Railway Gauges: an Overview

Since the invention of steam trains in the nineteenth century, tracks have been built in various different sizes of gauge. (Gauge is a measure of the distance between the tracks.) George Stephenson built the Stockton and Darlington Railway with a gauge of 4 foot 8 inches, having used the same gauge for testing on the Killingworth Wagonway. This in turn was based on a mine tramway called the Willington Way.

Different gauges were used for different railways in the United Kingdom at the time. The Penydarren Tramroad in South Wales used a gauge of 4 foot 4 inches. The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway in Scotland used 4 foot 6 inches. The Dundee and Newtyle Railway, elsewhere in Scotland, used a gauge of 4 foot 6 and a half inches. The Redruth and Chasewater Railway used 4 foot. The Arbroath and Forfar Railway used a gauge of 5 foot 6 inches. The Ulster Railway used 6 foot 2 inches. However, following the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway many railways, including the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, used the same gauge as it had used, or in fact a very slightly larger one, 4 foot 8 and a half inches, which became known as standard gauge. It was also known as narrow gauge, in contrast to broad gauge, which was used by the Great Western Railway (7 foot initially, although this later changed to 7 foot and a quarter of an inch). There was some dispute as to whether narrow or broad gauge was better, while some railways continued to use other alternatives, for instance the Eastern Counties Railway used a gauge of 5 feet.

As railways spread around the world, a variety of gauges continued to be used. Some of the most common gauges were 3 foot 6 inches (used, for instance, in Southern and Central Africa, the Philippines, Japan and part of Australia), Russian gauge (4 foot 11 and inches – used in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Finland, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan), Finnish gauge (5 foot – used in Finland), Irish gauge (5 foot 3 inches – used in Ireland, Brazil and parts of Australia), Iberian gauge (5 foot 5 and inches – used in Spain and Portugal) and Indian gauge (5 foot 6 inches – used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina and parts of the United States). Standard gauge was used in Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Israel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Korea, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, and some lines in India, Japan and Taiwan.

Within the United States there was also some variation in the gauge used for railways. The standard gauge of 4 feet 8 and a half inches was widely used, for instance, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Boston & Albany. The Pennsylvania Railway used a slightly different gauge of 4 feet 9 inches. The Erie Lackawanna used a broader gauge of 6 feet. Canadian railways used a gauge of 5 feet 6 inches. In the Southern states of the United States the most common gauge was 5 feet 0 inches. The transcontinental railroad was initially planned at 5 feet 0 inches but later on they changed the plan and used standard gauge, 4 feet 8 and a half inches.

Some interesting alternative gauge sizes that are no longer in use include 6 foot 4 and inches, used in the Netherlands between 1839 and 1864, 5 foot 9 and a quarter inch, used briefly in Indonesia, 4 foot 11 and inches, used in Ukraine on the Kiev tramway, 3 foot 5 and inches used in 1911 in Poland on the Częstochowa–Herby line.