Dear Martin,
The 1600 mm rail gauge is still used in Australia, although they are
gradually changing to the 1435 mm gauge to take advantage of importing
rolling stock from other countries.
To the best of my knowledge the 1600 mm gauge was used in:
Australia
New South Wales, Australia (State of) (A few routes entering from
Neighbouring Victoria only
South Australia (State of)
Tasmania, Australia (State of) and
Victoria, Australia (State of)
The 1600 mm gauge was also used in:
Brazil
Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland
You will probably get more information from http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Rail_gauge_-_History/id/2054001
but this does not make the choice of 1600 mm any clearer to me.
This next reference might give you a better clue to the origin of the
1600 mm rail gauge: http://www.google.com.au/search?q=railway+gauge+5ft+3in+history&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENAU345&sa=G&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=oVT2Ss_zFZHWswPozcSvBA&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CCkQ5wIwCg
as it quotes the Transactions of the American Society of Civil
Engineers as saying:
1854 - The first Brazilian railroads, completed in 1854, have a 5
ft.-3 in. gauge. Most roads use 1-m. gauge, however, which has also
beeu taken for the Transandine Railway. Gauges of 1.40, 1.20, 0.95 and
0.60 m. are also in use.
AS these lead to rounded metric gauge sizes, I wonder whether the 1600
mm gauge originated in Brazil.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
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to subscribe.
On 2009/11/08, at 08:11 , Martin Vlietstra wrote:
They certainly don’t use the British gauge of 1435 mm. The Irish
rail gauge is 1600 mm (5ft 3in in earlier years). The difference
between the two is 0.2 mm and since the tolerance on railway lines
is of the order of 5 mm, the two are interchangeable. I sometimes
wonder whether or not the engineer who specified 5ft 3in for Irish
railways at some time in the nineteenth century was secretly pro-
metric.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Stephen Humphreys
Sent: 07 November 2009 20:35
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:46132] Re: Ireland
I wonder if Ireland use British trains on their train network?
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: [USMA:46131] Re: Ireland
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 20:36:30 +0100
When I was in Ireland this summer I saw one strange thing: Irish
Rail is renewing the distance markers along the railways but they
have not been changed to kilometres. So I saw a lot of new markers,
all in miles! Totally contrary what has been done on the roads.
Maybe Tom has an explanation for that.
The shops that sell carpets, tiles etc. still oppose metric. I have
to see the first shop of that kind in Ireland which uses metric
units rationally. Some shops give the dimensions of carpets in
metric and the price in euros per square yard!
It is probably marketing nonsense that decrees that the square yard
be used, as pricing by the square metre looks
more expensive.
----- Original Message -----
From: [email protected]
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Thursday, 2009, November 05 17:33
Subject: [USMA:46117] Re: Ireland
So, nu ??? What did you observe there regarding metric usage? :-)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Hooper" <[email protected]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 6:00:39 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada
Pacific
Subject: [USMA:46116] Ireland
Just got back from Ireland and re-subscribed to this list.
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