MISC | Railway Gauge Discussion

[Manchester Planner]

Not all countries of the world use "standard gauge" - 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) - as their standard. In fact, only 60% of the world's railways are standard gauge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_gauge

[Bitxofo]

In Spain we have got 1668mm and 1435mm.

Some lines are migrating from 1668 to 1435mm. The idea of the Government is to have only 1435mm within 20 years approx.

[kegan]

Bit of history:
New Zealand had at least three different gauges in the early days of railways (before choosing 3'6" (1067mm) as standard). Different provinces started building their own lines and chose their own gauge.

Had 3'6", 4'8½" & 5'3". Crazy for such a small place.

[TWK90]

Malaysia :

1000 mm (metre gauge), the most widely adopted gauge in Malaysia, first introduced by the British when they built the first rail line in Malaysia...

Currently, KTMB and Sabah state railway run on metre gauge...

1435 mm, introduced in Malaysia since last decade...

Used by :

- Kelana Jaya line
- Ampang line
- KLIA Ekspres and KLIA Transit (ERL)

[arriaca]

Originally Posted by Bitxofo

In Spain we have got 1668mm and 1435mm.

Don´t forget the lines with 1445mm and 1000mm

Some lines are migrating from 1668 to 1435mm. The idea of the Government is to have only 1435mm within 20 years approx.

What lines are migrating?

[Manchester Planner]

In Great Britain it's pretty much entirely standard gauge, apart from a number of privately owned railways in Wales especially which are 2ft narrow gauge (600mm roughly). The Isle of Man (shown by the red dot between Britain and Ireland on the map) is narrow gauge territory. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have their own, broader gauge.

[CharlieP]

What I'd really like to see is a map with the actual railways on (even if they all merge together and there's not much detail) rather than colouring in each country individually.

[tuckerbox]

What is the widest Gauge in the World?
I saw somewhere that the Giant German Rail Gun was 7 feet Gauge.
It ran on two tracks.
What is the smallest?

[Railfan]

Venezuela use 1435 mm guauge sin 1945

[RawLee]

Originally Posted by tuckerbox

What is the widest Gauge in the World?
I saw somewhere that the Giant German Rail Gun was 7 feet Gauge.
It ran on two tracks.
What is the smallest?

It had 2 parallel bogies,both standard gauge,and a total of 4.

[Coccodrillo]

Some lines are migrating from 1668 to 1435mm. The idea of the Government is to have only 1435mm within 20 years approx.

Originally Posted by arriaca

What lines are migrating?

All, in the long term.

Originally Posted by tuckerbox

What is the widest Gauge in the World?

~2144 mm of the GWR in the UK, converted to standard gauge by the end of XIX century, and the projected Breitspurbahn of Hitler (3 metres).

(cranes and the "krasnoyarsk ship transloader" (search with Google) have wider gauges)

[Momo1435]

Originally Posted by tuckerbox

What is the smallest?

Looking at the wiki I think it's 600mm, used in some European countries. Anything narrower should be qualified as miniature railroads.

[Coccodrillo]

Smallest gauge for a real train (two tracks used by vehicles with flanged wheels): probably the Z scale: 6,5 mm. Or even a japan model that uses 4 mm gauge tracks, but I don't have more informations.

Smallest gauge used by model trains carrying people: 5'' or 127 mm. Other gauges used for these trains are 7'' 1/4 or 184 mm and 380 mm.

Smallest gauge used on service railways for mines, dams or small hydroelectric tunnels: 500 mm.

Smallest gauge on public service railways: probably 600 mm.

[Manchester Planner]

Originally Posted by Momo1435

Looking at the wiki I think it's 600mm, used in some European countries. Anything narrower should be qualified as miniature railroads.

Yup - Welsh narrow gauge railways, which carry thousands of passengers every day in the summer months, are 2ft or roughly 600mm.

[Coccodrillo]

Another list of gauges: http://parovoz.com/spravka/gauges-en.php

[Timon91]

Interesting map. Nice to see

[tuckerbox]

Originally Posted by Coccodrillo

Another list of gauges: http://parovoz.com/spravka/gauges-en.php

Very good information. I never knew there was so many different gauges.
In Western Australia we have two- Standard Guage and Narrow guage but most of Our Narrow Guage tracks are Country wheat lines in poor condition- light rails and very little ballast. max speeds on some are 30kmh.

[DJZG]

wow... Europe seems to be easy but check South America... what a variety of gauges...

i've read somewhere that Nauru in Pacific has narrow gauge that is used for transporting phosphates from inland to coast...
there is a map on wikipedia though...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:N...ap_english.svg

[sotavento]

Let me see .. .here in Portugal we have:

600mm ...
- "Barril" train ... a short "transfer" railway in southern portugal (it's lenght is only 1km)
- Minas de Pejao ... a Mine railway (currently closed)
- Transpraia ... another "transfer" railway ... located in the lisboa region (south of the Tejo and some 15km long)

900mm ...
- Lisboa CARRIS network (trams)
- braga trams (deseased network) also were of this gauge

1000mm ...
- "Sintra-Atlantico" (lisboa metro area) ... an electric tram on the countryside
- 3 large different "narrow gauge" networks in northern portugal ... namely:
- a deceased Y in porto metro area now converted to "light metro" as Metro do Porto, with a branch to guimarães converted to broad gauge (1668m
- 4 isolated narrow gauge "feeders" to Douro line mostly closed (1 fully closed and the other 3 amputated to about 1/3rd of original lenght)
- a dying Y + L network in the Vouga river ... only the two coastal spurs are still operative while the rest was dismantled in the 90's
- there were some other 1000mm railways mainly on mines but all are nowadays dismantled (Minas do Lena , Minas de Aljustrel , Minas de São domingos , etc)

1435mm ...
- Lisboa "metropolitano"
- Metro do Porto
- STCP tram network (Porto)
- MTS (Almada , Lisboa metro area south shore tram)

1668mm ...
- the "mainline" broad gauge railways
some 30/40km were renewed with dual gauge sleepers (wich alow for 1435mm conversion in the future)

2134mm ...
- the Ponta Delgada harbour railway ... it seems the Brunwell gauge locomotive is still over there hiding in a shelter.

Sidenotice: "old" broad gauge in portugal was 1664/1665mm ... "old" broad gauge in spain was 1672mm ... due to different "foot" measurements ... the "new" 1668mm is the middle term ... originaly the portuguese railways were of 1435mm (changed somewere around 1860/1870 to broad gauge)

[Xusein]

Africa is a mess!

Dual gauges will have to be used extensively in the future.