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US standard railroad gauge
#7171801
05/17/18 12:56 AM
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Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 4
Shadow13
OP
Green Horn
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OP
Green Horn
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 4 |
Here is a look into the corporate mind that is very interesting, educational, historical, completely true, and hysterical all at the same time:
The US standard railroad gauge (width between the two rails) is 4 feet,8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Train
Because that’s the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates.
Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramway's, and that’s the gauge they used.
Why did “they” use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots first formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet,8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse’s a$$ came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Thus, we have the answer to the original question.
Now the twist to the story . . .
There’s an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and horses’ behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.
So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a Horse’s A$$!
Last edited by Shadow13; 05/17/18 12:57 AM.
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Re: US standard railroad gauge
[Re: Shadow13]
#7171947
05/17/18 03:32 AM
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 18,771
HuntingTexas
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" In God We Trust "
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Re: US standard railroad gauge
[Re: Shadow13]
#7172088
05/17/18 01:25 PM
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 22,630
Cast
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Cast I have a short attention spa
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Re: US standard railroad gauge
[Re: Shadow13]
#7172115
05/17/18 01:50 PM
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 10,115
texasag93
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Re: US standard railroad gauge
[Re: Shadow13]
#7172290
05/17/18 05:08 PM
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,408
Bass&More
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Re: US standard railroad gauge
[Re: Shadow13]
#7172332
05/17/18 06:01 PM
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Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 23,177
Bee'z
The Beedazzler
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Re: US standard railroad gauge
[Re: Shadow13]
#7172407
05/17/18 07:41 PM
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Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 915
rdhibbs
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Tracker
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I was just telling my kids the other day that there is no such thing as "old Technology", everything new is based on the old. I used this story as an example. Cool Stuff.
Thank You Robert
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, right or wrong - is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Theodore Roosevelt
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Re: US standard railroad gauge
[Re: Shadow13]
#7173975
05/19/18 12:18 PM
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 41,173
J.G.
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I always enjoy reading this, and have several times. Yet, I cannot seem to be able to quote the inside demention of a pair of tracks, at will.
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