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> Reminds me of the Space Shuttle booster size being determined by Roman horses. A story that's passed around a million times whose truth content is damn clos

> Reminds me of the Space Shuttle booster size being determined by Roman horses. A story that's passed around a million times whose truth content is damn close to nothing?

hi-v-rocknroll 3y ago
Not exactly. Read this: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/railroad-gauge-chariots/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/railroad-gauge-chariots/ SRBs were made in Utah by Thiokol and sent by rail in sections. The limiting factor (choke point) was a single mountain tunnel, which was built a long time ago and was influenced by the winners of the rail gauge wars. If you want to be confrontational skeptic to seem original, that's all you.
- jcranmer 3y ago
  You can see my nearby thread for a more detailed look at the claim. The tl;dr: the "limiting factor" is a tunnel width of 18', against a standard US loading gauge of 10'6", and a standard US track gauge of 4'8½" ... and the SRBs are 12' in diameter, which doesn't seem clearly limited by any of those factors whatsoever.
  - hi-v-rocknroll 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - brookst 3y ago
    Does the tunnel have any curved track?
    - jcranmer 3y ago
      From openrailwaymap, it doesn't look like it.
      - anakaine 3y ago
        There could also be switching gear, signage, etc internal to the tunnel they had to deal with - if the claim is even valid in terms of this being the spurce of restriction on booster size.