Everything about Rail Gauge totally explained
Rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the two
parallel rails that make up a
railway track. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a gauge of, which is known as the
standard or international gauge. Gauges wider than standard gauge are called
broad gauge, those smaller are called
narrow gauge. Some stretches of track are
dual gauge, with three (or sometimes four) parallel rails in place of the usual two, to allow trains of two different gauges to share the same path. The term
break-of-gauge refers to the situation at a place where different gauges meet.
Overview
New railways are usually built to standard gauge unless there's a compelling reason (for example compatibility with existing railways) to adopt another gauge. The advantages of using standard gauge are:
- it facilitates inter-running with neighbouring railways
- locomotives and rolling stock can be ordered from manufacturers' standard designs and don't need to be custom built. However, some adaptation to local conditions may still be necessary, for example in respect of loading gauge.
History
Historically, the choice of gauge has been partly arbitrary and partly a response to local conditions. Narrow-gauge railways are cheaper to build and can negotiate sharper curves but broad-gauge railways give greater stability and permit higher speeds. The standard gauge is a compromise between the narrow and broad gauges.
Broad and Standard gauge
Britain
The
standard gauge of was chosen for the first main-line railway, the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), by the
British engineer
George Stephenson; however, the de facto standard for the
colliery railways where Stephenson had worked was 4 ft 8 in. Whatever the origin of the gauge it seemed to be a satisfactory choice: not too narrow and not too wide.
Brunel on the
Great Western Railway chose the broader gauge of partly because it offered greater stability and capacity at high speed, but also because the Stephenson gauge wasn't scientifically selected. The
Eastern Counties Railway chose five-foot gauge, but soon realised that lack of compatibility was a mistake and changed to Stephenson's gauge. The conflict between Brunel and Stephenson is often referred to as the Gauge Wars.
In 1845 a British
Royal Commission recommended adoption of as standard gauge, and in the following year
Parliament passed the
Gauge Act, which required that new railways use standard gauge. Except for the Great Western Railway's broad gauge, few main-line British railways used a different gauge, and the last Great Western line was finally converted to standard gauge in 1892.
Russia
See also Russian Broad Gauge
In the 19th century,
Russia chose a broader gauge. It is widely believed that the choice was made for military reasons, to prevent potential invaders from using the Russian rail system. Others point out that no clear standard had emerged by 1842. Engineer
Pavel Melnikov hired
George Washington Whistler, a prominent American railroad engineer (and father of the artist
James McNeill Whistler), to be a consultant on the building of Russia's first major railroad, the
Moscow –
Saint Petersburg line. The selection of gauge was recommended by German and Austrian engineers but not adopted: it wasn't the same as the gauge in common use in the southern United States at the time. Now Russia and most of the former Russian Empire, including the
Baltic states,
Ukraine,
Belarus, the Caucasian and Central Asian republics, and
Mongolia, have the Russian gauge of, 4 mm (in) narrower than, though
rolling stock of both gauges is interchangeable in practice.
Finland
Finland, which was a
Grand Duchy under Russia in the 19th century, uses gauge. Upon gaining independence in 1917, much thought was given to converting to standard gauge, but nothing came of it.
Most of Finland's rail-freight cargo trade has remained with Russia. This trade remains because the Russian gauge is close enough to allow through-running.
Iberian peninsula
The main railway networks of
Spain and
Portugal were constructed to gauges of six Castilian feet (1,672 mm) and five Portuguese feet (1,664 mm). The two gauges were sufficiently close to allow inter-operation of trains, and in recent years they've both been adjusted to a common "Iberian gauge" (
ancho ibérico or
trocha ibérica in
Spanish,
bitola ibérica in
Portuguese) of 1,668 mm. Although it has been said that the main reason for the adoption of this non-standard gauge was to obstruct any French invasion attempts, it was in fact a technical decision, to allow for the running of larger, more powerful locomotives in a mountainous country.
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Since the beginning of the 1990s new
high-speed passenger lines in Spain have been built to the international standard gauge of, to allow these lines to link to the European high-speed network. Although the 22 km from Tardienta to
Huesca (part of a branch from the
Madrid to
Barcelona high-speed line) has been reconstructed as
mixed Iberic and standard gauge, in general the interface between the two gauges in Spain is dealt with by means of gauge-changing installations, which can
adjust the gauge of appropriately designed
wheelsets on the move.
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There are plans to convert the whole broad gauge network to standard gauge, but so far the only visible indication is the use of dual gauge concrete sleepers (with two positions of bolt holes) on stretches of relaid broad-gauge track.
United States
Originally, various gauges were used in the
United States and
Canada. Some railways, primarily in the northeast, used standard gauge; others used gauges ranging from to . Given the nation's recent independence from the
United Kingdom, arguments based on British standards had little weight. Problems began as soon as lines began to meet and in much of the north-eastern United States, standard gauge was adopted. Most Southern states used gauge. Following the
American Civil War, trade between the South and North grew and the
break of gauge became a major economic nuisance. Competitive pressures had forced all the Canadian railways to convert to standard gauge by 1880, and Illinois Central converted its south line to New Orleans to standard gauge in 1881, putting pressure on the southern railways.
After considerable debate and planning, most of the southern rail network was converted from gauge to gauge, then the standard of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, over two remarkable days beginning on Monday,
May 31,
1886. Over a period of 36 hours, tens of thousands of workers pulled the spikes from the west rail of all the broad gauge lines in the South, moved them 3 inches (76 mm) east and spiked them back in place. The new gauge was close enough that standard gauge equipment could run on it without problem. By June, 1886, all major railroads in North America were using approximately the same gauge. The final conversion to true standard gauge took place gradually as track was maintained.
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In modern uses certain isolated occurrences of non-standard gauges can still be found, such as the and gauge tracks of the
Philadelphia streetcars, the
Philadelphia subway cars and the
New Orleans streetcars. The
Bay Area Rapid Transit system in the San Francisco Bay Area, chose gauge. The
San Francisco cable cars use a gauge of .
Commonwealth of Nations (former British Empire)
Australia
In the 19th century, Australia's three mainland states adopted standard gauge, but due to political differences, a
break of gauge 30 years in the future was created. After instigating a change to agreed to by all,
New South Wales reverted to
standard gauge while
Victoria and
South Australia stayed with
broad gauge. Three different gauges are currently in wide use in Australia, and there's little prospect of full standardisation, though the main
interstate routes are now standard gauge.
See also:
History of rail transport in Australia
Canada
The first railway in
British North America, the
Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad, was built in the 1830s to gauge, setting the standard for Britain's colonies for several decades. Well-known colonial systems such as the
Grand Trunk Railway and
Great Western Railway, along with the
European and North American Railway and
Nova Scotia Railway later expanded the use of broad gauge. In 1851 the broad gauge was universally adopted as the standard gauge for the
Province of Canada, and government subsidies were unavailable for railways that chose other gauges. The broad gauge was used until the early
1870s, after which time there was a gradual change of the industry to standard gauge over several years. However, each railway had to change quickly, coordinating locomotive and track replacement with rolling stock replacements or upgrades. The notion that rolling stock could earn money while on other railways had become attractive, and this spurred standardization.
The rise in standardization with the US came about because of increasing trade across the border after the
American Civil War. Some railways had installed dual gauge track, which was expensive, and others used
variable gauge wheels, which proved unreliable. The Grand Trunk system started converting its border lines in 1872 and finished converting its lines east of Montreal in 1874. The Canadian government-owned
Intercolonial Railway converted from broad to standard gauge in 1875 while still under construction.
After the
1870s, the
Canadian Pacific Railway (1880) and most major new lines were built to the standard gauge, including all the railways built through the Canadian Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. In addition to the CPR these included the
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the
Canadian Northern Railway and the
Pacific Great Eastern Railway. The latter three were eventually acquired by
Canadian National Railway, which is now the largest railway in Canada. All remaining Canadian freight railways use standard gauge.
In
Toronto the
Toronto Transit Commission subways and streetcars use
gauge, making their equipment incompatible with standard gauge rail systems, including Toronto's own
Scarborough RT system. Ten years before standard gauge was established in Canada, but after it had been established in England, this unusual gauge was chosen to accommodate horse-drawn wagons on the streetcar tracks. The Articles of Agreement signed in 1861 between the City of Toronto and the
Toronto Street Railways required "That the gauge of the said railways shall be such that the ordinary vehicles now in use may travel on the said tracks". There was no mention of a specific track gauge, but because ordinary wagon wheels didn't have a flange, they couldn't travel on the same rails as conventional streetcars. To meet the requirement, the streetcar tracks were placed wide enough apart so that ordinary wagon wheels could run on the inside step of the tracks. (In practice, the five miles of T rail had no such step.) This resulted in Toronto streetcar tracks being slightly broader gauge than standard-gauge tracks.
Later, when the
Toronto subway was built, it was designed to use the same track gauge as the streetcars. This provided for sharing of rail equipment and maintenance facilities, and provided for future use of 'subway-surface' cars that could pass between systems. However, only a few streetcars have ever been used on the subway system.
Hong Kong, China
(See
The People's Republic of China)
Asia
Bangladesh,
India,
Pakistan and
Sri Lanka inherited a diversity of rail gauges, of which was predominant.
Indian Railways has adopted
Project Unigauge, which seeks to systematically convert most of its narrower gauge railways to 1,676 mm.
Ireland
The track gauge adopted by the mainline railways in
Ireland is . This unusual gauge is otherwise found only in the
Australian states of
Victoria, southern
New South Wales (as part of the Victorian rail network) and
South Australia (where it was introduced by the Irish railway engineer
F. W. Shields), and in
Brazil.
The first three railways all had different gauges: the
Dublin and Kingstown Railway, ; the
Ulster Railway, ; and the
Dublin and Drogheda Railway, . The Board of Trade, recognising the chaos that would ensue, asked one of their officers to advise. After consulting widely he eliminated both the widest and narrowest gauges (Brunel's and Stephenson's ), leaving gauges between and . By splitting the difference, a compromise Irish gauge of in was adopted.
(See
history of rail transport in Ireland)
Asia
Afghanistan
Afghanistan is in an interesting position, because it's at the cross-roads of Asia and is almost completely without railways. Should it decide to build anything more than the two current short lines from the former USSR, the choice of gauge will be complicated by its being surrounded by three different gauges.
Iran to the west uses standard gauge, as does
China to the east; to the south, Pakistan uses gauge, while to the north, the central Asian republics of
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, and
Tajikistan use 1,520 mm gauge. The Afghan gauge issue is discussed in more detail at
Transport in Afghanistan.
The People's Republic of China
Most of the railway network of the
People's Republic of China is standard gauge.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC), which currently running East Rail, West Rail and Light Rail uses .
The
Mass Transit Railway uses gauge, 3 mm (⅛in) narrower than standard gauge. A new railway line across the
Tsing Ma Bridge, an extension to the 1,432 mm gauge
Tung Chung Line. This 3 mm difference should cause no more problems than the 4 mm (in) difference causes between Russia and Finland or the former 8 mm (in) difference between Spain and Portugal.
Hong Kong Tramways, which has been operating tram service on Hong Kong Island since 1904, uses gauge.
Caribbean
Cuba
Mostly standard gauge.
Jamaica
Standard gauge.
South America
Argentina and
Chile use gauge.
Brazil uses (known as "broad gauge", most common for passenger services and a few corridors in the Southeast) and (known as "narrow gauge" or "metre gauge", most common for cargo services). Exceptions are the
Estrada de Ferro do Amapá North of the River Amazon, which has 1,440 mm gauge and the new
Line 5 of
São Paulo Metro, which uses standard gauge.
Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and
Peru use standard gauge. In the past a few lines in Northern Chile also had standard gauge, as the only international railway between Arica (Chile) and Tacna (Peru) a bit more than 60 km has standard gauge. The El Cerrejón Coal Railway and Venezuelan Railways are also .
Narrow gauge
In many areas, a much narrower gauge was chosen. While
narrow gauge generally can't handle as much tonnage, it's less costly to construct, particularly in mountainous regions. Sugar cane and bananas plantations are appropriately served by
narrow gauges such as, as there's little through traffic to other systems.
Britain
There were also many narrow gauge lines, as the 1904 Railway Clearing House Railway Atlas shows:
See the main article British narrow gauge railways
United States
The United States has almost entirely converted to
Standard Gauge.
See
United States narrow gauge
Commonwealth of Nations (former British Empire)
Australia
Queensland,
Tasmania,
Western Australia and parts of
South Australia adopted gauge to cover greater distances at lower costs. Most industrial railways are built to gauge. Three different rail gauges are currently in wide use in
Australia, and there's little prospect of full standardisation.
Canada
In
Ontario, the
Toronto Grey and Bruce Railway and the
Toronto and Nipissing Railway, were the first public passenger carrying narrow gauge railways on the continent of North America, coming into service in the summer of 1871. The gauge of 3ft 6in (1,067mm) was chosen on the recommendation of
Carl Abraham Pihl, Chief Engineer of the
Norwegian State Railways, who had adopted this gauge in Norway in the early 1860’s. The lines were converted to standard gauge in 1881-1882 and later absorbed by the
Grand Trunk Railway (T&NR) and the
Canadian Pacific Railway (TG&BR. Most of the trackage is abandoned but twenty miles of the T&NR from
Toronto to
Stouffville carries GO Transit commuter trains and a further twelve miles from
Stouffville to
Uxbridge, Ontario is operated as a tourist line by the
York Durham Heritage Railway. Twenty-six miles of the TG&BR from Toronto to
Bolton, Ontario carries CPR freight trains, and about three miles from Melville Junction to
Orangeville is operated by the
Orangeville-Brampton Railway.
The
Prince Edward Island Railway used Cape gauge from its opening in 1874 until it merged with the
Canadian National Railways in 1918, the same time as a new ferry permitted interchange with North America's rail network. From 1918-1930 there was a mix of standard, dual and narrow gauge in the province until CNR's standardization was completed; standard gauge being maintained until abandonment in 1989.
The
Newfoundland Railway was constructed to Cape gauge as well, beginning in the 1880s, and this gauge was maintained under CNR ownership post-1949 until abandonment in 1988, except for some dual Cape/standard gauge track used at the
ferry terminal to North America's rail network; standard gauge rolling stock was hauled in Newfoundland by changing out standard gauge
wheelsets (or
trucks) for Cape gauge wheelsets/trucks in
Port aux Basques.
The
New Brunswick Railway used Cape gauge until the 1880s when it was acquired by the
Canadian Pacific Railway, after which time standard gauge prevailed.
A number of narrow gauge mining and logging railways were built in the mountains and islands of British Columbia in the late 19th century, including the
Kaslo and Slocan Railway, but all have since been either converted to standard gauge or abandoned.
The
White Pass and Yukon Railroad which was completed in 1900 at the end of the
Klondike gold rush is Canada's last remaining narrow gauge carrier. It no longer carries freight, but is the busiest tourist railroad in North America. Its tracks connect to no other railroad but do connect to the cruise ship docks at
Skagway, Alaska, which provide it with most of its passengers.
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