From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: toronto subway gauge
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 92 08:53:21 GMT

Dewi Williams (dewi@bnr.ca) writes:

> According to the book "Not a One-Horse Town", City of Toronto bylaw 353
> of 22 July 1861 authorized the Street Railway company, and set the gauge
> as the width between the wheels of the standard English buggy "in deference
> to the hundreds of such vehicles" in Toronto at that time.

So *that's* it!  Thanks for posting this, Dewi.  I'm quite surprised
that the answer turns out to be right there in the bylaw -- there are
places where I would have expected to see if it is that easy to find.

> Apparently the city wanted people to ride their buggies on the rails
> rather than beat up the pavement, which the city would have to repair. 

Not necessarily.  In the same year 1861, an American named George Francis
Train opened three short horse-drawn tram lines in London.  In "A History
of London Transport", volume 1, Barker and Robbins write:

    Rails which could be laid quite flush with the road were well known --
    they were used on some American tramways and James Samuel, one of
    Train's technical advisers, had recommended a rail of this sort in
    1857-58 when he was engineer for the LGOC's [defeated tramway] scheme.
    Yet Train favored another variety, the so-called step rail the outside
    of which, if not very carefully laid, protruded above the macadam
    road surface and became a hindrance to traffic crossing it.  These
    rails had been recently laid for Philadelphia's new tramways, and
    the choice seems to have been dictated by Train's connection with
    that town.  They provided a wide, flat surface a little below road
    level which could be used by ordinary cart and carriage wheels, as
    well as the stepped up part of the rail, which was supposed to be
    flush with the road, to accommodate the tramcars' flanged wheels.
 *  But the advantage of providing an iron road for the general use of
 *  carts and carriages, though apparently welcomed in Philadelphia
 *  where wheel gauges of private vehicles were even altered to fit
 *  the flat part of the new rails, was considerably diminished in
 *  London's thoroughfares where the macadam surface was tolerably well
 *  maintained, by the standards of the day.  And it was more than offset
    by the disadvantage that the raised part of the rail when badly laid
    was an obstacle to traffic because it protruded above road level.
    The unsuitability of this edge rail, allied to Train's bombastic
    manner, prejudiced tramway promotion in London for several years
    to come, and it may have been to some extent responsible for
    keeping the tramcar permanently out of the West End.
 
Note the part that I've starred.  Toronto didn't go to the extreme of
installing step rail, but I bet its street paving in 1861 was more like
Philadelphia's than like London's in quality.  The running of private
buggies on the streetcar tracks could well have been seen as a benefit
*to the buggy-riders*.  And of course, if getting the buggies off the
streets and onto the rails helped reduce the demand for better-paved
streets, well, so much the better.


Incidentally, the type of rail used for streetcar tracks in Toronto
changed some years back -- maybe in the 1970's.  Tracks laid prior to
that time all used "groove rail".  This has a cross-section sort of
like a vertically squashed, upside-down letter h.  The vertical stroke
of the h is the real rail, bearing the weight of the streetcar, and
the groove is for the wheel flange.  The other part of the rail is
there for the benefit of road vehicles, enabling the rail to form a
smoother boundary with the road surface -- particularly convenient
when that surface consisted of stone blocks.

Newly relaid tracks, however, use conventional rails.  The difference
is that the road surface between the tracks is now always concrete, and
the concrete surface is simply depressed next to the rail to form a
groove for the flange.  Since concrete can be easily shaped this way
(unlike stone) and retains the shape (unlike asphalt), there is no more
need for groove rail on relaid plain line.
-- 
Mark Brader		    "If cars were designed the same way as software is
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto	     today, they'd all have buggy-whip holders..."
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com				-- Marcus J. Ranum

Original text in this article is in the public domain.
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