OT: Why are railroad rails 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches apart?

The standard distance between railroad rails in the U.S. is four-feet, eight-and-a-half inches. Why? Because that's what it was in England. Why? Because that's the gauge the tramways used before the railroads. Why? Because the tramways were built using the same tools as wagon-builders and that's how wide the wagon wheels were spaced. Why? Because the old roads in England had ruts that the wheels needed to accommodate. Why? Because the ruts were made by Imperial Roman chariots. Why, because the width of the ruts was affected by the need to make the chariot and it's wheels the same width as the combined rears of the horses pulling them. Conculsion: The standard rail road guage is set by two horse's as***.
Sounds like government at work.

Because they used horse wagon on wooden rails and the horse wagon wheels were seperated was 4 ft 8 1/2 in wide.

The Russians use a 5 FT gauge so that invading armies couldn't use the russian railroad tracks without doing a major rebuild.

It goes farther back to Roman wheeled carrages and wagons. The ruts in roads were created by standardized track width (an accident of no measuring system being systematically employed, but a convienient width set to prevent side forces on wooden spokes, and greased spindle journals) When common carrages and wagons were employed to ride rails (first with grooved rails and regular tires) the traditional setting was employed. Jim

i think they should have called red-yellow and black-blue but then again who cares and would it have made a difference.

Seems to me I recall reading that the standard rail guage ended up effecting the size of the space shuttle. I think it was the booster tanks that had to make part of the delivery trip by rail and hence they could only be so big. Wierd to think that such a ancient standard effects stuff in space.

They make the rails 4 feet 8 1/2 inched apart because the wheels on the train engine and cars are 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches apart!!

Soder, You made my day. Why? Because that was hilarious!

Hello soder33,
To add also, the stepping stones between paved streets had to have the same spacing.
That Appia Way from Rome to Naples, in some spots, straight as an arrow!
How did they do that?
Guido.

snopes disagrees, read what they have to say
snopes

Look to the future!! Mono-rail systems and electrical levitation and propulsion. The heck with the Romans. Enjoy the modern day trains as they will end up like the Steamers that Propelled the Industrial Revolution in this country and others, in our recent past. All good things get replaced with bigger and better things. That's the nature of the human drive to improve.

Lot of measurments had strange beginings. Example land measurments were made in varas until lately. A vara is equal to 2.77778 feet which was the average distance of a donkey's step.

World wide there are several "standard" gages for rail lines. Ours just happen to be what they are. Before the civil war, many of the tracks in the south weren't the same as the north. Actually, there still non-standard spacings in the U.S.

Thye original railways in the north of England to the coal mines were 5 feet gauged to the outside of the rails. The rails were 2" wooden rails with an iron strap on the top. When the first locomotives were built that were to the 4'-8" gauge to match the wagons which were short 4 wheel wagons carrying coal from the mines to the port. As the locomotives got slightly larger and with 3 axles they had trouble getting around the corners without the flanges on the wheels binding. In some cases the gauge was widened to 4'-9" or 4'-8.5" to make it easier. At one time in England, 4'-8", 4'-8.5" and 4'-9" gauges were in use and Brunel on the Great Western Railway used a 7' gauge but the line to Bristol from London was fairly straight so did not cause any problems. Shifting goods from one wagons on one gauge to another was time-consuming and expensive and a parlimentary commission in 1848 decided that the only gauge to be used in England and Scotland was to be 4'-8.5". The Great Western did not complete the changeover until 1892!
The Welsh railways used a lot of 2' gauge (more like 1'-11.5"). The Norwegian Narrow gauge railways in the 1860s used 3'-6" and these were copied to New Zealand, Ceylon, Japan, South Africa and Queensland in Australia. There were also 1 metre gauge in India, a private line in Norway. In Sweden there was a 43" gauge. Most of Europe following the English developments adopted the 4'-8.5" gauge though there were also 2 foot gauges in France and Sweden and some 2'5" gauge in Norway. The Russians used a 5 foot (or 5'-6") gauge. The Irish broad gauge was 5'-3" and this was initially used by the Canterbury Provincial Railways in New Zealand (they got the locomotives cheap) before the NZ government decision in 1870, following the consultants investigations of the experiences in Norway, that all future railways would be 3'-6" gauge. The 5'-3" rolling stock was sold to the State of Victoria in Australia who also used that gauge. The Denver and Rio Grand narrow gauge railway in the USA used a 3 foot gauge as did the isle of Man. Balwin Locomotive Works in the USA built locomotives for NZ in the 1880s which were their standard 3 foot gauge 4-8-0 locomotives re-gauged to 3'-6" to become the NZ Railways class T.

Probably has something to do with the Metric System! US manufacturers sold steam engines to several foreign countries, & of course Canada, & Mexico rails would have to conform to our standard, or theres to be able to move freight across international boundries. I think Canada, & Mexico conform to our standard. The Monon Railroad in Indiana frequently pulled cars from Canadian National, & Great Northern railways which were based in Canada.

Scotty

I understand that the 5 foot wheel gauge came initally from the Roman chariots. The first railways in England date from about 1820, long before there were railways in the USA, the USA, in general adopted what had become standard in Europe. The other gauge of interest is the Loading Gauge, the maximum width and height of the rolling stock, much larger in the USA than in Europe or the UK.

Kinda along these same lines, many years ago a buddy of mine or his friends(I wasnt there) figured out that a 1950 Chevy pickup with the tires taken off the rims would fit pretty darn good on their local railroad tracks...and motivate down said tracks under it's own power...from what I remember of the story, the deal didn't last too long...

Originally there were several widths of rails in the USA but then they were made to one standard size.They HAD to pick some width or the other

Thanks, I meant it as a piece of humor. I only wanted to show that if you trace back a lot of what our government does, it is because: Thats the way it has always been done.

There were several 3 ft gauge railroads in Colorado, the White Pass & Yukon in Alaska, several in Pennsylvania including the East Broad Top, and Maine had several 2 ft gauge railroads.

In Japan the normal gauge is 1 meter, but the Shinkansen (aka bullet train) is standard gauge.