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The Watering Hole Weekends, girlfriends or happenings ... no knife talk allowed!

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  #1  
Old 02-03-2009, 09:07 AM
Gary Gardner Gary Gardner is offline
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4 feet 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

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.

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? Roman war chariots first made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels and wagons. Since the chariots were made for, or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

Thus, we have the answer to the original question. 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 which horse's rear 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.

And 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.

Thiokol makes the SRBs at their factory at 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 by the width of a Horse's [rear]!
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  #2  
Old 02-03-2009, 09:48 AM
SIXFOOTER SIXFOOTER is offline
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Speechless.....I'll try to think of something smart later....LOL
Good info
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  #3  
Old 02-03-2009, 10:54 AM
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NJStricker NJStricker is offline
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That old yarn has been around a while.

Actually, there were several different widths of railroad beds over time in the U.S., depending on who was building the railway. During the Civil War, the Confederates used a different guage so that the Union couldn't make use of their rail system. After the Civil War a standard was set.

Check this out: http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp
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Old 02-03-2009, 06:56 PM
Gary Gardner Gary Gardner is offline
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I got this off of a customer,s web site(they make parts used in RR maintenace) .
it's listed as fun facts... I assumed they did their homework.
Makes for a good read though.
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Old 02-04-2009, 09:32 AM
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NJStricker NJStricker is offline
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Yep, it's good fun. We all love a good tale.
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  #6  
Old 08-02-2009, 09:34 AM
Arccher Moon Arccher Moon is offline
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Hey, that is the exact height of my mother inlaw!
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Old 11-07-2009, 09:15 PM
wookie wookie is offline
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if you look in up on snope or what ever that site is it will tell you that it is a wives tale. about the chariates
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Old 01-06-2010, 06:40 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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What?!?! You guys never seen a warhorse from the rear! Two side by side ......couldn't get enough cat grease to squeeze them in in a lead trace for a chariot at 4' 8.5"'s! Not gonna happen. Don't need Snopes to figure that out.


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Old 01-07-2010, 05:00 AM
Wade Holloway Wade Holloway is offline
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ok so if we know that the story is not why the tracks are 4'8.5" wide, then why are the tracks such a wierd distance wide?
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Old 01-07-2010, 10:35 AM
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C Craft C Craft is offline
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Because that was the length of the measuring stick the fellar had! Don't you know anything?

Sorry I couldn't resist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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  #11  
Old 02-16-2010, 07:06 PM
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mete mete is offline
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Why not ? After all the mile is an ancient Roman measure !!!
The famous Italian road race "Mille Miglia" [thouisand mile ] was in miles not kilometers ! IIRC Mussolini named it as part of his attempts to connect his regime to that of ancient Rome .
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  #12  
Old 02-18-2010, 01:15 PM
iheartweapons68 iheartweapons68 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mete View Post
Why not ? After all the mile is an ancient Roman measure !!!
The famous Italian road race "Mille Miglia" [thouisand mile ] was in miles not kilometers ! IIRC Mussolini named it as part of his attempts to connect his regime to that of ancient Rome .
I agree with you. I had no idea of the information you presented. Very cool thanks for sharing.
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