Standard-gauge railway
{{Short description|Railway track gauge (1435 mm)}}
{{About|railway track gauge|loading gauges|Standard loading gauge|gauge in toy trains|Standard Gauge (toy trains)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2015}}
{{Sidebar track gauge}}
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of {{Track gauge|1435mm}}. The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe,{{cite web |first=Francesco |last=Falco |url=http://tentea.ec.europa.eu/en/ten-t_projects/ten-t_projects_by_country/estonia/2007-ee-27010-s.htm |website=TEN-T Executive Agency |title=2007-ee-27010-s |date=31 December 2012 |access-date=20 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227131503/http://tentea.ec.europa.eu/en/ten-t_projects/ten-t_projects_by_country/estonia/2007-ee-27010-s.htm |archive-date=27 February 2012 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://speedrail.ru/en/scm_in_the_world/detail13.html |title=Japan |website=Speedrail.ru |date=1 October 1964 |access-date=20 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120629031949/http://speedrail.ru/en/scm_in_the_world/detail13.html |archive-date=29 June 2012 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |first=Francesco |last=Falco |url=http://tentea.ec.europa.eu/en/news__events/newsroom/eu_support_to_help_convert_the_port_of_barcelonas_rail_network_to_uic_gauge.htm |website=TEN-T Executive Agency |title=EU support to help convert the Port of Barcelona's rail network to UIC gauge |date=23 January 2013 |access-date=20 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130211090053/http://tentea.ec.europa.eu/en/news__events/newsroom/eu_support_to_help_convert_the_port_of_barcelonas_rail_network_to_uic_gauge.htm |archive-date=11 February 2013 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.uic.org/com/article/spain-opening-of-the-first?page=thickbox_enews |title=Spain: opening of the first standard UIC gauge cross-border corridor between Spain and France |website=UIC Communications |access-date=20 August 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://ip.com/patfam/en/43414081 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130629123614/http://ip.com/patfam/en/43414081 |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 June 2013 |title=Displaceable rolling bogie for railway vehicles |website=IP.com |access-date=20 August 2013}} and SGR in East Africa. It is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it.
All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except those in Russia, Finland, Uzbekistan, and some line sections in Spain.{{Cite web |date=2024-05-21 |title=Talgo Avril high-speed EMUs have entered service in Spain |url=https://rollingstockworld.com/passenger-cars/talgo-avril-high-speed-emus-have-entered-service-in-spain/ |access-date=2024-08-22 |website=ROLLINGSTOCK}} The distance between the inside edges of the heads of the rails is defined to be 1,435 mm except in the United States, Canada, and on some heritage British lines, where it is defined in U.S. customary/British Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches",[https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/37th-congress/session-3/c37s3ch112.pdf] Thirty-Seventh Congress Session III Chap CXII March 3, 1863 Retrieved on 2019-01-08. which is equivalent to 1,435.1{{nbsp}}mm.
History
As railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge (the distance, or width, between the inner sides of the rail heads) to be used, as the wheels of the rolling stock (locomotives, cars, etc.) must match this distance. Different railways used different gauges, and where track of different gauges met – a "gauge break" – loads had to be unloaded from one set of rail cars and reloaded onto another, a time-consuming and expensive process. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a "standard gauge" of {{Track gauge|1435 mm}}, allowing interconnectivity and interoperability.
=Origins=
A popular legend that has circulated since at least 1937{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62159153 |title=Standard Railway Gauge |newspaper=Townsville Bulletin |date=5 October 1937 |access-date=3 June 2011 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} traces the origin of the {{Track gauge|1435 mm}} gauge even further back than the coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire.{{Efn|The gaps in the pedestrian crossings in Pompeii could give credence or otherwise to this statement, but no relevant studies appear to have been made.}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71309815 |title=Standard Rail Gauge Set By Old Ox-Carts |newspaper=The Worker |volume=58 |issue=3122 |location=Brisbane, Queensland |date=19 May 1947 |access-date=13 April 2016 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}} Snopes categorised this legend as "false", but commented that it "is perhaps more fairly labeled as 'Partly true, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons.{{'"}}{{cite web |url=http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp |title=Are U.S. Railroad Gauges Based on Roman Chariots? |first1=David |last1=Mikkelson |website=Snopes|date=16 April 2001 }} The historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles around {{Track gauge |5 ft}} apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Research, however, has been undertaken to support the hypothesis that "the origin of the standard gauge of the railway might result from an interval of wheel ruts of prehistoric ancient carriages".{{Cite conference|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jsmeicbtt/2006.3/0/2006.3_98/_article/-char/en|title=Origin of the world's standard gauge of railway is in the interval of wheel ruts of ancient carriages |first1=Masanori |last1=Ogata |first2=Ichiro |last2=Tsutsumi |first3=Yorikazu |last3=Shimotsuma |first4=Nobuko |last4=Shiotsu |conference=The International Conference on Business & Technology Transfer |date=6 December 2006 |access-date=8 August 2023 |doi=10.1299/jsmeicbtt.2006.3.0_98 |page=98|doi-access=free }}
In addition, while road-travelling vehicles are typically measured from the outermost portions of the wheel rims, it became apparent that for vehicles travelling on rails, having main wheel flanges that fit inside the rails is better, thus the minimum distance between the wheels (and, by extension, the inside faces of the rail heads) was the important one.
A standard gauge for horse railways never existed, but rough groupings were used; in the north of England none was less than {{Track gauge|4ft|lk=on}}.{{Sfn |Baxter |1966 |p=56}} Wylam colliery's system, built before 1763, was {{Track gauge |5 ft}}, as was John Blenkinsop's Middleton Railway; the old {{Track gauge|4ft}} plateway was relaid to {{Track gauge|5 ft}} so that Blenkinsop's engine could be used.{{Sfn |Baxter |1966 |p=56}} Others were {{Track gauge |4ft4in}} (in Beamish) or {{Track gauge|4ft7.5in}} (in Bigges Main (in Wallsend), Kenton, and Coxlodge).{{Sfn |Baxter |1966 |p=56}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.twsitelines.info/smr/1128|title=Tyne and Wear HER(1128): Bigges Main Wagonway – Details |website=Sitelines |publisher=Tyne and Wear Archaeology Officer |access-date=20 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161121165745/http://www.twsitelines.info/smr/1128|archive-date=21 November 2016|url-status=dead}}
English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured [[4 ft 8 in gauge railways|
{{Track gauge|4 ft 8 in|disp=1}}]] ({{Track gauge|4ft8in|first=met|disp=1}}) for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, and used it on his Killingworth line.{{Sfn |Baxter |1966 |p=56}} The Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge.
Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington railway (S&DR) was built primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. Opening in 1825, the initial gauge of {{Track gauge|4ft8in}} was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons{{cite web|url=http://www.drcm.org.uk/Content/Collections/The%20Wagons.htm|title=The Wagons|website=DRCM|access-date=1 June 2016|archive-date=7 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807044310/http://www.drcm.org.uk/Content/Collections/The%20Wagons.htm|url-status=dead}} that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made, debuting around 1850, to the {{Track gauge|1435mm}} gauge.{{Sfn |Baxter |1966 |p=56}}{{sfn|Vaughan |1997}}{{page needed |date=February 2015}} The historic Mount Washington Cog Railway, the world's first mountain-climbing rack railway, is still in operation in the 21st century, and has used the earlier {{Track gauge|4ft8in}} gauge since its inauguration in 1868.
George Stephenson introduced the {{Track gauge|1435mm}} gauge (including a belated extra {{cvt|1/2|in|mm}} of free movement to reduce binding on curves{{Sfn |Vaughan |1997|p=19}}) for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The extra half inch was not regarded at first as very significant, and some early trains ran on both gauges daily without compromising safety.{{cite book|last=Tomlinson|first=Wiliam Weaver|year=1915|title=The North Eastern Railway: Its Rise and Development|publisher=Andrew Reid; Longmans, Green|location=Newcastle-upon-Tyne; London|url=https://archive.org/details/northeasternrail00tomlrich/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater|access-date=20 March 2023 |page=81 |quote=I [John Dixon] can testify to the fact of there being half an inch difference in the gauge of the Great North of England Railway and the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and that engines and carriages reciprocally travel on each line daily without danger or a suspicion thereof from that cause: indeed, the fact of this difference is not generally known.}}
The success of this project led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Thus the {{Track gauge|4ft8.5in}} gauge became widespread and dominant in Britain. Robert was reported to have said that if he had had a second chance to choose a gauge, he would have chosen one wider than {{Track gauge|4ft8.5in}}.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38838254 |title=Trans-Australian Railway. Bill Before The Senate |newspaper=Western Mail (Western Australia) |location=Perth |date=2 December 1911 |access-date=15 March 2013 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89717905 |title=Peoples' Liberal Party |newspaper=Bendigo Advertiser |date=27 February 1912 |access-date=21 November 2013 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} "I would take a few inches more, but a very few".{{harvp|Jones|2009|pp=64–65}}.
During the "gauge war" with the Great Western Railway, standard gauge was called "narrow gauge", in contrast to the Great Western's {{Track gauge|7ft0.25in|lk=on}} broad gauge. The modern use of the term "narrow gauge" for gauges less than standard did not arise for many years, until the first such locomotive-hauled passenger railway, the Ffestiniog Railway, was built.{{citation needed |date=September 2022}}
=Adoption=
In 1845, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, a Royal Commission on Railway Gauges reported in favour of a standard gauge. The subsequent Gauge Act ruled that new passenger-carrying railways in Great Britain should be built to a standard gauge of {{Track gauge|4ft8.5in}}, and those in Ireland to a new standard gauge of {{Track gauge|5ft3in|lk=on}}. In Great Britain, Stephenson's gauge was chosen on the grounds that existing lines of this gauge were eight times longer than those of the rival {{Track gauge|7ft|disp=or}} (later {{Track gauge|7ft0.25in|disp=or}}) gauge adopted principally by the Great Western Railway. It allowed the broad-gauge companies in Great Britain to continue with their tracks and expand their networks within the "Limits of Deviation" and the exceptions defined in the Act.
After an intervening period of mixed-gauge operation (tracks were laid with three rails), the Great Western Railway finally completed the conversion of its network to standard gauge in 1892. In North East England, some early lines in colliery (coal mining) areas were {{Track gauge|4ft8in|lk=on}}, while in Scotland some early lines were {{Track gauge|4ft6in|lk=on}}. The British gauges converged starting from 1846 as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. By the 1890s, the entire network was converted to standard gauge.
The Royal Commission made no comment about small lines narrower than standard gauge (to be called "narrow gauge"), such as the Ffestiniog Railway. Thus it permitted a future multiplicity of narrow gauges in the UK. It also made no comments about future gauges in British colonies, which allowed various gauges to be adopted across the colonies.
Parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. The American gauges converged, as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. Notably, all the {{Track gauge|5ft|lk=on}} broad gauge track in the South was converted to "almost standard" gauge {{Track gauge|4ft9in}} over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886.{{cite web|url=http://southern.railfan.net/ties/1966/66-8/gauge.html|title=The Days They Changed the Gauge|access-date=1 June 2016}} See Track gauge in the United States.
In continental Europe, France and Belgium adopted a {{Track gauge|1500mm}} gauge (measured between the midpoints of each rail's profile) for their early railways.Auguste Perdonnet, mémoire sur les chemins à ornières, 1830 The gauge between the interior edges of the rails (the measurement adopted from 1844) differed slightly between countries, and even between networks within a country (for example, {{Track gauge|1440mm|disp=or}} to {{Track gauge|1445mm|disp=or}} in France). The first tracks in Austria and in the Netherlands had other gauges ({{track gauge|1000mm|disp=or}} in Austria for the Donau Moldau line and {{track gauge|1945mm|disp=or|lk=on}} in the Netherlands for the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij), but for interoperability reasons (the first rail service between Paris and Berlin began in 1849, first Chaix timetable) Germany adopted standard gauges, as did most other European countries.
The modern method of measuring rail gauge was agreed in the first Berne rail convention of 1886.Revue générale des chemins de fer, July 1928.
Early railways by gauge
= Non-standard gauge =
=Almost standard gauge=
{{main|4 ft 8 in gauge railways}}
- The Huddersfield Corporation Tramways, used {{Track gauge |4ft7.75in}}
- The Portsdown and Horndean Light Railway, used {{Track gauge |4ft7.75in}}
- The Portsmouth Corporation Transport, used {{Track gauge |4ft7.75in}}
- The Killingworth colliery railway, used {{Track gauge |4ft8in}}.{{harvp|Jones|2013|p=33}}.
- The Hetton colliery railway, opened 1822, used {{Track gauge|4ft8in}}.
- The Stockton and Darlington Railway, authorised 1821, opened 1825, used {{Track gauge |4ft8in}}.
- The New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad used {{Track gauge |4ft8in}}
- The Pontchartrain Railroad used {{Track gauge |4ft8in}}
- The trams in Nuremberg nominally used {{Track gauge|1432mm}} during much of their existence, but have since been converted to standard gauge in name as well as fact.
=Standard gauge=
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Name!!Authorised!!Opened!!Remarks | |||
| Baltimore and Ohio Railroad | Begun 1827 | 1830 | |
| Liverpool and Manchester Railway | 1824 | 1830 | |
| Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway | 1826 | 1833 | All the early French railways (including Saint-Etienne Andrezieux, authorised 1823, opened 1827) had a French Gauge of {{Track gauge|1500mm}} from rail axis to rail axis, compatible with early standard gauge tolerances) |
| Dublin and Kingstown Railway | 1831 | 1834 For passenger traffic | converted to 5 ft 3in |
| Newcastle & Carlisle Railway | 1829 | 1834 | Isolated from LMR |
| Grand Junction Railway | 1833 | 1837 | Connected to LMR |
| London and Birmingham Railway | 1833 | 1838 | Connected to LMR |
| Manchester and Birmingham Railway | 1837 | 1840 | Connected to LMR |
| Birmingham and Gloucester Railway | 1836 | 1840 | Connected to LMR |
| London and Southampton Railway | 1834 | 1840 | |
| London and Brighton Railway | 1837 | 1841 | |
| South Eastern Railway | 1836 | 1844 |
=Small deviations from standard gauge=
- The Manchester and Leeds Railway, authorised on 4 July 1836, used {{Track gauge|4ft9in}}.{{harvp |Whishaw|1842|p=319}}.
- The {{Track gauge|4ft9in}} railways were intended to take {{Track gauge|ussg}} gauge vehicles and allow a (second) running tolerance.
- The Chester and Birkenhead Railway, authorised on 12 July 1837, used {{Track gauge|4ft9in}}.{{harvp |Whishaw|1842|p=54}}.
- The London and Brighton Railway, authorised on 15 July 1837, used {{Track gauge|4ft9in}}.{{harvp |Whishaw|1842|p=273}}.
- The Manchester and Birmingham Railway, authorised on 30 June 1837, used {{Track gauge|4ft9in}}.{{harvp |Whishaw|1842|p=303}}.
- The Pennsylvania Railroad originally used {{Track gauge|4ft9in}}
- The trams in Dresden, authorised in 1872 as horsecars, used {{Track gauge|1440mm}} gauge vehicles. Converted to 600 V DC electric trams in 1893, they now use {{Track gauge|1450mm}}; both gauges are within the tolerance for standard gauge.
- The Ohio gauge of {{Track gauge|4ft10in|lk=on}}
= Dual gauge =
{{main|Dual gauge}}
- Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway, authorised 1836, opened 1840, dual gauge 1843 {{Track gauge|uksg|allk=on}} and {{Track gauge|7ft0.25in|lk=on}}.
= Initially standard gauge =
Several lines were initially built as standard gauge but were later converted to another gauge for cost or for compatibility reasons.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}
- South Africa became {{railgauge|1067mm}}
- Thailand became {{railgauge|1000mm}}
- Indonesia became {{railgauge|1067mm}}
- Ireland became {{railgauge|1600mm}} – Dublin and Kingstown Railway
- Australia became {{railgauge|1600mm}} – Victoria & South Australia – partly converted to {{railgauge|1435mm}}
- India became {{railgauge|1676mm}} – initial freight lines
- some private Japanese railways
Modern almost standard gauge railways
- The Toronto Transit Commission uses a Toronto gauge of {{Track gauge|toronto}} on its streetcar and heavy-rail subway lines, which was actually closer to {{Track gauge|1520mm|lk=on}} gauge.
- The Toronto Transit Commission light-metro lines and light-rail lines (whether existing, under construction or proposed) use standard gauge.
- Trams in Leipzig, Germany use {{Track gauge|1458mm}}.
- Trams in Dresden, Germany use {{Track gauge|1450mm}}.
- {{Track gauge|1445mm}} gauge is in use on several urban rail transit systems in Europe:
- Trams in Italy
- Madrid Metro (only metro system. Light rail system uses standard gauge.)
- The MTR in Hong Kong uses {{Track gauge|1432mm|lk=on}} gauge on lines owned by the MTR Corporation. However, lines formerly operated (but which continue to be owned) by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, including the Light Rail network, use {{Track gauge|1435mm}} gauge. New lines and extensions to the MTR after 2014 use {{Track gauge|1435mm}} gauge, including the South Island line, Kwun Tong line extension and West Island line.
- The Bucharest Metro uses {{Track gauge|1432mm}} gauge.
- The Washington Metro uses Washington Metro rolling stock, {{convert|1/4|in|mm|0|abbr=on}} narrower than standard gauge.
- The Mount Washington Cog Railway, the world's oldest mountain-climbing rack-and-pinion railway, uses a {{Track gauge|4ft8in|lk=on}} gauge.
Railways
Non-rail use
Several states in the United States had laws requiring road vehicles to have a consistent gauge to allow them to follow ruts in the road. Those gauges were similar to railway standard gauge.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5839798 |title=The Narrow-Gauge Question |work=The Argus |location=Melbourne |via=Trove.nla.gov.au |date=2 October 1872 |access-date=14 April 2012}}
See also
{{Portal|Trains}}
- Standard Gauge (toy trains)
- {{section link|List of track gauges#Standard gauge}}
- List of tram systems by gauge and electrification
- Track gauge
- Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846
Notes
{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book|last=Allen|first=Geoffrey Freeman|title=Jane's World Railways, 1987–88|publisher=Jane's Information |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-71060848-2}}
- {{cite book|last=Baxter|first=Bertran|year=1966|title=Stone Blocks and Iron Rails (Tramroads)|series=Industrial Archaeology of the British Isles|location=Newton Abbot |publisher=David & Charles |isbn=978-0-715340-04-2 |oclc=643482298}}
- {{cite book|title=The Rocket Men|first=Robin|last=Jones |year=2013|publisher=Mortons Media |isbn=978-1-90912827-9}}
- {{cite book|title=Brunel in South Wales|first=Stephen K |last=Jones|volume=II: Communications and Coal|year=2009 |publisher=The History Press|location=Stroud |isbn=978-0-75244912-8 |pages=64–65}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Ogata |first1=Masanori |last2=Tsutsumi |first2=Ichiro |date=2006 |title=Origin of the world's standard gauge of railway is in the interval of wheel ruts of ancient carriages |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jsmeicbtt/2006.3/0/2006.3_98/_pdf/-char/en |journal=The International Conference on Business & Technology Transfer |volume=2006 |issue=3 |pages=98–103 |doi=10.1299/jsmeicbtt.2006.3.0_98 |access-date=23 June 2020|doi-access=free }}
- {{cite book|last1=Pomeranz|first1=Kenneth|first2=Steven |last2=Topik|year=1999|title=The World that Trade Created: Society, Culture, and World Economy, 1400 to the Present |publisher=M.E. Sharpe|location=Armonk, NY |isbn=978-0-7656-0250-3}}
- {{cite book|last=Puffert|first=Douglas J |title=Tracks across Continents, Paths through History: The Economic Dynamics of Standardization in Railway Gauge|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-226-68509-0}}
- {{cite book|first=João Bosco|last=Setti|title=Brazilian Railroads |year=2008|location=Rio de Janeiro |publisher=Memória do Trem|isbn=978-85-8609409-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=naDdBL0NZSUC&pg=PA25|via=Google Books}}
- {{cite book|last=Vaughan|first=A.|year=1997|title=Railwaymen, Politics and Money|location=London|publisher=John Murray|isbn=978-0-7195-5150-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/railwaymenpoliti0000vaug}}
- {{cite book|last=Whishaw|first=Francis|author-link=Francis Whishaw |orig-year=1842, John Weale |title=The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland: Practically Described and Illustrated |location=London |year=1969 |publisher=David & Charles; reprints: Newton Abbot |isbn=978-0-7153-4786-7 |ref={{SfnRef|Whishaw|1842}}}}
{{refend}}
External links
- {{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13868834|title=The Sydney Morning Herald|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=23 May 1892|access-date=14 August 2011|page=4|via=National Library of Australia}}, a discussion of gauge in Australia {{circa|1892}}
- {{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62159153|title=Standard Railway Gauge|newspaper=Townsville Bulletin|date=5 October 1937|access-date=19 March 2014|page=12|via=National Library of Australia}}, a discussion of the Roman gauge origin theory.
{{Navbox track gauge}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Standard Gauge}}