Handbook of Railroad Construction; For the use of American engineers. / Containing the necessary rules, tables, and formulæ for the location, construction, equipment, and management of railroads, as built in the United States.

by George L. Vose

GAUGE.

18. The question of broad and narrow gauge has led to much discussion, and both plans claim among their advocates some of the best engineers. The narrow gauge (American and English,) is four feet eight and one half inches (from inside to inside of rail). The maximum adopted, is (the Great Western of England) seven feet. The American maximum (New York and Erie, and Ohio and Mississippi) is six feet. There is also in America four feet ten inches, five feet, and five feet six inches. The advantage of the broad gauge for a road doing an extensive business, is the increased stowage room in freight cars, thus rendering admissible shorter trains; by which the locomotive power is more directly applied on curves. More comfortable passenger cars, (the same length of car of course accommodates the same number of passengers). The disadvantages of a wide gauge are, increased expense of cutting, embanking, bridging, and masonry; increased expense of engines, cars, rails, sleepers, and all machinery; more wear and tear upon curves, by reason of greater difference between the lengths of inner and outer rails, and increased atmospheric resistance to fast trains, from increased bulk.

19. The general conclusion arrived at by a commission appointed by the Great Western Railway Company, (England,) consisting of Messrs. Nicholas Wood, J. K. Brunel, and John Hawkshaw, was, that four feet, eight and one half inches was rather narrow, but still enough for a certain class of roads; that two or three inches made no material difference; that seven feet was too wide for any road; that the weight of the broad gauge engine, compared with the small increase of power, was a serious evil; that engines could be run with perfect safety upon the narrow gauge at any speed from thirty to sixty miles per hour, and that no more had been attained upon the broad; that rolling friction was less upon the broad, owing to the increased diameter of wheels, but that friction from curves and atmospheric resistance was greater.

20. D. K. Clark, in “Railway Machinery,” p. 300, 301, makes the resistance as deduced from experiments made upon both the four feet, eight and one half inches, and the seven feet gauge, considerably greater upon the former than on the latter; but as the narrow gauge trials were made upon a curved road, with rails in a bad state, in average weather, while those upon the broad were made in good weather, upon a good and straight line, he leaves the gauge question open, and uses the same formula for all widths.

21. Want of increased power, can be an apology for increased gauge, until the capacity of the narrow gauge has been filled. The strongest engines in the world are upon the four feet, eight and one half inch gauge. No engines in America surpass or compare for absolute strength, with those upon the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The most powerful passenger engine ever built for high speeds, is Crampton’s engine “Liverpool,” (London and North-western Railroad, England,) gauge four feet, eight and one half inches.