how did this come about.thanx

Answer 1

If it was any other size, the train wouldn't fit on the tracks.

Answer 2

Traditionally the wheels of a wagon are 5 feet apart, if you allow for the width of the tyres inside and measure the distance between the inner surfaces, it works out at four feet, eight and a half inches.

Tramways (or dramways, or plateways, depending in which part of the country you were in) were laid to a variety of gauges in the early 1800's, between 4 feet and 5 feet, but it so happens that the rails that George Stephenson built his early locomotives on had a gauge of 4' 8.5", so that became the norm.

I.K. Brunel built his Great Western Railway to a gauge of 7' 0.25" which he argued gave greater stability and a smoother ride. In 1850 however the Gauge Commission summoned by Parliament ruled that all rail lines in future should be laid to standard gauge, i.e. 4' 8.5", while all broad gauge, i.e. 7' 0.25" lines should have a third rail laid to make them accessible to standard gauge trains. The same body ruled that the rail gauge for Ireland should be 5' 3", thus necessitating the conversion of any British locos and rolling stock that were exported there.

The Gauge Commission's ruling forced the costs of construction and maintenance for the GWR through the roof, and by 1892 all broad gauge lines had reverted to standard, although even today it is possible to see stations where the gap between the tracks is extra-wide, because of the broad gauge track once laid there.

Answer 3

It's just coincidence. The story about the Roman war chariots is just a story - for one thing the Roman army never used chariots! Excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum have shown ruts that average 4' 9" from centre to centre, and a gauge of 4' 6".

One possible reason for 4' 8.5" as the standard gauge is that it reflects vehicles with an outside gauge of 5' 0".

Answer 4

Truly it is the width of two roman war horses behinds.

Roman war chariots had steel bands on the wheels, they were spaced so the the wheels were just outside the heels of the horses pulling the chariots to avoid hitting them.

The steel bands would wear grooves in the stone pavement so that any other width carriages or wagons had to be the same width or the wheels would break.

This width became standard and was adopted throughout the roman empire.

When British inventors first started putting steam engines on wagons of course they used what was available. There was never any reason to change from what had been in place for hundreds of years.

That remains in the U.K. and it is the same here in the 'States.

Answer 5

Rango pretty much has it.

The Romans started it with their chariots wearing grooves into roads. Their influence was still felt even after they left the shores of Britain, as the roads they left behind were still the best in the land until almost the dawn of the railway era. In order to use them safely, you had to set your wheels at the same distance apart as those wily old Romans.

The railways themselves developed out of the wooden trackways known as Newcastle Roads that were developed to carry coal down to the canals. These used ordinary wagons drawn by horses along wooden tracks to allow for heavier loads and reduce the chances of the wagons destroying the road and becoming stuck. Because of the standard laid down by the Romans, they fixed the trackways at the same 4 feet 8.5 inches as the wagons were using when out on the ordinary roads.

As experiments with steam traction proved increasingly successful, the trackways needed to be improved in order to deal with the increased weight of a locomotive. At first the wooden trackways were reinforced and then replaced with cast iron trackways of "L" shaped channels. The rail as we know it today came later.

Brunel had a bright idea that a wider gauge of 7 feet would be more stable and permit higher speeds, and persuaded the board of the GWR to build using this gauge. He was correct of course, but by this time everyone else was using the 4 feet 8.5 inch gauge that had become the standard everywhere else. Eventually the GWR were forced to abandon their broad gauge experiment and downgrade their lines to the same gauge used everywhere else.

Answer 6

I go with the Roman chaeriot theory.

Answer 7

standard railway gauge on tracks