There are already values 'sg' and 'uksh', not to mention '4ft8.5in', '1435mm', '56.5in ' and others, so you can use any one you like. There all listed on the :Template:RailGauge page itself. Gwernol 00:54, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
: I tried your alternatives - 'uksh' gives 'Error: gauge specification not known', as does 'uksg' (in case sh was a mistype).
It was a typo, I'd intended to type uksg. That parameter was working but has since been changed. You can use any of the following to get standard gauge in imperial: ussg, nasg, usstandard, nastandard, 56.5, 56.5in or 4ft8.5in. See :Template:RailGauge for th full list.
: 'sg' works OK but it puts the metric value first (I know the UK has gone metric but for historic railways I prefer the units they were built in).
Try the parameter values above. I agree that historical railways should be shown with imperial measurements first. If the metric-first version is showing, its very easy to change it.
: What I didn't mention before was that I was prompted to my comment by what I presume were automated edits changing a perfectly valid text gauge value in Infoboxes on pages I have contributed to to use the RailGauge template with a ussg parameter.
Which article? It probably wasn't an automated edit, it was probably me. The reason we're changing is that the old templates have been deleted, so wouldn't work. We're standardizing on the RailGauge template, as discussed on the Trains WikiProject. But again, as long as the infobox displays {{RailGauge|4ft8.5in}}, what does it matter if the template parameter says "ussg", "nasg", "4ft8.5in" or even "pinkinton". Its what is shown in the article that is ultimately all that matters. Gwernol 22:07, 25 March 2008 (UTC)