Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 - 1954), Tuesday 5 October 1937, page 12


STANDARD RAILWAY GAUGE. Over 2,000 years ago Roman chariots made ruts exactly 4ft. 8½in. apart. To-day, the modern streamline railway express runs on rails exactly 4ft. 8½in. apart. This is not coincidence but ac-tually one is the direct consequence of the other. When George Stephenson carried out his experiment near Newcastle there were many old chariot tracks which had existed since Roman times. To save expense, Stephenson laid his first rails along these tracks and designed the position of his wheels to run on this gauge. As other British railways were planned and developed, this first existing gauge was adopted, and has remained unaltered. In India the standard gauge is 3ft. 3½in. ; in most of South Africa, Australia, Egypt and Sudan it is 3ft. 6in. ; in the United States of America 6ft. Most tram tracks have also a gauge of 4ft. 8½in. The wider the distance between the rails the less likelihood is there of the train leaving the track at curves.