Author: Doug Holland
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/03
Page Numbers: 167

THIS IS the end of the fiscal year so I have
no financial information to share. I do have
a story that is interesting, though.
Does the statement “we’ve always done it
that way” ring any bells?
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 pre-railroad
tramways, and that’s the gauge they used.
Why did they use that gauge then?
Because people who built the tramways used
the same jigs and tools that they used for
building wagons, which used that 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 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 bureaucrats live forever. And now
the twist to the story … Space Shuttle
booster rockets are made by Thiokol at its
factory in Utah. Shuttle engineers preferred
to make the boosters fatter, but boosters had
to be shipped by rail from the factory to the
launch site.
The railroad line runs through a tunnel
that is only slightly wider than the railroad
track, and the railroad track, as you know, is
about as wide as was determined over two
thousand years ago by the width of a Roman
chariot.
So the most advanced transportation
system in the history of man is limited by
the realities of a 2,000-year-old system
determined by the width of two horses’
behinds.
Thought for the day: Wear your expression
proudly.
A-B-C Always Be Courteous. Until later