I got this e-mail yesterday and I thought I’d share it with y’all since there was a big discussion on this topic a while back. I don’t know how much of it is true but its fun to think about.
Have a great weekend!
Disregard that e-mail. It is not true. See the below link.
http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm
Oh good grief; not this old wive's tale again...
Simply put: go to Europe and measure the ruts in a Roman road; they're wider than 4' 8.5". Then go to a farm and measure a horse's butt; two toghether (with spacing) is much wider than that too...
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
csmith9474 wrote:We shouldn't give the OP too hard of a time. They were just trying to pass on what they thought to be a fun bit of trivia.
orsonroy wrote:Oh good grief; not this old wive's tale again... Simply put: go to Europe and measure the ruts in a Roman road; they're wider than 4' 8.5". Then go to a farm and measure a horse's butt; two toghether (with spacing) is much wider than that too...
When I see a thread title like this, I always make sure to install a pilot plow on the next scheduled train.
If the answer count reaches ten, I couple on a wedge plow and an extra locomotive.
If the thread grows a second page, I call out the rotary.
Boy, does the SNOW get deep!
Chuck (who believes that the US standard gauge was decreed by Congress shortly after the Ashtabula Disaster, 29 December 1876)
The real reason is that a man saw the first rail locomotive that was being trialed from the rear, and marveled at its girth. He opined that it was as wide as his wife, and added that her backside was two axe handles wide. Stephenson, when he stopped laughing, thought about the measurment, and settled on it as his prototype.
Honest, you can look it up.
Neutrino wrote: That would make a Russian a bit above "standard" then. Funny. The kind of people who post these things without checking them out are the same ones who forward emails and keep rumors alive. They should have their computers taken away and given a pad of paper, some envelopes and a few stamps to get started. It would slow down the aggravation factor a bit... Btw, it's spelled gauge.
I'm sorry if I offended you Neutrino, but I like my computer and I will not let you take it. I did not intend for people to interpret the e-mail as fact, but more as an entertaining story. I just thought it was funny. So if it will make the world a better place, I will delete this thread so no one else is mislead.
Oh, thanks for the spelling tip, now I really feel stupid.
jbloch wrote:Smitty:That snopes.com rebuttal seems about as conjectural as the original e-mail post to me.Jim
Tell Snopes, not me.
Didn't we just go through all this a couple of weeks ago??
Much of Snopes stuff is. I have found errors in other parts of their lore.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Please keep sharing this kind of stuff, with the lower # of participation on this forum I see it as a place to have any kind of BS disscusion we want.
I think it is all very possible, but will we ever know. Wheres that wise old owl.
Do you think the romans had the same problem with the axles breaking if made longer than 5 feet, if so then even with the more modern methods the problem may not have been able to be solved. Thus since so much rail equipment was already in service we kept it as a standard?
Good thread, and if you don't like it don't participate.Didn't your mom ever teach you if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all?
John
CSXFan wrote: Neutrino wrote: That would make a Russian a bit above "standard" then. Funny. The kind of people who post these things without checking them out are the same ones who forward emails and keep rumors alive. They should have their computers taken away and given a pad of paper, some envelopes and a few stamps to get started. It would slow down the aggravation factor a bit... Btw, it's spelled gauge. I'm sorry if I offended you Neutrino, but I like my computer and I will not let you take it. I did not intend for people to interpret the e-mail as fact, but more as an entertaining story. I just thought it was funny. So if it will make the world a better place, I will delete this thread so no one else is mislead. Oh, thanks for the spelling tip, now I really feel stupid.
jbinkley60 wrote: jbloch wrote:Smitty:That snopes.com rebuttal seems about as conjectural as the original e-mail post to me.Jim Much of Snopes stuff is. I have found errors in other parts of their lore.
I have always wondered about that site. Especially "Much of Snopes stuff". Which specific errors have you found on their site? I would like to pass this info on to some other folks that I know that keep up with Snopes. I has assumed that everything was well researched and verified.
Again, please post links to these errors so I can get this out.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.