Origin of rail gauge-space between 2 steel rails

26 Aug.,2023

 

Origin of rail gauge-space between 2 steel rails

What is standard Steel Rail Gauge

The standard steel rail is that the International Union of Railways (UIC) established a standard gauge of 1435mm in 1937 (equivalent to 4 feet 8.5 inches of the British system). About 55% of the world's railway gauges are standard rails.

The standard rail was proposed by the UK, which was the first to use the railway. George Stephenson, a British engineer who designed and built the Stodton and Darlington Railways, June 9, 1781 - August 12, 1848, proposed 4 feet 8.5 The inch gauge and successfully persuaded the train manufacturer to produce locomotives and vehicles with a 4 foot 8.5 inch (ie 1435 mm) gauge. Because the train designed by Stephenson is an object that everyone imitates, it also makes this gauge popular.

In 1845 the Royal Commissioner recommended 4 foot 8.5 inches as the standard gauge. In 1846, the British Parliament passed a bill requiring all railroads to use standard rails in the future. In addition to the UK's Great Western Railway, which uses wide rails, the UK's main railways are standard rails. The Great Western Railway was also converted to a standard track in 1892.

The standard gauge is 4.85 feet. Where did this value come from?

One Popular Story is Like this:

Why do British people use this gauge?
The British railway was designed by people who built tram tracks, and this 4.85 feet is the standard used for tram tracks.
Where does the tram track standard come from?
The first people who built electric cars used to build horse-drawn carriages. They used the wheel width of the carriage as the standard.
Why should the carriage use this wheel width?
Because if the carriage at that time used any other track, the wheel of the carriage would soon crash on the old road in England.
why?
Because the width of the tracks on these roads is 4.85 feet.
Where did these traces come from?
The ancient Romans set the 4.85 feet the width of the Roman chariot.
Why did the Romans use 4.85 feet for the wheel width of the chariot?
This is the width of the horse's buttocks of two pull carts.
Is this really the case?

The British railway was designed by people who built tram tracks, and this 4.85 feet is the standard used for tram tracks.The first people who built electric cars used to build horse-drawn carriages. They used the wheel width of the carriage as the standard.Because if the carriage at that time used any other track, the wheel of the carriage would soon crash on the old road in England.Because the width of the tracks on these roads is 4.85 feet.The ancient Romans set the 4.85 feet the width of the Roman chariot.This is the width of the horse's buttocks of two pull carts.

The story seems to be perfect and sounds quite reliable. So what is the truth? The well-known rumor crack site snopes believes that the wheel pitch is not rigorous. So far, there is no evidence that this claim is reliable.

According to D. Gabe Gabriel's investigation, this rumor began shortly after the end of World War II, but historical materials do not support the facts claimed in the story: although in many places in Europe and the United Kingdom, Roman car scars are still clearly visible, but these Roman car scars are not used for tanks, but for narrower carts.

Gabriel expressed deep suspicion that the tanks of the Roman legions before 1400 would play a role in the British railway standards. This rumor claims that the width of the car scar is affected by the needs of the Roman legion to create the chariot, the same width as the tie rod used to connect the two wheels used in the horse-drawn carriage.

Gabriel confirmed that there is a sculpture made by Franzoni in the Vatican Museum, which is considered to be the most accurate description of the Roman chariots so far: the width of the two horses is greater than the width of the chariot, and the wheels of the chariot are located on the back side of the war horse.

Similar to the structure of ancient Chinese chariots, the width of the Roman chariot wheels is mainly designed to meet the needs of the tank personnel and combat, and there is no direct connection with the width of the horse's ass.

So where does the standard 4 gauge 8.5 inch gauge value come from?

I have to say that there are not so many magical explanations in reality, and this may only be determined by a technical house. On the railroad tracks in England, the use of coal cars has been around for a long time. However, because there is no need to share railway tracks between different mines, the widths of the rails used in different mines are different. At that time, there were various widths. The gauge distance, the formulation of these gauge widths is quite random.

Railway Gauge Rod

George Stevenson was the first engineer to start experimenting with steam engine power to pull a coal car. He worked in multiple mines and was plagued by different rail gauges. He chose 4 for his project. The 8 inch inch gauge, it can be said that this choice at the time is also very random.

In 1826, he decided to add another 0.5-inch gauge to increase the free lateral displacement of the wheel pair and reduce the problem of wheel and rail biting during steering. At the right time, Great Britain proposed an ambitious plan to build a railroad. Considering that the existing 1,200-mile railroad track uses Stephen's gauge, the Stephen's gauge is of course a standard gauge.

On traditional railways, most countries in the world use standard rails, focusing on Western Europe, North America, North Africa and China. Most of the high-speed rail technology is based on standard rail development. The world's existing high-speed rail systems use almost all standard rails, including Japan, Taiwan, etc., where narrow rails are used for railways, and Spain, which uses wide rails for traditional railways.

In countries where narrow railways are used in traditional railways, all of them are converted to standard rails on high-speed railways, thereby improving stability under high-speed operation. The only exceptions are Russia, Uzbekistan and Finland, which use a 5-foot wide-track high-speed rail to make them compatible with traditional railway tracks in the country. It can be seen that the argument that the standard gauge is derived from the Roman chariot, although widely spread, has no exact basis. Hearing the way, after all, he can't afford to scrutinize it carefully.


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