3 ft 6 in gauge railways

History

;1795: One of the first railways to use gauge was the Little Eaton Gangway in England, constructed as a horse-drawn wagonway in 1795. Other gauge wagonways in England and Wales were also built in the early nineteenth century. ;1809: The Silkstone Waggonway was opened, connecting the Barnsley Canal to collieries including the Huskar Pit. ;1860: The Severn and Wye Railway introduces a steam locomotive on its gauge plateway. ;1862: The Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl constructed the first gauge railway in Norway, the Røros Line. ;1865: The Queensland Railways were constructed. Its gauge was promoted by the Irish engineer Abraham Fitzgibbon and consulting engineer Charles Fox. ;1867: The construction of the railroad from the Castillo de Buitrón mine to the pier of San Juan del Puerto, Huelva, Spain, began. The width was . ;1868: In 1868 Charles Fox asked civil engineer Edmund Wragge to survey a railway in Costa Rica. ;1870: The was adopted by New Zealand to expedite the development of transport under Julius Vogel's Great Public Works Policy; see The Vogel Era. ;1871: Nicolaas Henket and J.C Schölmann recommended that the Dutch East Indies government use gauge for railways in Java. The line between Batavia NIS and Koningsplein Station opened on 15 September 1871. ;1871: The Canadian Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway and the Toronto and Nipissing Railway were opened, promoted by Pihl and Fitzgibbon and surveyed by Wragge as an engineer of Fox. The Canadian province of Prince Edward Island began building its network. ;1872: In January Robert Fairlie advocated the use of gauge in his book Railways Or No Railways: Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency v. Broad Gauge, Costliness with Extravagance. : The first gauge railway opened in Japan. It had been proposed by the British civil engineer Edmund Morel based on his experience building railways in New Zealand. ;1873 : On 1 January, the first gauge railway was opened in New Zealand, constructed by the British firm John Brogden and Sons. Earlier built and broad gauge railways were soon converted to the narrower gauge. : The Cape Colony adopted the gauge. After conducting several studies in southern Europe, the Molteno Government selected the gauge as being the most economically suited for traversing steep mountain ranges. Beginning in 1873, under supervision of Railway engineer of the Colony William Brounger, the Cape Government Railways rapidly expanded and the gauge became the standard for southern Africa. ;1876: Natal also converted its short 10 km long Durban network from standard gauge prior to commencing with construction of a network across the entire colony in 1876. Other new railways in Southern Africa, notably Mozambique, Bechuanaland, the Rhodesias, Nyasaland and Angola, were also constructed in gauge during that time. ;After 1876: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century numerous gauge tram systems were built in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Newfoundland began its Cape gauge network in 1881.

Nomenclature

This gauge is sometimes called Cape gauge, named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, which adopted it in 1873. "Cape gauge" was used in several English-speaking countries. The equivalent of Cape gauge is used in other languages, such as the Dutch kaapspoor, German Kapspur, Norwegian kappspor and French voie cape. After metrication in the 1960s, the gauge was referred to in official South African Railways publications as instead of 1067 mm.

In Sweden, the gauge was nicknamed Blekinge gauge, as most of the railways in the province of Blekinge had this gauge.

Colonial Gauge was used in New Zealand.

In Australia, this gauge is typically referred to as narrow gauge in comparison to standard gauge or broad gauge. In some instances, simply 3 foot 6 inch — or in rarer cases medium gauge — is used to distinguish it from other narrow gauges.

In Japan the gauge, along with other narrow gauges, is referred to as to differentiate it from the standard gauge Shinkansen lines. It is also commonly referred to as 36 gauge, which is derived from the 3 ft 6 in width.

Similar gauges

Similar, but incompatible without wheelset adjustment, rail gauges in respect of aspects such as cost of construction, practical minimum radius curves and the maximum physical dimensions of rolling stock are:

• ,
• ,
• ,
• , and
• .

Dual gauge between gauge and another similar gauge can make these bonus gauges.

• ,
• , (4 ft 6 in gauge railway) and
• (The maximum bonus gauge from meter gauge gauntlet tracks).

Usage

References

References

1. MacDermot, E. T.. (1931). "History of the Great Western Railway. Volume II: 1963–1921". Great Western Railway.
2. (1872). "Railways Or No Railways: Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency. V. Broad Gauge, Costliness with ...".
3. Semmens, Peter. (1997). "High Speed in Japan: Shinkansen - The World's Busiest High-speed Railway". [[Platform 5]].
4. Ransom, P.J.G.. (1996). "Narrow Gauge Steam". Oxford Publishing Co..
5. Griffiths, Ieuan Ll. (1994). "The Atlas of African Affairs". Routledge.
6. Bond, John. (1956). "They were South Africans". Oxford University Press.
7. "Cultural, historical assessment of the Hex Pass Railway, Worcester to de Doorns".
8. Burman, Jose (1984), ''Early Railways at the Cape'', Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, {{ISBN. 0-7981-1760-5
9. Davenport, D.E. ''A Railway Sketch of South Africa.'' 1882. Cape Town.
10. (1977). "Natal and the Zulu Country". T.V. Bulpin Publications Ltd.
11. Cuff, Robert. (2001). "Railway". [[Memorial University of Newfoundland]].
12. (1 October 1912). "In German South-West Africa". Westminster Gazette.
13. South African Railways Index and Diagrams Electric and Diesel Locomotives, 610 mm and 1065 mm Gauges, Ref LXD 14/1/100/20, 28 January 1975, as amended
14. "Kalmar, 29-03-1897 (Blekinge-spårvidd)".
15. Zealand, National Library of New. "Papers Past - The Evening Post. TUESDAY, MAY 12,1874. (Evening Post, 1874-05-12)".
16. "CR4 - Blog Entry: Track Gauges and Railway Construction (Part 1)".
17. Knowles, J.W.. (1983). "Adoption of the 3ft. 6ins. gauge for Queensland railways". [[Australian Railway Historical Society]].
18. [https://archive.org/details/railwaylocomotiv26newyuoft Railway and Locomotive Engineering], vol. 26 (1913), pp. 91–92
19. [http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/58061/1/FCDOMI.pdf Dominican Republic public service railways, 1870–1990 (Los ferrocarriles de servicio público de República Dominicana, 1870–1990) by Antonio Santamaría García] (1993), table 4 "Empresas ferroviarias de servicio público de República Dominicana", pp. 13
20. "CIA World Factbook, Ecuador".
21. "CIA World Factbook, Indonesia".
22. "CIA World Factbook, Japan".
23. Zealand, National Library of New. "Papers Past – The Press. Monday, September 26, 1870. (Press, 1870-09-26)".
24. Bjerke, T. & Holom, F. (2004) ''Banedata 2004''. Hamar/Oslo: Norsk Jernbanemuseum & Norsk Jernbaneklubb. p. 98
25. Morrison, Allen. (1 February 2008). "The Tramways of Colombia / Panama".
26. Spoornet ([[Transnet]]'s predecessor), Manual for Track Maintenance, July 2000, http://www.spoornet.co.za/SpoornetWebContentSAP/documents/track_maintenance.pdf {{Webarchive. link. (23 March 2012)
27. Transnet Annual Report 2010, Operational Review, http://www.overendstudio.co.za/online_reports/transnet_ar2011/op_freight.php
28. Ferropedia - Ferrocarril Cartagena - Los Nietos, http://ferropedia.es/wiki/Ferrocarril_Cartagena_-_Los_Nietos {{Webarchive. link. (9 February 2020)