vinod Posted September 30, 2003 Report Share Posted September 30, 2003 STANDARD RAILROAD GAUGE The US standard railroad gauge (width between the two 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 the US railroads were built by English expatriates. 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. Okay! 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? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots first formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Because the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. :: So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Thus, we have the answer to the original question. Now the twist to the story There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and horses' behinds. When we 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 SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, the major 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! cheers vinod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 30, 2003 Report Share Posted September 30, 2003 Brilliant vinod... thank you I'l send that off to my railroading buddies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted September 30, 2003 Report Share Posted September 30, 2003 Hi well done. In Oz we have different gauges in most states...have to lift/swing the engines onto new track to continue the journey. Why all not the same Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALHOLK Posted September 30, 2003 Report Share Posted September 30, 2003 Hi! I grew up in a city with three different railroad gauges at the station. I assume that this means that in our part of the world horse's arses came in at least three different sizes. regards ALHOLK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted September 30, 2003 Report Share Posted September 30, 2003 Says ALHOLK: Hi! I grew up in a city with three different railroad gauges at the station. I assume that this means that in our part of the world horse's arses came in at least three different sizes. regards ALHOLK Hi Ha Crazy 3 different sizes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted September 30, 2003 Report Share Posted September 30, 2003 Says vinod: ...So, the major 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!... That's interesting. I'd always thought they'd based the width of the rail track on the size of an average American bird's ass, hence the 4 foot 8.5 inches width. jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.