It was not uncommon for streetcar lines to be built to slightly larger or narrower gauge than standard gauge. As noted, this was often done to assure local residents that the line wouldn’t / couldn’t be used for hauling freight cars, only the trolleys.
Similarly I believe Russia set up 5’ gauge not because the wider gauge allowed for larger cars etc. but because it made it harder for an invader, because the invading countries trains wouldn’t be able to use Russian rails without them taking the time to re-gauge the track or change axles on the cars.
During the early part of the Cold War the US ARMY purchased a small fleet of 13 EMD MRS1 diesel locomotives with multigauge trucks which could be adapted to most track standards worldwide,including the Russian broad gauge.
One explanation for the fact that much of the Spanish railway network uses a broad gauge of 5’5"3/4 is that when it was built in the 19th century it was though that it would make it more difficult for an invader to attack Spain from France. a more dubious story is that during the postwar years Franco could have ordered the system to convert to standard gauge but didn’t for the same reasons…
In Canada, when the Grand Trunk Railway was being built from Portland Maine through Montreal, Toronto to Sarnia around 1850, the government mandated a gauge of 5’-6" for any railway that wanted financial assistance. It was intentionally different from the typical standard gauge US roads to the south of the border. The War of 1812-1814 had occurred only 35 years before, and invasion was still a real concern. By having a different gauge, transportation logistics for any new invasion would be a lot more difficult.
Of course instead relations between the two countries became a lot more friendly. It soon became obvious the commercial need for easy interchange was far more important than a dwindling military threat and most lines were standard gauged in the 1870s. The Grand Trunk Railway ended up in dire financial trouble, mostly as result of its transcontinental extension to Prince Rupert, and disappeared into the formation of Canadian National Railways around 1920. Only its lines in the USA retained the name, presumably as a public relations exercise.
Random comments and questions: the “Map of the Month” in the October 2009 Trains is great. It could have been aided by another fold page – it is quite crowded, no? I have taken an orange ‘Hi-Liter’ to mine and noted the active narrow gauge lines. That helps a lot. Please note that abandoned narrow gauge lines are not shown. There were oodles of them in New York and Pennsylvania alone. Chad Walkers atlas series notes these.
Wasn’t the idea of the use of broad-gauge in Russia to discourage invasion from the west? Didn’t they develop a reliable, albiet labor-intensive, gauge-shifting wheel set for interchange of passenger cars?
I was stationed at Fort Clayton, Canal Zone, right across from the Miraflores Locks, in '75-‘77. I never did investigate the gauge of the “mules”, but the PCR was 5’-0" then. There was a huge awkward-looking offset swing bridge over the canal that had tracks and roadway on it. The “mules” were isolated, especially those between the two canal lanes, so I don’t think interchange was an issue.
CN’s Newfoundland Railway, later Terra Nova, changed freight car trucks at Port-aux-Basques, NL. The passenger cars and locomotives were “captive”.
If high-wides were a big business, New York Central would never have abandoned the Putnam Division. It was rather famous for that traffic. It was not build as a ‘wide-gauge’ line.
Bill Hays – Shelby, MT, on the old Great Falls & Canada narrow gauge.
Some folks seem to be confusing the Panama Railway (now known as the Panama Canal Railway) with the electric “mule” locomotives used in the canal’s lock system…
The Railway is a freight and passenger carrier that runs through the canal zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific originally constructed in the mid 19th century and extensively rerouted when the canal was built. It was built as a broad gauge (5 ft.) railroad but was rebuilt to standard gauge in recent years. It currently carries containers and tourist trains:
Re Mapmaker’s 8-23-09 post on Pittsburgh’s 5’ 2 1/2" gauge T (light rail) lines, when I look down at Wheeling & Lake Erie’s standard gauge trackage from a T 42 line LRV on the flyover near South Hills Jct., 4’ 8 1/2" seems like narrow gauge. “Relativity” at work, I guess.
This is rather off-the-wall, but what gauge was used on the incline planes that carried canal boats over the Allegheny Mountains, west of Hollidaysburg, PA on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, before the PRR put them out of business?
Were any of the precursors of the New York City subway system other-than-standard gauge?
I am guessing that the CNJ “Ashley Inclined Planes”, up near Wilkes-Barre, were standard gauge and the freight cars ran on their own trucks. Are any remnants of that operation left?
More “off-the-wall”: what is the gauge of the ‘tramway’ that connects the senate/house buildings (whatever) in its subway in Washington, DC?
I fell in love with ‘narrow gauge’ at the Rye, NY “Playland Amusement Park”. The tracks were there, when I was a kid in the ‘50s (12" or 15"?), but I never saw a train run. Oh, well… Off to the “Cyclone” and “Dragon Coaster” (there was one other)… Sadly, they are gone, I think: not PC, much to the tort-lawyers’ chagrin! Is the “Bobs” still running in Chicago? Coney Island’s coaster(s) is/are gone, too, no? Never did ride it/them. What gauge where they? Roller coasters must have had some sort of a common gauge.
Track Gauge - The distance between the center of the rails. Wood coasters typically have a track gauge of 42 to 44 inches. Most box-section-spine steel track has a gauge of 1.2m. Arrow and Vekoma loopers use a gauge of 48 inches.
As a side note, most amusement park trains today are 2’ gauge, but this hasn’t always been the case. Gauges of 12", 12 5/8", 14", 15", 16", 18", 19" and 20" were all used in addition to the common 2’ and 3’ gauges. Common wisdom says that many park train manufacturers used odd gauges so that their customers would have to come back to them for future trains rather than regauge the track to fit a competitor’s equipment. Even so, some builders could deliver trains of various gauges, such as MTC’s “G-16” being available in 14", 15" and 16" gauge. Of course, these days most amusement parks that have a train need at least a 2’ gauge operation to carry enough people to make it worthwhile.
…the fact that the same page contains a rant about the evils of water Flouridation is indicative of the mental state of the author, but at least he dreams big…
Have you ever ridden rail mass transit that is standard gauge? I did, every work day, for eight years. The standard 2-seats, aisle, 2-seats configuration in a standard subway/light rail car doesn’t provide enough seat width for today’s population, especially in cold climates where everyone is bundled up in heavy jackets. A broad gauge car with wider seats and aisle would be MUCH more comfortable.
Could a wider car be built and run on standard gauge? I’m not an engineer and don’t pretend to know. One thing I DO know is that wider seats and more room on mass transit would be a major improvement.
Most current ‘heavy-rail’ commuter cars that I’m familiar with are 3x2 seating. It’s OK in the summer, though you’re right about the winter constraints. But ‘back in the day’, the Reading Railroad’s electrified steel commuter cars had 2x2 seating, and there was plenty of room in them for all seasons - of course, I was smaller then, too . . . [swg]
Rapid transit equipment is generally built to a much tighter loading gauge (clearance diagram) than conventional passenger cars. A new rapid transit system could be built to a larger loading gauge but it would be virtually impossible to expand the loading gauge on existing systems.
True enough - but my point, based on TH&B’s challenge, is that for either version of a rapid transit system, the track could still be standard gage, and still accomodate a comfortable 2x2 seating layout.
And in response to MC’s ‘SETI’ = ‘Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence’ antenna array example: Then what about the ‘marine railways’ that are used for running boats and small ships in and out of the water, gantry and other crane runways, and the wacky outrigger rails for the locomotive cranes at a certain large concrete cylinder pipe plant in northeastern Maryland a few years ago ?