Broad gauge

[Eriediamond]

A thread about the differences between "scale" and "gauge" provokes this thought. I model the ERIE and back in the early days (real early-before 1880), it and some other railroads were built with "broad gauge" track (6 ft between the rails). Just curious if any one has modeled this? Ken

[andrechapelon]

A thread about the differences between "scale" and "gauge" provokes this thought. I model the ERIE and back in the early days (real early-before 1880), it and some other railroads were built with "broad gauge" track (6 ft between the rails). Just curious if any one has modeled this? Ken

 

When it comes to broad gauge, the Erie was a piker. The Great Western Railway in Britain was originally built to a gauge of 7 ft 1/4 in. The Brits even have a Broad Gauge Society dedicated to accurately modeling the GWR in broad gauge days. http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/exhibfield/exhibfield.html (there's a link to a map of Newbury at the site).

Newbury, Berkshire, UK is located a few miles south of the M4 between Heathrow and Swindon (which, incidentally, has a fine railway museum http://tinyurl.com/zm238 ). From Heathrow, you'd want to head west on the M4 exiting at the A34 south turning left onto the A339 into Newbury.

Andre                         .

 

[Dave-the-Train]

I haven't been there for years but the GWR Society at Didcot had a length of broadgauge track complete with carriages, wagons... and a real steam engine... all replicas from drawings.  Very impressive.  Next time I'm down that way I'll take a look to see if it's still there.

Most models layouts include some dual gauge... it makes pointwork (switches) interesting.

[Train 284]

Somewhere near Boston I think they have a trolley line that still runs on 5 foot gauge.

[dragonriversteel]

Ken,

    Bethleham steel in PA used  6 foot gauge on their high line for coke and ore shuttle cars. The tracks ran from one side of the furnaces to the other, abou 4000' of track.

Patrick

Beaufort,SC

DRSC

 

[dragonriversteel]

Ken,

  Here's a link to bethleham steel high line shot. Just to give you an idea just what a high line car is. I couldn't find any photos of the track work for the six foot gauge, but it is six foot none the less.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=149123

Patrick

[on30francisco]

The BART commuter trains in the San Francisco Bay Area run on a broad gauge of 5'6".

[tomikawaTT]

A few years back I Googled "Railroad Gauge Width," and came up with a seven page listing running from 191mm (7 1/2 inches) to ridiculous.  Standard (1435mm, 56 1/2 inches) gauge appears halfway down page 6, followed by a full page plus of wider-gauge listings.  Six were from the US, three current (as of 2002) and three obsolete.

"Ridiculous?"  The last listing, 3 meter gauge, "Hitler's project, never built."  I guess "Der Fuhrer" wanted something to support even bigger railroad guns!

Chuck

[chutton01]

Here's a thread from the railroad.net message board regarding different gauges of the world http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3172

There's quite a bit of useful and interesting information in that thread (of course, mixed in with the usual rantings, ravings, and bs of your average message board thead  )

"Ridiculous?"  The last listing, 3 meter gauge, "Hitler's project, never built."  I guess "Der Fuhrer" wanted something to support even bigger railroad guns!

Chuck

I think that was to be called the Breitspurban; if you want to see some interesting conceptual imagery of this, Robert Barnes has painted several such scenes

http://www.robinbarnes.net/broad1.jpg  

http://www.robinbarnes.net/broad2.jpg  

http://www.robinbarnes.net/broad3.jpg  

http://www.robinbarnes.net/

[Jetrock]

Some Northcoast logging lines used seven-foot gauge, running on pole roads: instead of iron or steel track, they used logs for rails. The wheels of these locomotives were flanged on both sides, like a broad pulley, to stay on the logs.