Narrow Gauge
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A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a
track gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...
narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller
structure gauge A structure gauge, also called the minimum clearance outline, is a diagram or physical structure that sets limits to the extent that bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure can encroach on rail vehicles. It specifies the height and width of pl ...
s, and lighter rails, they can be less costly to build, equip, and operate than standard- or
broad-gauge railway 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 ( ...
s (particularly in mountainous or difficult terrain). 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 A structure gauge, also called the minimum clearance outline, is a diagram or physical structure that sets limits to the extent that bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure can encroach on rail vehicles. It specifies the height and width of pl ...
necessitates a small
loading gauge A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and ke ...
. In some countries, narrow gauge is the standard; Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Australian states of
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...
,
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
and
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
have a gauge, whereas Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand have
metre-gauge railway Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...
s. Narrow-gauge trams, particularly metre-gauge, are common in Europe. Non-industrial, narrow-gauge mountain railways are (or were) common in the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
of the United States and the
Pacific Cordillera The North American Cordillera, sometimes also called the Western Cordillera of North America, the Western Cordillera or the Pacific Cordillera, is the North American portion of the American Cordillera, the mountain chain system (cordillera) alon ...
of Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the former
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, Greece, and Costa Rica.


Nomenclature

A narrow-gauge railway is one where the distance between the inside edges of the rails is less than . Historically, the term was sometimes used to refer to
standard-gauge railway 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 E ...
s, to distinguish them from
broad-gauge railways 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 ...
, but this use no longer applies.


History


Early hand-worked lines

The earliest recorded railway appears in
Georgius Agricola Georgius Agricola (; born Georg Pawer or Georg Bauer; 24 March 1494 – 21 November 1555) was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empir ...
's 1556 '' De re metallica'', which shows a mine in Bohemia with a railway of about gauge. During the 16th century, railways were primarily restricted to hand-pushed, narrow-gauge lines in mines throughout Europe. In the 17th century,
mine railway A mine railway (or mine railroad, U.S.), sometimes pit railway, is a railway constructed to carry materials and workers in and out of a mine. Materials transported typically include ore, coal and overburden (also called variously spoils, waste ...
s were extended to provide transportation above ground. These lines were
industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...
, 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.


Introduction of steam

The world's first
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
, built in 1802 by
Richard Trevithick Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He w ...
for the Coalbrookdale Company, ran on a
plateway A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange o ...
. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was
Matthew Murray Matthew Murray (1765 – 20 February 1826) was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder ''Salamanca'' in 1812. He was an innovative design ...
's
Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...
built in 1812 for the
Middleton Railway The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960. The rail ...
in
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
. Salamanca was also the first
rack-and-pinion A rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a circular gear (the ''pinion'') engaging a linear gear (the ''rack''). Together, they convert rotational motion into linear motion. Rotating the pinion causes the rack to be driven i ...
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 -gauge Antwerp-Ghent Railway in Belgium. The first use of steam locomotives on a public, passenger-carrying narrow-gauge railway was in 1865, when the
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 an ...
introduced passenger service after receiving its first locomotives two years earlier.


Industrial use

Many narrow-gauge railways were part of industrial enterprises and served primarily as
industrial railway An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...
s, 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 Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
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
Lahn The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in t ...
valley in Germany was using two
benzine Petroleum benzine is a hydrocarbon-based solvent mixture that is classified by its physical properties (e.g. boiling point, vapor pressure) rather than a specific chemical composition. This complicates distinction within the long list of petroleu ...
-fueled locomotives with single cylinder
internal combustion engines An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...
on the 500mm gauge tracks of their
mine railway A mine railway (or mine railroad, U.S.), sometimes pit railway, is a railway constructed to carry materials and workers in and out of a mine. Materials transported typically include ore, coal and overburden (also called variously spoils, waste ...
; these locomotives were made by the Deutz Gas Engine Company (''Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz''), now
Deutz AG Deutz AG is a German internal combustion engine manufacturer, based in Porz, Cologne, Germany. History The company was founded by Nicolaus Otto, the inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, and his partner Eugen Langen on 31 ...
. Another early use of internal combustion was to power a narrow-gauge locomotive was in 1902. F. C. Blake built a 7 hp petrol locomotive for the Richmond Main Sewerage Board sewage plant at
Mortlake Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes. For many cen ...
. This gauge locomotive was probably the third petrol-engined locomotive built.


First World War and later

Extensive narrow-gauge rail systems served the front-line trenches of both sides in
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. 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 narrow-gauge railways in
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...
, South Africa, Japan, and New Zealand 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
Sishen–Saldanha railway line The Sishen–Saldanha railway line, also known as the Ore Export Line (OREX), is an heavy-haul railway line in South Africa. It connects iron ore mines near Sishen in the Northern Cape with the port at Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape. It is u ...
in South Africa, and high-speed
Tilt Train The Tilt Train is the name for two similar high-speed tilting train services, one electric and the other diesel, operated by Queensland Rail. They run on the North Coast line from Brisbane to Bundaberg and Rockhampton (electric) and Cairns (d ...
s run in Queensland. In South Africa and New Zealand, the loading gauge is similar to the restricted British loading gauge; in New Zealand, some
British Rail Mark 2 The Mark 2 family of railway carriages are British Rail's second design of carriages. They were built by British Rail workshops (from 1969 British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL)) between 1964 and 1975. They were of steel construction. Introdu ...
carriages have been rebuilt with new bogies for use by
Tranz Scenic Great Journeys New Zealand is the tourism division of KiwiRail that operate its three Scenic train services ( TranzAlpine, Northern Explorer and Coastal Pacific). The new division was launched in May 2017 and replaced the former tourism bran ...
(Wellington-Palmerston North service),
Tranz Metro Tranz Metro (formerly Cityrail and before that Cityline) was a New Zealand public transport operator. Beginning as the New Zealand Railways Corporation's Cityline division as a result of restructuring in the 1980s, in its final form Tranz Metr ...
(Wellington-Masterton service), and
Auckland One Rail Auckland One Rail is a train operator that commenced operating services under contract to Auckland Transport in January 2022. It is a 50/50 joint venture owned by Singapore-based ComfortDelGro and Australian-based UGL Rail. The operation is th ...
(Auckland suburban services). Another example of a heavy-duty narrow-gauge line is Brazil's EFVM. gauge, it has over-100-pound rail () and a
loading gauge A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and ke ...
almost as large as US non-excess-height lines. The line has a number of locomotives and 200-plus-car trains.


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 , the same curve with narrow-gauge rail ( 1067mm) can only allow speed up to . In Japan and Queensland, recent permanent-way improvements have allowed trains on gauge tracks to exceed .
Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...
's
Electric Tilt Train The Electric Tilt Train is the name for two identical high-speed tilting trains operated by Queensland Rail on the North Coast line from Brisbane to Bundaberg and Rockhampton which entered service in November 1998. History In March 1993, Qu ...
, the fastest train in Australia and the fastest gauge train in the world, set a record of . The speed record for narrow-gauge rail is , set in South Africa in 1978. A special gauge railcar was built for the
Otavi Mining and Railway Company The Otavi Mining and Railway Company (''Otavi Minen- und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'' or OMEG) was a railway and mining company in German South West Africa (today's Namibia). It was founded on 6 April 1900 in Berlin with the Disconto-Gesellschaft and ...
with a design speed of . 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 gauge and gauge, are in present or former use. They fall into several broad categories:


Just under standard gauge


*
Huddersfield Corporation Tramways Huddersfield Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Huddersfield, England, between 1883 and 1940. It initially used steam locomotives pulling unpowered tramcars, but as the system was expanded, a decision was taken to change to elec ...
*
Glasgow Corporation Tramways Glasgow Corporation Tramways were formerly one of the largest urban tram, tramway systems in Europe. Over 1000 municipally-owned trams served the city of Glasgow, Scotland, with over 100 route miles (160 route kilometres) by 1922. The system clo ...


4 ft 6 in gauge

track gauge (also known as Scotch gauge) was adopted by early 19th-century railways, primarily in the
Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...
area of Scotland. lines were also constructed, and both were eventually converted to standard gauge.


Around 4 ft gauge


*
Middleton Railway The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960. The rail ...


*
Barrow-in-Furness Tramways Company The Barrow-in-Furness Tramways Company operated a tramway service in Barrow-in-Furness between 1885 and 1932.The Golden Age of Tramways. Published by Taylor and Francis. History The Barrow-in-Furness Tramways Company was owned by Barrow-in-Fu ...
*
Bradford Corporation Tramways Bradford Corporation Tramways were a tramway network in the city of Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England which operated trams from 1882 until 1950 and trolleybuses from 1911 until 1972. The track gauge of the tramways was . History Ori ...
* City of Oxford Tramways Company *
Darwen Corporation Tramways Darwen Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Darwen between 1899 and 1946. History The Corporation took over the services operated by the Blackburn and Over Darwen Tramways Company within its boundary on 1 January 1899. Under the ...
*
Derby Tramways Company The Derby Tramways Company operated horse-drawn tramway services in Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East ...
* Falkirk and District Tramways *
Glasgow Subway The Glasgow Subway is an underground light metro system in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the fourth-oldest underground rail transit system in Europe after the London Underground, Liverpool's Mersey Railway and the Budapes ...
*
Honolulu Rapid Transit and Land Company Honolulu (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of H ...
*
Keighley Tramways Keighley Tramways Company operated a tramway service in Keighley between 1889 and 1901 with horse power. The system re-opened three days later as Keighley Corporation Tramways and stayed in service until 1924 when it closed for good. History ...
*
Padarn Railway The Padarn Railway was a narrow gauge railway in North Wales, built to the unusual gauge of . It carried slate from Dinorwic Quarry to Port Dinorwic. The line opened on 3 March 1843, replacing the Dinorwic Railway. It initially used horses, ...
* Reading Corporation Tramways *
Redruth and Chasewater Railway The Redruth and Chasewater Railway, (otherwise called the ''Redruth and Chacewater Railway'' using modern spelling), was an early mineral railway line in Cornwall, England, UK. It opened in 1825 and was built to convey the output from copper mine ...
*
Saundersfoot Railway The Saundersfoot Railway was a Welsh industrial narrow-gauge railway in Pembrokeshire, Wales, built between 18301834, to connect Saundersfoot harbour to the local coal mines. Trading began on 1 March 1834 and within a few years it comprised a s ...
*
Wellington tramway system The Wellington tramway system (1878–1964) operated in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. The tramways were originally owned by a private company, but were purchased by the city and formed a major part of the city's transport system. Tra ...


*
Central Funicular The Central Funicular (Italian: ''Funicolare Centrale''), is one of four funiculars in the public transportion system of Naples, Italy. The system is a true funicular: an inclined railway with two passenger cars, connected via cables, operating ...
*
Fribourg funicular The Fribourg funicular, also known as the Neuveville - Saint-Pierre funicular, is a funicular railway in the Swiss town of Fribourg. It is powered by wastewater. History The Fribourg funicular was opened February 4, 1899. It connects the Sa ...
*
Gardena Ronda Express The Gardena Ronda Express is a funicular situated in the Val Gherdëina near Santa Cristina Gherdëina, connecting the Col Raiser lifts to the Sasslong/Ruacia and Ciampinoi lifts in northern Italy. Trains Two funiculars operate on the system. ...
*
Rheineck–Walzenhausen mountain railway The Rheineck–Walzenhausen mountain railway (german: Bergbahn Rheineck–Walzenhausen; RhW) is a long rack railway in Switzerland. It links Rheineck station, in the municipality of Rheineck and the canton of St Gallen, with the village and hea ...
,
Appenzell Railways Appenzell Railways (german: Appenzeller Bahnen, AB) is a Swiss railway company with headquarters in Herisau. It operates a network of railways in the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, St. Gallen and Thurgau. History The ...
* Schlossbergbahn (Freiburg) *
Stoosbahn The Stoosbahn, also known as the Schwyz–Stoos funicular or ''Standseilbahn Schwyz–Stoos'', is a funicular railway in the Swiss canton of Schwyz. It connects the Hintere Schlattli in the municipalities of Muotatal, Morschach, and Schwyz with ...
*
Zagreb Funicular The Zagreb Funicular ( hr, Zagrebačka uspinjača) is the funicular in Zagreb, Croatia, operated by ZET, situated in Tomić Street, connecting Ilica ( Donji Grad) with Strossmayerovo šetalište ( Strossmayer promenade) to the north ( Gornji Gra ...


* Arcata and Mad River Railroad * Northern Redwood Lumber Company


* Middlebere Plateway


3 ft 7 in gauge

*
Köping–Uttersberg–Riddarhyttan Railway The Köping–Uttersberg–Riddarhyttan Railway (Swedish: ''Köping-Uttersberg-Riddarhyttans Järnväg'' or ''KURJ'') was a narrow-gauge railway in central Sweden, long. The railway ran northwest from the port city of Köping to several small in ...


3 ft 6 in gauge

between the inside of the rail heads, its name and classification vary worldwide and it has about of track.


Similar gauges

* in
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
* 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 . It has about 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 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 railroad systems in North America; notable examples include the
Denver & Rio Grande The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...
and
Rio Grande Southern The Rio Grande Southern Railroad (reporting mark RGS, also referred to as "The Southern") was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge railroad which ran in the southwestern region of the US state of Colorado, from the towns of Durango to Ridgway, ...
in Colorado and the South Pacific Coast,
White Pass and Yukon Route The White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&Y, WP&YR) is a Canadian and U.S. Class III narrow-gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railr ...
and West Side Lumber Co of California. was also a common track gauge in South America, Ireland and on the
Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...
. was a common gauge in Europe. Swedish three-foot-gauge railways () are unique to that country.


2 ft 9 in gauge

A few railways and tramways were built to gauge, including Nankai Main Line (later converted to ),
Ocean Pier Railway at Atlantic City The Ocean Pier Railway at Atlantic City was an electric narrow gauge railway, which ran over the entire length of the Ocean Pier in Atlantic City, about into the ocean. History The Ocean Pier at Atlantic City was extended by in 1896/97. At t ...
,
Seaton Tramway The Seaton Tramway is a narrow gauge electric tramway in the East Devon district of South West England. The route runs alongside the Axe Estuary and the River Coly, running between the coastal resort of Seaton, the village of Colyford, an ...
( converted from ) and
Waiorongomai Tramway The Piako County Tramway was built in 1882-83, just south of Te Aroha. It was a long, horse powered Tramway (industrial), tramway. It carried quartz from Gold mining, gold mines in the Kaimai Range to Watermill, water-powered Stamp mill#19th cen ...
.


800 mm, 2 ft 6 in, Bosnian and 750 mm gauge

gauge railways are commonly used for
rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with th ...
s. Imperial gauge railways were generally constructed in the former
British colonies A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...
.
Bosnian gauge Bosnian-gauge railways are railways with track gauge of . These were found extensively in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire as a standardised form of narrow gauge. The name is also used for lines of the same gauge outside Bosnia, for example in ...
and railways are predominantly found in Russia and Eastern Europe.


Between and gauge

Gauges such as , and 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 .
(2003) The
rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...
Line 15 of the
São Paulo Metro The São Paulo Metro ( pt, Metrô de São Paulo, ), commonly called the ''Metrô'' () is one of the urban railways that serves the city of São Paulo, alongside the São Paulo Metropolitan Trains Company (CPTM), forming the largest metropolit ...
uses a gauge.


2 ft and 600 mm gauges

gauge railways were generally constructed in the former British colonies. , and were used in Europe.


Minimum gauge

Gauges below were rare.
Arthur Percival Heywood Sir Arthur Percival Heywood, 3rd Baronet (25 December 1849 – 19 April 1916) is best known today as the innovator of the fifteen inch minimum gauge railway, for estate use. Early life He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Percival Heywood ...
developed gauge estate railways in Britain and
Decauville Decauville () was a manufacturing company which was founded by Paul Decauville (1846–1922), a French pioneer in industrial railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to stee ...
produced a range of industrial railways running on and tracks, most commonly in restricted environments such as underground mine railways, parks and farms, in France. Several gauge railways were built in Britain to serve ammunition depots and other military facilities, particularly during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.


See also

*
Feldbahn A , or , is the German term for a narrow-gauge field railway, usually not open to the public, which in its simplest form provides for the transportation of agricultural, forestry () and industrial raw materials such as wood, peat, stone, earth an ...
*
Forest railway A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felling, felled logs to sawmills or railway stations. In most cases th ...
*
Heeresfeldbahn A ''Heeresfeldbahn'' is a German or Austrian military field railway (in Austria also called a ''Rollbahn''). They were field railways ('' Feldbahnen'') designed for the military transportation purposes. History As railways developed during t ...
*
Industrial railway An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...
*
List of track gauges This list presents an overview of railway track gauges by size. A gauge is measured between the inner faces of the rails. Track gauges by size Minimum and ridable miniature railways For ridable miniature railways and minimum gauge railways, t ...
*
List of tram systems by gauge and electrification The following is a list of tram/streetcar (including heritage trams/heritage streetcars), or light rail systems with their track length, track gauge, electrification system. The vast majority of tram systems use . Generally, standard gauge ...
*
Military railways The military use of railways derives from their ability to move troops or materiel rapidly and, less usually, on their use as a platform for military systems, like very large railroad guns and armoured trains, in their own right. Railways have ...
*
Minimum-gauge railway Minimum-gauge railways have a gauge of most commonly , , , , , or . The notion of minimum-gauge railways was originally developed by estate railways and the French company of Decauville for light railways, trench railways, mining, and farming ...
*
Narrow-gauge railway modelling A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...
*
Narrow-gauge railways in the Netherlands Numerous industrial narrow-gauge lines were built for peat extraction, clay extraction for brickworks and construction sites. The dominant gauge for industrial lines was , contrary to the gauge used in neighbouring countries. Nowadays, much of thi ...
*
Narrow-gauge railways in Sweden Sweden once had some fairly extensive narrow-gauge networks, but most narrow-gauge railways are now closed. Some were converted to (the latest one the line between Berga and Kalmar in the 1970s) and some remain as heritage railways. The most c ...
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Narrow-gauge railways in Europe Europe inherited a diversity of rail gauges. Extensive narrow-gauge railway networks exist in Spain, Central Europe and Southeastern Europe. Austria Some two dozen lines were built in gauge, a few in gauge. Two tram networks were built with ...
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Rail transport in Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Rail transport can be found in every theme park resort property owned or licensed by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, one of the four business segments of the Walt Disney Company. The origins of Disney theme park rail transport can be t ...
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Ridable miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petrol ...
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Track gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many d ...
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Trench railways Trench railways represented military adaptation of early 20th-century railway technology to the problem of keeping soldiers supplied during the static trench warfare phase of World War I. The large concentrations of soldiers and artillery at the ...
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War Department Light Railways The War Department Light Railways were a system of narrow gauge trench railways run by the British War Department in World War I. Light railways made an important contribution to the Allied war effort in the First World War, and were used for th ...


References


Notes


"Trade House" Kambarka Engineering Works "
* P. Whitehouse, J. Snell. ''Narrow Gauge Railways of the British Isles'',
David & Charles David & Charles Ltd is an English publishing company. It is the owner of the David & Charles imprint, which specialises in craft and lifestyle publishing. David and Charles Ltd acts as distributor for all David and Charles Ltd books and cont ...
, 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, * 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. * "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
; Michael J. Brown {{Authority control Lists of track gauges Railways by type Track gauges by size