Railways with a

track gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...

of fall within the category of broad gauge railways. , they were extant in Australia,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

History

600 BC :The Diolkos (Δίολκος) across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece – a grooved paved trackway – was constructed with an average gauge of . 1840 : The

Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway The Grand Duchy of Baden was an independent state in what is now southwestern Germany until the creation of the German Empire in 1871. It had its own state-owned railway company, the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways (''Großherzoglich Badische ...

was constructed in 1840-1851 to gauge before being converted to in 1854–1855. 1843 : The Board of Trade of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...

, after investigating a dispute caused by diverse gauges, recommended the use of in Ireland. 1846 : The Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846 made mandatory throughout all of Ireland. 1847 : The Swiss Northern Railway was opened as a line and converted to in 1854. 1854 : The first Australian railway to operate steam-powered freight and passenger services,

Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company The Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. The company was incorporated on 20 January 1853 to build the line from Melbourne to the port of Sandridge, now Port Melbourne. The proposal met ...

, was built as a line. 1858 : The first Brazilian railway was opened: the Companhia de Estrada de Ferro Dom Pedro II. 1863 : The Canterbury Railway in New Zealand was built in . It was converted to in 1876.

Nomenclature

* In the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the gauge is known as Irish gauge. () In Ireland it is also common to hear it referred to as "standard gauge" when distinguishing it from the various 3 ft gauge railways of the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

. * In Australia, where the states of Victoria and South Australia have this gauge (as did Tasmania in the 19th century), it is known as broad gauge. * In Brazil, the gauge is mainly known as broad gauge (), but occasionally as Irish gauge ().

Installations

Similar gauges

The Pennsylvania trolley gauges of and are similar to this gauge, but incompatible. There is also a gauge. See:

Track gauge in Ireland The track gauge adopted by the mainline railways in Ireland is . This unusually broad track gauge is otherwise found only in Australia (where it was introduced by the Irish railway engineer F. W. Sheilds), in the states of Victoria, southern New ...

Locomotives

Steam train leaving Great Victoria Street station - 1975 (geograph 3393960)

Before the advent of diesel and electric traction, one of the advantages of the broader Irish gauge compared to was that more space between steam locomotive frames allows for a bigger firebox, enabling generation of more steam.

References