width between rails on railroad tracks/?

Question

son's homework need to know width between rails on railroad track

Answer 1

4' 8 1/2" (56 1/2 inches)

Answer 2

The standard guage ( width between the rails) of most railroads in North America is 4ft. 8 1/2 inches.

There was some variences to this. The Erie Railroad in New England was built at a gauge of 6 feet, for political resons (but that is another question).

Some were built smaller. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad built its narrow gauge lines at 3 ft., and the was a railroad in Maine that was built to 2ft. gauge.

Answer 3

The Romans, Railroads and the Space Shuttle


The vast Roman empire created a network of roads for legions and trade which which are still is use today throughout Europe and Asia Minor. Thus, the old saying, "All roads lead to Rome."

The standard wheel spacing of an Imperial Roman war Chariot was 4 feet, 8.5 inches. (approximatley the same with of two horses' behinds) Those ancient wheels dug deep ruts into the roads. In England, wagon makers continued using the ancient Roman's wheel spacing throughout the ages, because changing the spacing would cause wheels to break when they dropped into an ancient Roman Chariot rut.

Later, English engineers working on their railroads used the same jigs and tools that were used for building wagons which required the ancient Roman wheel spacing. The US railroads were also engineered by English immigrants using those same time honored tools. Which explains the unusual US standard railroad gage width of 4 feet, 8.5 inches between rials.

NASA Engineers in Utah working on the solid rocket boosters, or SRB's for the space shuttle, wanted the diameter of the boosters to be significantly larger, but they were forced to design longer thinner SRB's, because the railroad line transporting the SRB's to the launch pad in Florida had to pass through a narrow mountain tunnel which was slightly wider then the tracks.

Thus, the design one of the most advanced forms of transportation, heading into one of the great last frontiers was determined more then 2000 years before, by width of a horses ***. Rome is truly an "Eternal City."

http://www.icontours.com/allroadslead.html

Answer 4

Standard gauge in North America is 4' 8 1/2", measured between the inside edges of the rails. However, many early railroads, particularly in mountainous areas, were built to narrower gauges to save money in construction. Most of these are no longer operational, except as tourist attractions (one of the best is in the Yukon).

Answer 5

The 56.5 inch standard started in England as they were the first to utilize railroads. There are theories as to where that standard came from. But I don't think anyone truly knows any more. In the US, this gage was used as well although the US had 2 common gages - 36 inch and 56.5 as well. There were other gages too in the past in the US. There was 30 inch, 24 inch in some mines and industries, and 50 inch and 5 foot - before the 1860s in the southern US. But the 56.5 was always the most popular.

Answer 6

Where did the four-foot, eight-and-a-half-inch standard originate? Gabriel says it was from a Englishman named George Stephenson. Carts on rails had been used in mines in England for years, but the width of the rails varied from mine to mine since they didn't share tracks. Stephenson was the one who started experimenting with putting a steam engine on the carts so there would be propulsion to pull them along. He had worked with several mines with differing gauges and simply chose to make the rails for his project 4-foot, eight inches wide. He later decided that adding another six inches made things easier. He was later consulted for constructing some rails along a roadway and by the time broader plans for railroads in Great Britain were proposed, there were already 1200 miles of his rails so the "Stephenson gauge" became the standard.

Interestingly, the 4-foot, eight-and-a-half inch width has not always been the standard in the U.S. According to the Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography, at the beginning of the Civil War, there were more than 20 different gauges ranging from 3 to 6 feet, although the 4-foot, eight-and-a-half inch was the most widely used. During the war, any supplies transported by rail had to be transferred by hand whenever a car on one gauge encountered track of another gauge and more than 4,000 miles of new track was laid during the war to standardize the process. Later, Congress decreed that the 4-foot, eight-and-a-half inch standard would be used for transcontinental railway.

This was cut and pasted here...sorry if its more than you ask for...

Answer 7

Standard guage (distance between the rails) in North America is actually (if you want to be exact) 4 ft. 8 5/16 in.

Answer 8

4 feet 8 and 1/2 inch

Answer 9

Standard gage, US, is 4' 81/2". Narrow gage is 3 feet.

In south America (Brazil for one country) employ 5' broad gage. (He should get extra credit for this).

Answer 10

56&1/2" Inside to inside............................................