Narrow-gauge railway
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A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a
(3 ft 6 in).Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structure gauges, and lighter rails, they can be less costly to build, equip, and operate than standard- or broad-gauge railways (particularly in mountainous or difficult terrain).[1] Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often used in mountainous terrain, where engineering savings can be substantial. Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often built to serve industries as well as sparsely populated communities where the traffic potential would not justify the cost of a standard- or broad-gauge line. Narrow-gauge railways have specialised use in mines and other environments where a small structure gauge necessitates a small loading gauge.
In some countries, narrow gauge is the standard; Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Australian states of Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania have a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge, whereas Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand have metre-gauge railways. Narrow-gauge trams, particularly metre-gauge, are common in Europe. Non-industrial, narrow-gauge mountain railways are (or were) common in the Rocky Mountains of the United States and the Pacific Cordillera of Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, and Costa Rica.
Nomenclature
A narrow-gauge railway is one where the distance between the inside edges of the rails is less than 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in).
History
Early hand-worked lines
The earliest recorded railway appears in Georgius Agricola's 1556 De re metallica, which shows a mine in Bohemia with a railway of about 2 ft (610 mm) gauge. During the 16th century, railways were primarily restricted to hand-pushed, narrow-gauge lines in mines throughout Europe. In the 17th century, mine railways were extended to provide transportation above ground. These lines were industrial, connecting mines with nearby transportation points (usually canals or other waterways). These railways were usually built to the same narrow gauge as the mine railways from which they developed.[3]
Introduction of steam
The world's first steam locomotive, built in 1802 by Richard Trevithick for the Coalbrookdale Company, ran on a 3 ft (914 mm) plateway. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray's Salamanca built in 1812 for the 4 ft 1 in (1,245 mm) Middleton Railway in Leeds.[4] Salamanca was also the first rack-and-pinion locomotive. During the 1820s and 1830s, a number of industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom used steam locomotives. In 1842, the first narrow-gauge steam locomotive outside the UK was built for the 1,100 mm (3 ft 7+5⁄16 in)-gauge Antwerp-Ghent Railway in Belgium.[5] The first use of steam locomotives on a public, passenger-carrying narrow-gauge railway was in 1865, when the Ffestiniog Railway introduced passenger service after receiving its first locomotives two years earlier.[6]
Industrial use
Many narrow-gauge railways were part of industrial enterprises and served primarily as industrial railways, rather than general carriers. Common uses for these industrial narrow-gauge railways included mining, logging, construction, tunnelling, quarrying, and conveying agricultural products. Extensive narrow-gauge networks were constructed in many parts of the world; 19th-century mountain logging operations often used narrow-gauge railways to transport logs from mill to market. Significant sugarcane railways still operate in Cuba, Fiji, Java, the Philippines, and Queensland, and narrow-gauge railway equipment remains in common use for building tunnels.
Introduction of internal combustion
In 1897, a manganese mine in the
First World War and later
Extensive narrow-gauge
They were a short-lived military application, and after the war the surplus equipment created a small boom in European narrow-gauge railway building.Improvements
Heavy-duty tracks
The heavy-duty 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow-gauge railways in Australia (Queensland), New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines demonstrate that if track is built to a heavy-duty standard, performance almost as good as a standard-gauge line is possible.
Two-hundred-car trains operate on the
Another example of a heavy-duty narrow-gauge line is Brazil's
Fastest trains
Narrow gauge's reduced stability means that its trains cannot run at speeds as high as on broader gauges. For example, if a curve with standard-gauge rail (1435 mm) can allow speed up to 145 km/h (90 mph), the same curve with narrow-gauge rail (1067mm) can only allow speed up to 130 km/h (81 mph).[12]
In Japan and Queensland, recent permanent-way improvements have allowed trains on 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge tracks to exceed 160 km/h (99 mph).
A special 2 ft (610 mm) gauge railcar was built for the Otavi Mining and Railway Company with a design speed of 137 km/h (85 mph).[17] Curve radius is also important for high speeds: narrow-gauge railways allow sharper curves, but these limit a vehicle's safe speed.
Gauges
Many narrow gauges, from 15 in (381 mm) gauge and 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) gauge, are in present or former use. They fall into several broad categories:
Just under standard gauge
4 ft 7+3⁄4 in (1,416 mm)
4 ft 6 in gauge
4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm) track gauge (also known as Scotch gauge) was adopted by early 19th-century railways, primarily in the Lanarkshire area of Scotland. 4 ft 6+1⁄2 in (1,384 mm) lines were also constructed, and both were eventually converted to standard gauge.
Around 4 ft gauge
4 ft 1 in (1,245 mm)
4 ft (1,219 mm)
- Barrow-in-Furness Tramways Company
- Bradford Corporation Tramways
- City of Oxford Tramways Company
- Darwen Corporation Tramways
- Derby Tramways Company
- Falkirk and District Tramways
- Glasgow Subway
- Honolulu Rapid Transit and Land Company
- Keighley Tramways
- Padarn Railway
- Reading Corporation Tramways
- Redruth and Chasewater Railway
- Saundersfoot Railway
- Wellington tramway system
1,200 mm (3 ft 11+1⁄4 in)
3 ft 9+1⁄2 in (1,156 mm)
- Arcata and Mad River Railroad
- Northern Redwood Lumber Company[19]
3 ft 9 in (1,143 mm)
1093 mm gauge
3 ft 6 in gauge
1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) between the inside of the rail heads, its name and classification vary worldwide and it has about 112,000 kilometres (70,000 mi) of track.
Similar gauges
- 1,055 mm (3 ft 5+1⁄2 in) in Algeria
- 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in) on the Hejaz railway in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria; only a few lines survive.
Metre gauge and Italian metre gauge
As its name implies, metre gauge is a track gauge of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in). It has about 95,000 km (59,000 mi) of track.
According to Italian law, track gauges in Italy were defined from the centre of each rail rather than the inside edges of the rails. This gauge, measured 950 mm (3 ft 1+3⁄8 in) between the edges of the rails, is known as Italian metre gauge.
3 ft, 900 mm, and Swedish three-foot gauge
There were a number of large 3 ft (914 mm) railroad systems in North America; notable examples include the
2 ft 9 in gauge
A few railways and tramways were built to 2 ft 9 in (838 mm) gauge, including
800 mm, 2 ft 6 in, Bosnian and 750 mm gauge
800 mm (2 ft 7+1⁄2 in) gauge railways are commonly used for
Between 2 ft 5 in (737 mm) and 2 ft 1 in (635 mm) gauge
Gauges such as 2 ft 3 in (686 mm), 2 ft 4 in (711 mm) and 2 ft 4+1⁄2 in (724 mm) were used in parts of the UK, particularly for railways in Wales and the borders, with some industrial use in the coal industry. Some sugar cane lines in Cuba were 2 ft 3+1⁄2 in (699 mm).[20]
2 ft and 600 mm gauges
2 ft (610 mm) gauge railways were generally constructed in the former British colonies. The U.S. had a number of railways of that gauge, including several in the state of Maine such as the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway. 1 ft 11+3⁄4 in (603 mm), 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) and 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in (597 mm) were used in Europe.
Minimum gauge
Gauges below
See also
- Feldbahn
- Forest railway
- Heeresfeldbahn
- Industrial railway
- List of track gauges
- List of tram systems by gauge and electrification
- Military railways
- Minimum-gauge railway
- Narrow-gauge railway modelling
- Narrow-gauge railways in the Netherlands
- Narrow-gauge railways in Sweden
- Narrow-gauge railways in Europe
- Rail transport in Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
- Ridable miniature railway
- Track gauge
- Trench railways
- War Department Light Railways
References
- ^ Spooner, Charles Easton (1879). Narrow Gauge Railways. p. 71.
- ^ Coulls, Anthony (15 April 2018). Narrow Gauge Locomotives. Amberley Publishing.
Narrow gauge is defined as anything less than the standard gauge of UK main lines
- ISBN 0-7153-0196-9.
- ^ Dawson, Anthony (17 June 2020). Before Rocket: The Steam Locomotive up to 1829. Gresley.
- ISBN 0-86093-533-7.
- ^ Quine, Dan (2013). The George England locomotives of the Ffestiniog Railway. London: Flexiscale.
- ^ A Benzine Lgocomotive for use in Mines, The Petroleum Industrial and Technical Review, vol. 2, no. 68 (23 June 1900); page 388.
- ^ Benzine Locomotive, English Mechanic and World of Science, No. 1713 (21 January 1898); pages 532–533.
- ^ Quine, Dan (March 2019). "F.C. Blake and the Mortlake Tramways". Industrial Railway Record (236). the Industrial Railway Society.
- ^ Dunn, Richard (1 January 1990). Narrow gauge to no man's land: U.S. Army 60 cm gauge railways of the First World War in France. Benchmark Publications.
- ^ Westwood, J. N. (1980). Railways at War. Howell-North Books.
- ^ "日刊 動労千葉". doro-chiba.org (in Japanese).
- ^ "Annual Report 1998-1999" (PDF). Queensland Rail. 1999. pp. 16, 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2009.
- ^ "Rail Speed Records". Speed Record Club. Archived from the original on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
- ^ "Class 5E/6E Electric". home.intekom.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2008.
- ^ "Pantograph testing in South Africa". Traintesting.com. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
- ^ Shaw, Frederic J. (1958). Little Railways of the World. Howell-North.
- ISBN 978-3-89494-130-7.
- ISBN 978-0-87004-385-7.
- ^ [1] (2003)
Notes
- "Trade House" Kambarka Engineering Works "
- P. Whitehouse, J. Snell. Narrow Gauge Railways of the British Isles, David & Charles, 1994, ISBN C-7153-0196-9
- Railroads of Colorado: Your Guide to Colorado's Historic Trains and Railway Sites, Claude Wiatrowski, Voyageur Press, 2002, hardcover, 160 pages, ISBN 0-89658-591-3
- Keith Chester. "East European Narrow Gauge" 1995
- "Narrow Gauge Through the Bush – Ontario's Toronto Grey and Bruce and Toronto and Nipissing Railways"; Rod Clarke; pub. Beaumont and Clarke, with the Credit Valley Railway Company, Streetsville, Ontario, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9784406-0-2
- "The Narrow Gauge For Us – The Story of the Toronto and Nipissing Railway"; Charles Cooper; pub. The Boston Mills Press; Erin, Ontario, 1982.
- "Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada"; Omer Lavallee; pub. Railfair, Montreal, 1972.
- "Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada"; Omer Lavallee, expanded and revised by Ronald S Ritchie; pub. Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Markham, Ontario, 2005.
- "The Toronto Grey and Bruce Railway 1863–1884; Thomas F McIlwraith; pub. Upper Canada Railway Society, Toronto, 1963.
- "Steam Trains to the Bruce"; Ralph Beaumont; pub. The Boston Mills Press; Cheltenham, Ontario, 1977
- "Running Late on the Bruce"; Ralph Beaumont & James Filby; pub The Boston Mills Press, Cheltenham, Ontario, 1980
- Nevada Central Narrow Gauge Archived 11 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine; Michael J. Brown