page_title: Broad-gauge railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Broad-gauge railway / History
caption_attribution_description: GWR No.22 AEC Diesel Railcar with Firefy Broad Guage Steam Loco Replica at Didcot Great Western Railway Centre
context_page_description: A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge broader than the 1,435 mm standard-gauge railways.
  Broad gauge of 1,524 mm, commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union, Mongolia and Finland. Broad gauge of 1,600 mm, commonly known as Irish Gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Ireland.
  Broad gauge of 1,668 mm, commonly known as Iberian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Spain and Portugal. Broad gauge of 1,676 mm, commonly known as Indian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Chile, and on the BART in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is possible for trains on both Iberian gauge and Indian gauge to travel on each other's tracks with no modifications in the vast majority of cases. This is the widest gauge in common use anywhere in the world.
context_section_description: In Great Britain broad gauge was first used in Scotland for the Dundee and Arbroath Railway (1836-1847) and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway (1838-1848). Both two short and isolated lines, they were built in 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm). The lines were subsequently converted to standard gauge and connected to the emerging Scottish rail network.
  The Great Western Railway, was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, in 1838, with a gauge of 7 ft ¹⁄₄ in (2,140 mm), and retained this gauge until 1892. Some harbours also used railways of this gauge for construction and maintenance. These included Portland Harbour and Holyhead Breakwater, which used a locomotive for working sidings. As it was not connected to the national network, this broad-gauge operation continued until the locomotive wore out in 1913. The gauge initially proposed by Brunel was 7 ft (2,134 mm) exactly but this was soon increased by ¹⁄₄ in (6 mm) to 7 ft ¹⁄₄ in (2,140 mm) to accommodate clearance problems identified during early testing. George Stephenson was to add an extra half inch to his original 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) gauge for the same reason.
  While the parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was initially prepared to authorise lines built to the broad gauge of 7 ft (2,134 mm), it was eventually rejected by the Gauge Commission in favour of all new railways in England, Wales and Scotland being built to standard gauge of 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm), this being the gauge with the greatest mileage. Railways which had already received their enabling Act would continue at the 7 ft gauge. Ireland, using the same criteria, was allocated a different standard gauge, the Irish gauge, of 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) which is also used in the Australian states of South Australia and Victoria. Broad-gauge lines in Britain were gradually converted to dual gauge or standard gauge from 1864, and finally the last of Brunel's broad gauge was converted over a single weekend in 1892.
  In 1839 the Netherlands started its railway system with two broad-gauge railways. The chosen gauge of 1,945 mm (6 ft 4 ⁹⁄₁₆ in) was applied between 1839 and 1866 by the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM) for its Amsterdam–The Hague–Rotterdam line and between 1842 and 1855, firstly by the Dutch state, but soon by the Nederlandsche Rhijnspoorweg-Maatschappij, for its Amsterdam–Utrecht–Arnhem line. But the neighbouring countries Prussia and Belgium already used standard gauge, so the two companies had to regauge their first lines.  In 1855, NRS regauged its line and shortly afterwards connected to the Prussian railways. The HSM followed in 1866. There are replicas of one broad-gauge 2-2-2 locomotive (De Arend) and three carriages in the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht. These replicas were built for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Railways in 1938–39.
  The erstwhile Great Indian Peninsula Railway introduced a broad gauge of 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) for the first passenger railway line in India, between Bori Bunder and Thane. This was later adopted as the standard throughout the country, as it was thought to be safer in areas prone to cyclones and flooding. The 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) gauge is now commonly referred to as Indian gauge. While some initial freight railway lines in India were built using standard gauge, most of the standard and narrow gauge railways have since been dismantled and relaid in broad gauge.
  Ireland and some states in Australia and Brazil have a gauge of 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm), but Luas, the Dublin light rail system, is built to standard gauge. Russia and the other former Soviet Republics use a 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 ²⁷⁄₃₂ in) (originally 5 ft (1,524 mm)) gauge while Finland continues to use the 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge inherited from Imperial Russia (the two standards are close enough to allow full interoperability between Finland and Russia). Portugal and the Spanish Renfe system use a gauge of 1,668 mm (5 ft 5 ²¹⁄₃₂ in) called Ancho Ibérico in Spanish or Bitola Ibérica in Portuguese (see Iberian gauge); though there are plans to convert to standard gauge.
  In Toronto, Canada, 
caption: A replica GWR Firefly Class broad gauge steam locomotive, with a preserved, standard-gauge GWR railcar, Didcot Railway Centre, 2009
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