--- In [email protected], Roy Inman <rinph...@...> wrote:
>
> This has been batting around as long as I have been on the¹ net,
about ten
> years.
>
> According to noted rail historian, Pete Hansen, there is not really
a clear
> lineage as depicted in the piece. No direct, historical evidence can
trace
> back our rail gauge that far.
______________________________________________________________
In the early Twentieth Century, International Harvestor built its
early Auto Wagons in two versions, one with a 52" distance between the
wheels, and the other with 60". Wagon wheel spacing usually followed
RR track gauge (or the other way around) and the latter was in
deference to wheel ruts in roads in the South, where railroads and
wagons had been built to 60" gauge and wheel spacing.
Although the RR's were reduced to standard gauge after the Civil War,
wagons continued to be built with the 60" wheel spacing into the
Twentieth Century.
Erie RR was originally 72" gauge, which made for terrific trackside
clearances when it, too, succumbed to "standard" (or "narrow", as it
was known at the time of the building of the Transcontinental RR) gauge.
_________________________________________
>
> Plus, other countries have different rail gauges. Ireland I believe,
has a
> 5¹+ gauge; Russia does as well, and that is one reason (among
others, such
> as the size of the country, the weather and determined populace) the
> Russians have been so hard to conquer: Invaders had to re-gauge the
wheels
> of their locos and cars to transport men and machinery of war.
>
> Roy Inman ___________________________________________________
Which reveals one of the underlying reasons behind opposition to a
switch to the metric system of measurements in this country
Bob Nicholson __________________________________________
>
>
> on 1/18/09 2:36 PM, David Scott at dscottassocia...@... wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > Subject: AN INTERESTING HISTORY LESSON
> >
> > Railroad tracks. This is fascinating.
> >
> > Be sure to read the final paragraph; your understanding of it will
> > depend
> > on the earlier part of the content.
> >
> > The US 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 English expatriates built the US railroads.
> >
> > Why did the English 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.
> >
> > Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if
> > they
> > tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some
> > of
> > the old, long distance roads in England , because that's the spacing
> > of
> > the wheel ruts.
> >
> > So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first
> > long
> > distance roads in Europe (and England ) for their legions. The roads
> > have been used ever since.
> >
> > And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts,
> > which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon
> > wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all
> > alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States
> > standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the
> > original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
> > Bureaucracies live forever.
> >
> > So the next time you are handed a Specification/Procedure/Process and
> > wonder 'What horse's ass came up with it?' you may be exactly right.
> > Imperial Roman army chariots were madejust wide enough to accommodate
> > the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.) Now, the twist
> > to
> > the story:
> >
> > When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two
> > big
> > booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are
> > solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at
> > their
> > factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRB's would have
> > preferred t o make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped
> > by
> > train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the
> > factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the
> > SRB's
> > had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wide! r than
> > the
> > railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as
> > wide
> > as two horses' behinds.
> >
> > So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the
> > world's
> > most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand
> > years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a
> > horse's ass
> > wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything...
> > and current Horses Asses are controlling everything else.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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