>The predominant track gauge in the South was actually 5 feet. [...] had the Confederacy won the American Civil War the US would likely have adopted that as their standard gauge.
That is a weird assertion, considering a victory for the Confederacy would have likely meant their independence, not taking over the North. Wouldn't a Confederate victory make the remaining Union states' options on standardizing easier?
The Pacific Railroad Act of 1863 established that the gauge of the first transcontinental railroad was to be 4'8½", which is I believe the first time the US actually legally established a particular gauge. Some states had established their own (non-4'8½") gauges before then, but it looks like by the eve of the Civil War, 4'8"-4'9" gauge (the various gauges in this range can be treated as identical for rolling stock purposes) was the plurality of track.
By the Civil War, it looks like you have a Midwestern standard gauge, a Northeast standard gauge separated into two islands by a I think 5'6" New York/New Jersey gauge, and Ohio using a 4'10" gauge separating these two networks; the South's network--which is far less dense--is 5' gauge; and now you get transcontinental railroads being planned for a 4'8½" gauge. Now it is true that the Southern railroads largely switched to the 5' gauge as a result of connecting to the original few lines that connected isolated lines being 5', but a similar process in the North also broke up the non-standard gauge areas, and between the much smaller track area of the South and the fact that there were almost no 5' lines outside of the CSA, it is incredibly unlikely that the creeping 5' would ever have been adopted in the US.
(From attempting to browse the Confederacy's laws, I don't think they ever fixed a gauge for the routes they authorized to be completed).
I don’t know if it’s true, but I learned that the differing east and west European gauges were to stall any invasion.
At any rate, I’ve had occasion to cross the Poland-Belarus border by train and while you’re in the carriage they lift it several feet in the air and change bogies over the course of a couple of hours. At least a number of years ago when I did it. At the time, it was said in years gone by the authorities would conceal the passenger view during the procedure.
I wonder if there remain many “live bogie” changing locations in operation around the world?
Author of this has an interesting live/realtime(?) podcast called "Railnatter" about the railways, public transport and UK infrastructure politics.
Recently in the news as the UK government rail minister appeared to have directly requested he be sacked from the (private) company he worked at, after (pre-cleared with said company) comments he made to media about Euston station safety during peak times [0].
Good thing that two decades before the Gauge Act there was the standardisation of the imperial units in the Weights and Measures Act. In the 20th century then the whole yard/feet/inch shebang got longer by a very minuscule measurement and then got redefined in meters.
The grain of truth is that Romans and wagon builders and etc all determined that somewhere vaguely between 4 and 5 feet was an optimal width for vehicle axles. Which is not really a "standard", especially given Romans didn't even have a universally standard measurement system, but to a degree it's an interesting case of convergent design.
Obviously people just love simple explanations and latching onto goofy conspiracies though are going to love drawing a straight line between any two points.
If you walk around Pompeii, the paved streets still have ruts from wagons being driven through them, and the ruts seem to be fairly close to the standard railway gauge. Certainly close enough to provoke the idea.
I think that the meme even had legs in the first place is due to the fact that 4'8½" is an objectively weird gauge--why the ½"? That the 4'8½" track gauge can be traced to Stephenson's decision isn't hard to figure out, nor is the fact that there is some measure of continuity between older forms of railway-like systems and railways. I expect that the meme came about from someone interpolating those facts to assume that the 4'8½" gauge came from a precise reconstruction of some Roman thing, since it's also decently common knowledge that Roman units are not the same as imperial units. The rest of the meme (tying this fallacious history of the track gauge to the size of a rocket part) is very obviously complete balderdash to anyone with a modicum of railroad engineering.
Or put more succinctly:
The original meme: 4'8½" exists because exact replica of Romans.
The truth: As laid it, it was originally exactly 5'. But we changed what we use to measure gauge, so it's now reported as 4'8". Stephenson changed that to 4'8½" because that allowed him to fix a problem he had without having to replace anything.
And honestly, "cheap engineering fix" is a more interesting explanation to a conundrum than "Romans."
'
in 1845, Robert Stephenson made the following statement: “If I had been called upon to do so, it would be difficult to give a good reason for the adoption of an odd measure — 4 feet 8 and a half inches.”
'
Well, the half inch is accounted for , but not the original 5' plateway.
>The predominant track gauge in the South was actually 5 feet. [...] had the Confederacy won the American Civil War the US would likely have adopted that as their standard gauge.
That is a weird assertion, considering a victory for the Confederacy would have likely meant their independence, not taking over the North. Wouldn't a Confederate victory make the remaining Union states' options on standardizing easier?
The Pacific Railroad Act of 1863 established that the gauge of the first transcontinental railroad was to be 4'8½", which is I believe the first time the US actually legally established a particular gauge. Some states had established their own (non-4'8½") gauges before then, but it looks like by the eve of the Civil War, 4'8"-4'9" gauge (the various gauges in this range can be treated as identical for rolling stock purposes) was the plurality of track.
By the Civil War, it looks like you have a Midwestern standard gauge, a Northeast standard gauge separated into two islands by a I think 5'6" New York/New Jersey gauge, and Ohio using a 4'10" gauge separating these two networks; the South's network--which is far less dense--is 5' gauge; and now you get transcontinental railroads being planned for a 4'8½" gauge. Now it is true that the Southern railroads largely switched to the 5' gauge as a result of connecting to the original few lines that connected isolated lines being 5', but a similar process in the North also broke up the non-standard gauge areas, and between the much smaller track area of the South and the fact that there were almost no 5' lines outside of the CSA, it is incredibly unlikely that the creeping 5' would ever have been adopted in the US.
(From attempting to browse the Confederacy's laws, I don't think they ever fixed a gauge for the routes they authorized to be completed).
I don’t know if it’s true, but I learned that the differing east and west European gauges were to stall any invasion.
At any rate, I’ve had occasion to cross the Poland-Belarus border by train and while you’re in the carriage they lift it several feet in the air and change bogies over the course of a couple of hours. At least a number of years ago when I did it. At the time, it was said in years gone by the authorities would conceal the passenger view during the procedure.
I wonder if there remain many “live bogie” changing locations in operation around the world?
Yes, there are many 'break of gauge' points. They're mainly for historical inertia and economic reasons, but the military impediment is a known side effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_ft_and_1520_mm_gauge_railway...
Author of this has an interesting live/realtime(?) podcast called "Railnatter" about the railways, public transport and UK infrastructure politics.
Recently in the news as the UK government rail minister appeared to have directly requested he be sacked from the (private) company he worked at, after (pre-cleared with said company) comments he made to media about Euston station safety during peak times [0].
0: https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-rail-minister-peter-hendy...
Good thing that two decades before the Gauge Act there was the standardisation of the imperial units in the Weights and Measures Act. In the 20th century then the whole yard/feet/inch shebang got longer by a very minuscule measurement and then got redefined in meters.
The grain of truth is that Romans and wagon builders and etc all determined that somewhere vaguely between 4 and 5 feet was an optimal width for vehicle axles. Which is not really a "standard", especially given Romans didn't even have a universally standard measurement system, but to a degree it's an interesting case of convergent design.
Obviously people just love simple explanations and latching onto goofy conspiracies though are going to love drawing a straight line between any two points.
If you walk around Pompeii, the paved streets still have ruts from wagons being driven through them, and the ruts seem to be fairly close to the standard railway gauge. Certainly close enough to provoke the idea.
I feel like this story is even better than the wrong meme that sparked it.
I think that the meme even had legs in the first place is due to the fact that 4'8½" is an objectively weird gauge--why the ½"? That the 4'8½" track gauge can be traced to Stephenson's decision isn't hard to figure out, nor is the fact that there is some measure of continuity between older forms of railway-like systems and railways. I expect that the meme came about from someone interpolating those facts to assume that the 4'8½" gauge came from a precise reconstruction of some Roman thing, since it's also decently common knowledge that Roman units are not the same as imperial units. The rest of the meme (tying this fallacious history of the track gauge to the size of a rocket part) is very obviously complete balderdash to anyone with a modicum of railroad engineering.
Or put more succinctly:
The original meme: 4'8½" exists because exact replica of Romans.
The truth: As laid it, it was originally exactly 5'. But we changed what we use to measure gauge, so it's now reported as 4'8". Stephenson changed that to 4'8½" because that allowed him to fix a problem he had without having to replace anything.
And honestly, "cheap engineering fix" is a more interesting explanation to a conundrum than "Romans."
' in 1845, Robert Stephenson made the following statement: “If I had been called upon to do so, it would be difficult to give a good reason for the adoption of an odd measure — 4 feet 8 and a half inches.” '
Well, the half inch is accounted for , but not the original 5' plateway.
Plate way
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plateway
I’m a little disappointed none of the train museums I’ve visited have mentioned plate ways or wagon ways.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagonway