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The US South had 5ft gauge during the civil war. There was a massive post-war effort to standardize the gauge that took place over a 36 hour period. All the sou
by xenadu02 3y ago
The US South had 5ft gauge during the civil war. There was a massive post-war effort to standardize the gauge that took place over a 36 hour period. All the southern railroads not already on standard gauge did so all at once from May 31-Jun 1 1886.
Tens of thousands of work crews pulled the pins of the west rail and moved it 3in inward. Simultaneously crews at rail yards modified the primary rolling stock.
Service resumed Jun 2 on standard gauge and for the first time passengers and freight could cross the boundary without a changeover stop.
- ElevenLathe 3y agoIt's a little more complicated in the case of the NYC Subway because the size of the tunnels and stations is based on the size of the rolling stock. BMT/IND (B Division aka the letter trains) trains simply can't be driven through IRT (A Division aka the number trains) tunnels. A "changeover" would entail widening tunnels and platforms many feet below Manhattan, not just moving a lot of rails.
- xenadu02 3y agoYeah that makes sense. I just thought it was really neat that the US pulled off such a massive project to standardize gauge over a single weekend - similar to Sweden switching from LHD to RHD on a single day. It's a huge coordination, organization, and training challenge. In the rail case it was done entirely on paper with a little bit of telegraph support.