The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-01-06
BATTLE OF THE GUAGES.
Railroad Tracks of Many Different
Widths in the United States.

The American standard railroad
gauge Of to-day was predetermined
by the tramways in the English coal
mines, which were made to conform
to the widths of the common road
wagons. .
When George Stephenson choose a
track for his first locomotive he nat
urally adopted the guage Of four feet
eight and one half inches to which
he had been accustomed in the New
castle colleries. .... . .,.-. :.
With the building of. the first rail-
roads in America came the importa-
ton of English locomotives, some of
which were. from. Stephenson's shops,
and the result was a general introduce
ton Of the English guage as the stan
dard in this country, particularly in
New England and New York, and in
the sections of the West where rail-
road construction was financed by
Boston or New York capitalists. -
Except in Texas the prevailing
gauge throughout the South was five
feet. In the middle States there was
a confusion of gauges. AT least sew
en- different widths of tracks could be
found within the single State of
Pennsylvania, and six. of these ranged
with fractional variations between
standard guage and four feet ten in
ches. The same condition existed In
Ohio. ..... -.
Many of the most prominent lines
were originally constructed with.
other than standard track. The Fri
and the Albany and Susquehanna had
a gauge of six feet, as did the Della
ware, Lackawanna and Western. The
Galena and Chicago Union (now the
Chicago and Northwestern) also
adopted the six foot guage, but after
forty miles had been constructed the
track was relaid at standard width.
The Missouri Pacific had a. gauge
of five feet six inches; the Chesa-
peake and Ohio, five feet; the Gin
cinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, four
feet ten inches; the Lake Shore and
Michigan Southern, four feet nine
and one-half inches, and the Pennsyl-
vania, four feet nine inches.
It was once thought that railroads
of a gauge of three feet, or Of three
feet 6 inches, were particularly
adapted to regions where construc-
ton costs are necessarily heavy and
traffic light. Experience soon demon
strated, however, that they are lack
ing in operating efficiency and they
are everywhere disappearing. Within
a few years the Central Of Vermont
has raised the track of one of its
branches and the Southern Pacific
has only recently converted it's Oak
land-San Jose line into standard
road. ..
Shippers avoided sending their
goods over routes where they would
have to be reloaded and the process
of transferring freight was extreme
ly costly to the railroads, absorb
ing large share of the profits. Some
companies laid a third rail so as to
accommodate cars of standard gauge.
Others shifted loaded cars by means
of cranes from one set of trucks to
another and the Vermont Central fur
nished cars with trucks which could
be adjusted to either standard or mar
row gauge track.
Asa Whitney, prominent in the '4Os
as protector of a railroad to the Pa
cifc, proposed to construct a road
with track six feet wide, and Hart
we'll Carver in an attempt to outbid
Whitney, offered to build track with
a gauge Of eight or even ten feet upon
which should be run cars 200 feet in
length. When the construction of
the Pacific railroad was undertaken
the Central Pacific was started with a
five-foot track, while the Union Pa
cific was begun as a standard road.
The original Pacific railroad bill
left to the President the determina-
tion of the gauge, and Lincoln decid-