The U.S. Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails)
is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because
that's the way they built them in England, and the U.S. railroads were built by English
expatriates. Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first rail
lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, 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 use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use
any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because
that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe were built
by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying
their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for or
by Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to the original questions. The United States standard railroad
gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman
army war chariot. Specs and Bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a
specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right.
Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the
back-ends of two war horses.
Submitted by Christian D. Searcy
West Palm Beach, Florida |