why railway tracks are 143.5 cm (4 feet 8 1/2 inches) apart?

Answer 1

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?
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 Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4
feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
And bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's *** 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.

I wonder if Mythbusters has done this one? LOL

Answer 2

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Answer 3

They aren't always. Standard Guage is 143.5cm (which makes up a large majority of railroads thoughout the world), but then there is Narrow Guage in the US West and a independent railroads through out the world who didn't use Standard guage. In life there are always exceptions to the rules.

The reason standard guage wasn't used in these cases is mostly due to the terrain that the railroad needs to traverse. Lots of hills or dense forrest made it more economical to use the smaller equipment.

Answer 4

Old fireman is exactly correct. 4' 8 1/2" was the distance of the wheel spread of the Roman chariots. Well done oldfireman! (But not old enough to be a "tallow pot", right?) You should have 10 points in the bank.

I was educated by your response. Thanks!

Answer 5

if you look at a rail wheel you will notice the tread area is sloped to allow the train to go around corners and also remain centered on the tracks when going straight.so the trackes wider than the wheel assy. from flange to flange.

Answer 6

This guage was chosen because it is the best for pulling wagons with horses, Stephenson's first engines replaced horse traction.
This is also why the Romans used similar sized wagons with their horses.

Answer 7

this is called gauge its the equal of every railroad being able to use the same railway car in the northern us

Answer 8

But which came first akebhart akebhart??? The wheels or the track???

Answer 9

that is how far apart wagon wheels in the old days before trains were.

Answer 10

Because thats how far apart the wheels are.