Rail Gauge

[Willy Nilly]

There was talk about building a new railway across the Pennines or something yesterday. If they did, why not make the tracks wider, say twice the width, to make the trains bigger and thus more capacious?

[pherlopolus]

Broad gauge was the betamax of rail, probably the slightly better solution but didn't quite win the popular vote...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_gauge

[The_Burg]

Cost. Railways are a standard guage. The Brunel did it with his railways many, many years ago. If we had stuck with it where would we be now? As in many things the best doesn't always win. VHS v Betamax, Vinyl v MP3. Petrol v Diesel.

[rs1952]

There is also the matter of compatibility. Such trains would only be able to operate on that line an that line only, unless of course they were designed to allow automatic changes of gauge, and that again would increase costs.

A bit of info here on how gauge changes take place between France and Spain: http://egtre.info/wiki/Border_Crossings:_France_-_...

[ecsrobin]

They change axles on the trains Siberian express. Takes an hour or 2 I believe

[Jader1973]

Come to Australia - they have broad, standard, and narrow.

Complete mess

[Eric Mc]

Blame the Irish.

[woodypup59]

Eric Mc said:

Blame the Irish.

No, blame a horse's arse.

That set the std gauge at 4' 8 1/2".

[Simpo Two]

Mostly Stephenson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge

[jamiebae]

We have standard and narrow here in Switzerland and it's really annoying, normal trains run in most places but to get up into the mountains you have to change trains. That means you can't take a direct train from Zürich to Klosters, you get an express to Landquart and then switch onto a smaller (and much, much slower) metre gauge train which takes you to Davos and Klosters.

The bit in red on the map takes less time than the little bit in blue at the end!

[Eric Mc]

woodypup59 said:

Eric Mc said:

Blame the Irish.

No, blame a horse's arse.

That set the std gauge at 4' 8 1/2".

I was referring to the Australian issue.

[V8 Fettler]

If the wheels are outside the carriages/wagons rather than underneath then Brunel's gauge = double deck passenger coaches and transportation of bigger containers.

[Tango13]

Quite a few years back the Design Museum put on an exhibition of Brunels' work that also evaluated his designs with the benefit of hindsight.

Looking back at his broad gauge with over a hundred years of experience the historians concluded that the plus points were balanced out by the negatives almost equally.

[Dogwatch]

From an engineering point of view Brunel was probably correct but I can't help thinking that if he had gone for, say, 5'6" gauge he might. just. possibly. maybe. have made more of an impact but 4'8" to 8' was just too much of a jump.

I saw a 12 coach Class 377 empty stock working pull up on the opposite platform yesterday. Quite a sight, but on 8' gauge in the rush hour the disembarking passengers would have swamped the station.

[Tango13]

Dogwatch said:

From an engineering point of view Brunel was probably correct but I can't help thinking that if he had gone for, say, 5'6" gauge he might. just. possibly. maybe. have made more of an impact but 4'8" to 8' was just too much of a jump.

I saw a 12 coach Class 377 empty stock working pull up on the opposite platform yesterday. Quite a sight, but on 8' gauge in the rush hour the disembarking passengers would have swamped the station.

Fully agree, the infrastructure required for the broad gauge was listed as one of the down sides, the extra land required for both the track, stations, train workshops etc was significantly higher.

[V8 Fettler]

Who would have believed that there was a "Broad Gauge Society" ?

http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/history/bg_what_is.ht...

[matchmaker]

Dogwatch said:

From an engineering point of view Brunel was probably correct but I can't help thinking that if he had gone for, say, 5'6" gauge he might. just. possibly. maybe. have made more of an impact but 4'8" to 8' was just too much of a jump.

I saw a 12 coach Class 377 empty stock working pull up on the opposite platform yesterday. Quite a sight, but on 8' gauge in the rush hour the disembarking passengers would have swamped the station.

Brunel's broad gauge was 7'.

[Yertis]

matchmaker said:

Brunel's broad gauge was 7'.

Actually 7'1/4". Along the cutting near where I live there's still a load of Brunel's rail in use, as fenceposts.

[rs1952]

Yertis said:

matchmaker said:

Brunel's broad gauge was 7'.

Actually 7'1/4". Along the cutting near where I live there's still a load of Brunel's rail in use, as fenceposts.

It's all over the place in the south west. Here's a bit near me, on the former Chippenham to Calne branch that is now a footpath/ cycle track

[Stedman]

4 foot 8 is just fine thank you!

Dogwatch said:

I saw a 12 coach Class 377 empty stock working pull up on the opposite platform yesterday. Quite a sight, but on 8' gauge in the rush hour the disembarking passengers would have swamped the station.

God those 12 cars are slow!