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No. >It is widely and incorrectly believed that Imperial Russia chose a gauge broader than standard gauge for military reasons, namely to prevent potential inv
by layoutIfNeeded 6y ago
No.
>It is widely and incorrectly believed that Imperial Russia chose a gauge broader than standard gauge for military reasons, namely to prevent potential invaders from using the rail system. In 1841 a Russian army engineer wrote a paper stating that such a danger did not exist since railways could be made dysfunctional by retreating or diverting forces.
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>When a railway has wooden sleepers, it is fairly easy to make the gauge narrower by removing the nails and placing them back at a narrower position, something Germany did during WWII. Destroying river bridges had a larger effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_ft_and_1520_mm_gauge_railways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_ft_and_1520_mm_gauge_railway...
- brudgers 6y agoI said nothing about the reasons for the different gauge. Only its effect.
- layoutIfNeeded 6y ago>it is fairly easy to make the gauge narrower by removing the nails and placing them back at a narrower position, something Germany did during WWII This doesn’t sound like it stymied the Germans much. Also look at the answer here: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/23616/what-did-germany-do-in-world-war-ii-about-the-different-rail-gauge-in-the-soviet https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/23616/what-did-g... Do you need anyhing else to get convinced?
- brudgers 6y agoThe sources describe how Nazis dealt with the problem. Ergo it was a problem.
- layoutIfNeeded 6y agoI see, you don't want to "concede" so you're arguing about semantics now. I'm not gonna go there. You "won"!