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Royal Commission On Railway Gauges
The Royal Commission on Railway Gauges was held in the United Kingdom in 1845 to choose between the Broad Gauge of the Great Western Railway and its allies, and the so-called narrow gauge used by most of the rest of the country. The situation in Ireland where there were three gauges was also considered. Following the Royal Commission in August 1846 the Gauge Act was passed which mandated all new railways be constructed to in England, Scotland and Wales, and to in Ireland. The Great Western Railway was allowed to continue with . Narrow gauges Really narrow gauges such as of the Ffestiniog Railway appear to have been overlooked. in Unlike Italy and France, which regulated the choice of narrow gauge gauges, Britain did not, which resulted in a large number of narrow gauges, including: * – earliest use in 1836. * – 1879 * – 1859 * – 1884 * – 1873 * – 1863 * Several other rarely used gauges See also * Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846 * Rail g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broad Gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS states, Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine), Mongolia and Finland. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Irish Gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Ireland, and the Australian states of Victoria and Adelaide. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Iberian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Spain and Portugal. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Indian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Chile, and on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is the widest gauge in common use anywhere in the world. 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. History In Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838 with the initial route completed between London and Bristol in 1841. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who chose a broad gauge of —later slightly widened to —but, from 1854, a series of amalgamations saw it also operate standard-gauge trains; the last broad-gauge services were operated in 1892. The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act 1921, which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory, and it was finally merged at the end of 1947 when it was nationalised and became the Western Region of British Railways. The GWR was called by some "God's Wonderful Railway" and by others the "Great Way Round" but it was famed as the "Holiday ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standard Gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with approximately 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except those in Russia, Finland, and Uzbekistan. The distance between the inside edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States and on some heritage British lines, where it is defined in U.S. customary/Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches" which is equivalent to 1435.1mm. History As railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge (the distance, or width, between the inner sides of the rails) to be used. Different railways used different gauges, and where rails of different gauge met – ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regulating The Gauge Of Railways Act 1846
The Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vic. c.57) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, that was designed to standardise railway tracks. It achieved royal assent on 18 August 1846, during the reign of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It mandated that the track gauge – which was the distance between the two running rails' inner faces – of 4 feet 8 inches to be the standard for Great Britain and 5 feet 3 inches to be the standard for Ireland.The metric equivalents of the dimensions specified are 1435 and 1600 millimetres respectively. The Act The Act stipulated that: Furthermore, it also provided that, following the Act's passing, it would be illegal to alter a railway gauge that was in use for the conveyance, i.e. transport, of passengers. Assessment The Act continued legislative approval of the broad-gauge railways constructed by the Great Western Railway engineer Isambard Kingdom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ffestiniog Railway
The Ffestiniog Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a heritage railway based on narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park. The railway is roughly long and runs from the harbour at Porthmadog to the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, travelling through forested and mountainous terrain. The line is single track throughout with four intermediate passing places. The first mile of the line out of Porthmadog runs atop an embankment called ''the Cob'', which is the dyke of the polder known as Traeth Mawr. The Festiniog Railway Company, which owns the railway, is the oldest surviving railway company in the world. It also owns the Welsh Highland Railway, which was re-opened fully in 2011. The two railways share the same track gauge and meet at Porthmadog station, with occasional trains working the entire route from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Caernarfon. History The railway company is prope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser
The ''Maitland Mercury'' is Australia's third oldest regional newspaper, preceded only by the ''Geelong Advertiser'' (estab. 1840) and the ''Launceston Examiner'' (estab. 1842). The ''Maitland Mercury'' was established in 1843 when it was called ''The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser''. ''The Maitland Mercury'' is still in circulation serving the city of Maitland and the surrounding Lower Hunter Valley. These days the Maitland Mercury has a weekly print edition which appears on Fridays. History It was originally a weekly newspaper, founded by Richard Jones, an English migrant from Liverpool who also served as treasurer of NSW for a brief period. The first issue was published as ''The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser'' on 7 January 1843. It has been a daily since 1894. when it was issued under two banners as ''The Maitland Daily Mercury'' during the week and ''The Maitland Weekly Mercury'' on Saturdays. From 1870 to 1873, Margaret Fall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Narrow-gauge Railways
There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railways including the first use of steam locomotives, the first public railway and the first preserved railway. History Early railways: before 1865 The earliest narrow-gauge railways were crude wooden trackways used in coal mines to guide wooden tubs. Because of the restricted loading gauge of the tunnels and the need for the tubs to be small enough to be pushed by one man, these railways were almost all narrow gauge. These underground lines often had short above-ground sections as well. After the start of the Industrial Revolution it became possible to create railways with iron tracks and wheels, which reduced the friction involved in moving wagons and made longer horse-hauled trains possible. These could move more material over longer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Gauge In Australia
Rail gauges in Australia display significant variations, which has presented an extremely difficult problem for Rail transport in Australia, rail transport on the Australian continent for over 150 years. , there are of narrow-gauge railways, of standard gauge railways and of broad gauge railways. In the 19th century, each of the History of Australia#Colonisation, colonies of Australia adopted their own Track gauge, gauges. However, with Federation of Australia, Federation in 1901 and the removal of trade barriers, the short sightedness of three gauges became apparent. It would be 94 years before all mainland state capitals were joined by one standard gauge. Rail gauges and route kilometres A report by the Australian Government’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, and the Australasian Railway Association, estimated that as of September 2020, there were of heavy rail lines open and operational throughout the nation. The three main railway gauges in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1845 In The United Kingdom
Events January–March * January 10 – Elizabeth Barrett receives a love letter from the younger poet Robert Browning; on May 20, they meet for the first time in London. She begins writing her ''Sonnets from the Portuguese''. * January 23 – The United States Congress establishes a uniform date for federal elections, which will henceforth be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. * January 29 – ''The Raven'' by Edgar Allan Poe is published for the first time, in the ''New York Evening Mirror''. * February 1 – Anson Jones, President of the Republic of Texas, signs the charter officially creating Baylor University (the oldest university in the State of Texas operating under its original name). * February 7 – In the British Museum, a drunken visitor smashes the Portland Vase, which takes months to repair. * February 28 – The United States Congress approves the annexation of Texas. * March 1 – President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the Un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
