Railroad question?

Question

Who and how did they decide how wide to make the railroad tracks?

Answer 1

The first answer is correct, but only deals with what is called 'standard gauge' In the UK one railway builder, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, thought that a much wider gauge of 7' would provide a better ride and built his Great Western Railway at that width. However. having two different gauges in a small country was felt to cause too many problems so Parliament decided that the standard gauge should be the norm. Elsewhere in the world - notably Ireland, Spain and Russia the gauge is wider. In Ireland the reason is that three early railways were built, all of differing gauge and eventually the Irish gauge of 5'3'' was adopted as the middle course! Spain adopted 5'6'' as that was incompatible with the French railways and so was thought would hinder any invasion by that country! Russia adopted 5' for much the same reason - to hinder invasion.

Some countries have a narrower gauge, most notably South Africa and neighbouring countries which use 3'6''

After the main lines were built in many countries, lines with a much smaller gauge - down to around 2' - were built as these were cheaper to construct, particularly in difficult terrain.

Answer 2

Ultimately the standard gauge of 4' 8 1/2" goes back to the roman roads. romans conquered britain, and they brought the technology they had for transportation. as the roads developed into rail, the rail technology was brought to america.

Real quick basic version of it, but thats basically it.