Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
dvieira
TDR MEMBER
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between
the rails) is 4 feet, 8. 5 inches, an exceedingly
odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England,
& English emigres built the US railroads. Why did
the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the people
who built the pre railroad tramways, and that is 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 the same 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 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 (or by) Imperial Rome, they all had
the same wheel spacing. The United States standard
railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8. 5 inches is derived
from the specification for an Imperial Roman war
chariot.
Specifications & bureaucracies live forever. So the
next time you're handed a spec and wonder what horse's
butt came up with it, you may be right...
because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just
wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two
war-horses.
Now, the twist to the story...
There's an extension to the story about railroad
gauges and horses' behinds. When we see a Space
Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two
booster rockets attached to the sides of the main
fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.
Thiokol makes the SRBs at its factory at Utah. The
engineers who designed the SRBs wanted 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 happens to run
through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to
fit through that tunnel--which is slightly wider
than the railroad track, and the railroad track is
about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major
design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined 2
thousand years go by the width of a horse's butt.
the rails) is 4 feet, 8. 5 inches, an exceedingly
odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England,
& English emigres built the US railroads. Why did
the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the people
who built the pre railroad tramways, and that is 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 the same 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 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 (or by) Imperial Rome, they all had
the same wheel spacing. The United States standard
railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8. 5 inches is derived
from the specification for an Imperial Roman war
chariot.
Specifications & bureaucracies live forever. So the
next time you're handed a spec and wonder what horse's
butt came up with it, you may be right...
because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just
wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two
war-horses.
Now, the twist to the story...
There's an extension to the story about railroad
gauges and horses' behinds. When we see a Space
Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two
booster rockets attached to the sides of the main
fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.
Thiokol makes the SRBs at its factory at Utah. The
engineers who designed the SRBs wanted 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 happens to run
through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to
fit through that tunnel--which is slightly wider
than the railroad track, and the railroad track is
about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major
design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined 2
thousand years go by the width of a horse's butt.
