C'mon guys! Enough with this tired, old chain email garbage.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp

Free magazine doesn't have to mean lazy magazine.

Okay, so there's evidence to suggest this "fact" has elements of urban legend to it. Sometimes it's difficult to tell who the real experts are on this stuff ...

Scopes is also someone's opinion as well. Reality is we weren't there and it's probably more to do with random chance than an unbroken chain of history back to some Roman chariot designer.

The basic point - that the size things are is because of the size we and the size our beasts of burden - remains a valid point. Even the writer of the Scopes entry, in his opinion, agrees on the "size we all are" point. It's the details we can haggle over - or not since the real answer probably depends on a million little decisions all along the way?

We do make a resolution to check our facts more, but we also admit we're human and we will sometimes get it wrong - maybe another 5 years until the next urban legend / old wives tale makes it into our pages as a "factoid".

So it's kind of true ... It does make the grade as being bizarre, I'll say that. 

See this link ... http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2538/was-standard-railroad-gaug...

And of course we have that indisputable paragon of total accuracy, Wikipedia, that says the 1937 legend is basically true, but a little exaggerated for effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge

So if Wikipedia is correct, this legend predates the web by a few years (1937) ...

Might even have been referenced in the paper hobby pubs way back when if that's the case ...

Well it certainly looks like a connection between the Horse's A-double scribble (rear end) and Cesar's Chariot wheel law.

True or not a great story to pass on to the Grandkids.

... it was humor, after all!

If those horses represent 4' 8.5", then these guys must represent Maine two footers double track.

Bernd

I'm kind of curious as to the story of the "super-elevated" track...

-Fuzzy
 

Get the Mod on this one!!!!!!   Joe.........

that our modern rail system still uses a gauge that is at least loosely based on the width of a couple of horses' behinds.  Whether that goes back to Roman times or not, is kind of irrelevant, though clear that the Romans used pretty much the same standard.  

After reading the Snopes article, I take a bit of issue with this statement:

"In other words, there was nothing inevitable about a railroad gauge supposedly traceable to the size of wheel ruts in Imperial rome.  Had the Civil War taken a different course, the eventual standard railroad gauge used throughout North America might well have been different than the current one."

While the last sentence is true, the Civil War didn't take a different path, and we are still left with the standard from England (as we are here in Canada).  That standard is still very closely linked to wagons, which were designed to accommodate two horses side by side.  We can say there is no direct link to Roman times, but our railroad gauge remains today in North America to the same standard of those Roman times for mostly the same reasons.  I would in no way say this story is "false" and even snopes admits that.  I think the Snopes author perhaps went a bit beyond analysis and interjected opinion, but the comparison remains, and isn't that good enough?

Sorry, "Just a fan" you don't post your real name so I have to use your moniker. Snopes is not the "end all last word on truth" that you are putting all your faith in. I guess by your own words you are as lazy as this magazine. :-)

Do some google checking on your own to discover how Snopes is just a husband and wife team with no investigative skills using Google to try to fact check things. The problem is, they sometimes let their liberal bias and personal agendas color their findings.

Can you completely trust Snopes? No. Can you trust Factcheck.org? No. Can you trust me or anyone thing else you read on the internet? Not really. Use your own brain and do the best you can.

In the "end" (pun intended!) regardless of who you believe, this article was in the humor section of a model railroad magazine. That pretty much says it all.

so did southern horses have bigger butts or what? .DaveB

I think the general point of Scopes and all the rest is that there's nothing special about 4' 8-1/2" ... 4' 8" was what the inventor of the steam loco (Stevenson) chose, and then he later added another half inch to allow more slop on curves to ease wheel binding problems.

Stevenson did use a gauge he got from work in England, and that gauge does appear to have been influenced by wheel ruts from Roman times. But there was some random elements of choice involved too. The final standard gauge in the US could have varied by several inches give or take, so the 4' 8-1/2" is somewhat arbitrary. The south had a number of different gauges.

There's no magic in the width of horses rears, either. Horses come in different sizes, so to think that two horses rears always measure exactly 4' 8-1/2" across (with a little room for slop) is rather absurd.

This all said, it is true that something in the range of 5 feet is about right because in most cases two horses fit comfortably side-by-side in that space, and also two humans fit in that width with ample elbow room.

So the gauge was influenced by the anatomical dimensions of the beasts pulling and the passengers ... But that should come as no surprise, really.

Must have been the Erie had horses with bigger butts!  http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/ERIE05.Html

Wonder why it never became popular?

Bernd

ROW acquisition was greater for ERR Broad Gauge than it was for Gen. W.J. Palmer's narrow gauge of 3 foot.  Along with the construction of the bridges, cuts, tunnels, fills etc.