Phil Perry Posted September 26, 2017 Share Posted September 26, 2017 I just saw this and felt I had to nick it for your entertainment. . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * You'll all know this, it is targeted at Americans but still interesting. A history lesson for people who think that history doesn't matter: What's the big deal about railroad tracks? 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? Well, because that's the way they built them in England, and English engineers designed the first US railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that's the gauge they used. So, why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England . You see, 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 (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since. And what about the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.) Now, the twist to the story: When you 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. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRBs would 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 happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature, of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system, was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything and.... CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 I think it's great to know that. but Australia had two rail gauges for many years, took a long time to get from East to West, without having to change trains. Now Sydney is putting in "Light rail", so back to the old system of "End of line all change", & get into a bigger train. spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man emu Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Sydney had a comprehensive inner metropolitan light rail service up until February 1961. "Why did we get rid of the trams in the first place?” is a question often asked. Well, after the war the car was on the rise, and police, motoring organisations and many newspapers began to turn on the trams. They were seen as an old-fashioned relic of the 19th century, not wanted in a modern automobile-based city. Tramways and other public transport systems had been under great strain during the war, and many were in a badly worn state at its conclusion. As public transport patronage began to drop off in favour of the car, administrators were not inclined to spend large amounts of money maintaining or expanding the tramways and a policy of conversion to bus operation was fully instigated. The closure was so rapid that tram lines were tarred over and the overhead wires removed the same night trams finished just to make sure there was no going back. This map shows the extent of the tramways in the 1930's. (The Cronulla to Sutherland line is not shown) OME Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 They used electric powered (from overhead wires) trolley busses in Sydney for a while. No local pollution. Diesel became the universal fuel displacing steam all over the world. Heating houses was by OIL till they got everybody hooked and then the price went Up and UP and UP. Same has now happened with GAS. Electric heat pumps are much cheaper than gas.. Are you being shafted? You betcha. Rail gauges (track width) can be too wide or too narrow for various reasons. Too wide and they turn badly. (skid during the turn) Too narrow and they tip over (derail). The face they run on is tapered in diameter helping them go around corners better. The outer wheel travels a bit further in a turn and they have a common axle so is better being bigger. Nev. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Yes Red, I use them often, but they do affect other traffic flow to a large extent on the roads where they go. They are frequently standing room only but move lots of people short distances well. Sudden stopping causes a few injuries to older people who may be standing. All in all they do a good job. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 I have never used public transport, after they got rid of the ticket "person", how can you give "exact fare" when you don't know the price. Now we have to buy an Opel card to go to the city, once a year. spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 The exact fare is zero in the CBD. FREE. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted September 28, 2017 Author Share Posted September 28, 2017 I have never used public transport, after they got rid of the ticket "person",how can you give "exact fare" when you don't know the price. Now we have to buy an Opel card to go to the city, once a year. spacesailor We oldies get a free Bus Pass over the age of 60. I find that I'm using mine more and more, even though I only live 2 miles fro the centre of Town I could, and often DO walk it, but with the vagaries of weather in the UK, it's a miserable 2 mile yomp with shopping bags if you get caught in rain. ! Car parking in town is made as difficult as practicable, very expensive to use the limited car parks available, and no on street parking allowed anywhere. The double yellow lines begin at around a mile radius of town to prevent this. I had great tour around London a couple of months ago, when I discovered that my Staffordshire bus pass was acceptable on all the TFL buses. . . they are very high tech now, and automatically tell you where each stop is just beforehand so Navigation is made very simple. The return coach fare to the smoke was £19.50. . . the Rail fare is nearly £90.00 . . ? But it is much faster ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yenn Posted September 29, 2017 Share Posted September 29, 2017 Public transport is just great. To catch a bus I only have to walk about 15km, but at least I don't have to contend with Phils rain. I can't remember when it last rained Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted September 29, 2017 Author Share Posted September 29, 2017 Public transport is just great. To catch a bus I only have to walk about 15km, but at least I don't have to contend with Phils rain. I can't remember when it last rained A new company has taken over the local bus service here. . . they have added a 'Circular' area route which passes not far from where I reside and goes into town. The only downside is that I have to walk 200 metres to the nearest stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 South Australia actually had 3 gauges. Broad gauge to port Pirie, Standard gauge to Maree and narrow gauge to Alice Springs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Koreelah Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 South Australia actually had 3 gauges. Broad gauge to port Pirie, Standard gauge to Maree and narrow gauge to Alice Springs. In the best Aussie tradition…build it as cheap as possible; no vision! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted October 2, 2017 Author Share Posted October 2, 2017 I rather liked Brunel's 8 foot width ( 2440mil ) rail tracks. . .they just suggest to me a smoother ride and greater loading stability BUT. . .anything more than very gentle curves around terrain might propose some technical difficulties, unless all the train axles were bendy. . . although Nev alluded to this in his post hereinabove. . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Koreelah Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 Wide Guage would appear to offer a smoother ride, but the Shinkansen runs on curves of radius from 2.4 to 4 km. It's super smooth at 320km/h on standard Guage tracks. How do they do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgwilson Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 The main rail line to QLD from NSW is 4 feet 6 inches from memory and the QLD guage is 3 feet 6 inches. Now that was a smart move. Just another reason why the creation of separate states out of the individual colonies was a dumb idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Koreelah Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 They used imported engineers -Irish and Scots- who couldn't agree, and who couldn't forsee their networks ever linking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yenn Posted October 3, 2017 Share Posted October 3, 2017 I think you will find that the NSW rail system is 4' 8.5" standard gauge. Qld is 3'6" and Vic is 5'3" As far as i know there is no 4'6" gauge. One way to judge the efficiency of each gauge may be to count the number of derailments. I don't know the numbers, but Qld seems to have plenty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted October 3, 2017 Share Posted October 3, 2017 The old narrow gauge was done for cheapness. It gave a swaying ride and the speed was down. I just loved the old ghan... it was so slow on an upcline that bored young guys would get off and jog alongside. One day , one of these got left behind when the train went from an imperceptible upgrade to an equally imperceptible downgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted October 3, 2017 Share Posted October 3, 2017 There's more than the gauge affecting derailments. It's often track distortion (Hot days and poor base and how the rails are held in position, {accuracy of track}). Tyres/ wheels break. Something near standard gauge is about right I reckon. All things are a compromise. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgwilson Posted October 3, 2017 Share Posted October 3, 2017 What gauge does the QLD tilt train run on? My assumption is 3'6" There have been a few derailments if my memory serves me right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yenn Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 3'6" is correct. The major derailment was as far as I know caused by an incompetent driver, who when he worked at Gladstone was considered not suitable to drive a wheelbarrow by the other drivers. I don't know what happened to him, but I would assume he was hidden away and retired early with a full pension, in a similar way to corrupt cops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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