Standard Guage?

[Ulrich]

It's about cost...changing the gauge over for an entire railroad or a country's rail system would involve an expenditure of astronomical proportions,  and given that most people and jurisdictions are up to their eyeballs in debt already, it ain't happening. 

[BaltACD]

Presuming that something like the current 3 piece truck is utilized for a 3 meter gauge - that is one hell of a long axle for each wheel set - I am not a metalurgist so I have to wonder how large of a diameter would be necessary with that long of an axle.  If we are talking about heavier axle loading than are presently experiencing on heavy haul standard gauge carriers - how much larger will the axles, bearings and wheels need to be to support the heavier loads and what would be that maximum load?

[Overmod]

wjstix

Overmod

I still don't know why the Tehuantepec railway wasn't designed to something like 3m gauge -- but it is

3m? 3 meters?...9'-9" gauge?

That's right -- the only real purpose is as a transcontinental bridge line for containerized traffic, and it would benefit from the ability to carry an appreciable percentage of a containership load in one train.

[wjstix]

Overmod

I still don't know why the Tehuantepec railway wasn't designed to something like 3m gauge -- but it is standard.  

3m? 3 meters?...9'-9" gauge?

[OWTX]

Indian Railways has standardized on 1676mm, replacing 1000\762\610mm lines outside of various mountain, heritage and tourist rides.

Loading gauge and weight limits count for as much as rail gauge when costing out conversions. So does traffic demand and projections.

[Euclid]

There would be collective savings on new equipment all built for one common gage, but that cost benefit would be more than offset by the cost of converting away from existing gages, track work, locomotives, and rolling stock.

 

And if the world were to decide on adopting a universal gage, it would be impossible to agree on what that gage should be.

[tree68]

BaltACD

I believe Russia is a 5 foot gauge - SPECIFICALLY so it is different than its neighbors.  China is Standard gauge and much of Europe is Standard gauge.

They did essentially the same thing with their weapons.

At least there's a metric measure for "standard gauge" - 1435mm

I would opine that totally new builds for dedicated ROW might go for a different gauge, as noted (BART).  Blending that with existing infrastructure  would be difficult (dual gauge, anyone).  The current 4' 8.5" seems to be serving us well.

[Overmod]

Most of the new high-speed development has been standard gauge [note sp.], much of it on the LGV premise that the enormous expense of last-mile HSR speed isn't justified in most services and that 'adaptive reuse' of existing city approaches and terminal facilities is easily accomplished.  (Provided your loading gage isn't mismeasured as in France!)

This means that countries that already have extensive investment in broad gauges (e.g. India, Spain, Ireland) may find it cost-effective to improve operations on that gauge rather than convert on a 'flag day' as we did for various gauge changes in the late 19th Century.

In the late Seventies, a major emphasis in Australian operation was 'bogie exchange' at Dynon, as an alternative to wholesale conversion of one or t'other gauge involved.  This is a stated alternative for noncontainerized interchange on some other systems (three-piece freight trucks being insanely difficult and non-cost-effective to 'gauge-change' on the fly as done for passenger trains in Spain and Switzerland).

Interesting is that the BART design premise of using a wider gauge for 'new build' has not flourished for bespoke HSR systems new-built in countries that can't afford them.  Likewise interesting is that even in Queensland no one seems to get HSR to run reliably on Cape gauge, let alone metre gauge, at even 125mph in practice.

I still don't know why the Tehuantepec railway wasn't designed to something like 3m gauge -- but it is standard.  That says a great dea about best 'compromise' gauge for everything...

[BaltACD]

I believe Russia is a 5 foot gauge - SPECIFICALLY so it is different than its neighbors.  China is Standard gauge and much of Europe is Standard gauge.

[CMStPnP]

All these development plans around the world and it comes to mind why don't they move to standardize railway gauge around the world?    I fully understand that narow guage has it's place and I am not against that but C'mon what is the deal with the broader gauges that ours and the slightly narrower gauges than ours?   If the world focused on fixing this issue and other standardized issues like freight car brakes, buffers, etc, etc.    We could broaden both the passenger and freight car market internationally based on one basic standard gauge and lower overall production costs of both railcar types.