Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1872-03-19
MARROW GUAGE..
History of Railroad Guages How the #
50 inch Guage was Established-Ex-
periments with Wider Guages-
The N arrow Guage the
Most Profitable, &c.
From THE CENTRAL wEsT)

The subject of narrow gauge
railroads is at the present time at
tracing very much attention, not
only from railroad men, bat from the
people a. large. We propose, 10 this
article, 70 state some Of the consider
ations upon which it, claim to the
public attention is based.
Narrow guage as now understood,
means guage less than the Stephen
son guage feet 81 inches The first
railroads constructed in England
were operated by horses, and the
guage was made the same With as
the wagons then in use sufficiently
wide to permiC two horses t. travel
between The rails.
When Stephenson invent ed the
locomotive he adapted it to the rail-
roads then built, without raising the
question as towhether the guage then
in use was the most practical -
Brunell, the most distinguished engi.
neer cOtemporary with Stephenson,
objected to that suage as being too
narrow. and advocated broader
one. He built the Great Western
Railway with guage of seven feet.
claiming at the time that be was
building a road sufficiently magnifi.
Gent to answer, not only for bis day,
but for all future time.
Various other guages were adopted
BY other engineers, but all greater
than the Stephenson guage. Exper-
fence has, however, shown that the
5 feet, 81 feet, s feet, and 7 feet
guages are all less economical than
that Of 4 feet 81 inches, in proportion
TO the extra width OF guage. Very
many Of these broader guages have
been changed to that of Stepheuson's
adoption and at one time it seemed
probable that this guage would be-
come the uniform guage Of the world.
But necessity is the mother of in
vention," and inventions prompted
by necessity have often given won
derful impulse to the material pros
perity Of nations, and largely promo
ted their moral and social welfare.
Four or five years ago the proprie-
tor Of q slate mine in Wales wished
to have a railroad TO the sea but the
only practicable lire for such a road
lay hlong the side of PERCEPTIONS
bluff To grade road Of the ordi-
nary gusge would have been entirely
TOO exclusive, and hence necessity
compelled the adoption of a narrower
one A road was constructed having
only width of 234 inches between
the rails, just sufficient for one mule
Il tarvel The business of the road
increased so fast that necessity again
led the trial of little locomotive on
this road The curves had been
made very sharp with the view of
slow motion; curves with radius
of 1872 feet, entirely impracticable
for the common guage at any rate of
speed with the ordinary car. This
effort 70 run locomotive on so mar.
row a track appeared so rash that
the inspector Of railways limited the
speed of travel to twelve miles an
I utut- OAt NnS euCCtcSlul
Of the road by this now motive
| power, led the re moval of all limit
atoms of speed. Passenger trains
now travel at an average speed of
thirty miles an hour, and freight
trains of thousand feet 10 length
are run at On average speed of twenty
miles an hour. There is no railroad
west of Chicago doing greater
passenger or freight traffic, per mile,
than this Welsh road, and no railroad
in the world has been operated for
so great a length of time with such
unitol m safety. 1t has positively
demonstrated that narrowing the
guage does not diminish the capacity
for traffic. aud this little one horse
road has become not only the most
famous, but in it's extent of business:
capacity, one of the greatest railroad:
in operation. The narrow guagt
road is so small in comparison with
the broad guage, that the first i'm
precision of almost every one is, thai
as "a matter of course, its capacity j;
not equal to the business OF our mar
trunk lines. This is an error. Their,
are several hundred miles Of thcs,
! roads now in operation 10 Europe