1859
1859 OP t1_iyjdigv wrote
Reply to comment by Bcbulbchap in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
Their process was pretty neat. They decided that the western-most or northern-most rail was the one to be moved in, and left the other rail as-is. Workers hammered the new spikes ahead of time, three inches inward from the rail to be moved. On the big day, teams used a big caliper called a rail gauge (very creative) that spaced the rails to the exact width of the new gauge. After moving the rail, a few hits with the sledgehammer was all that was needed to put it into place. Then they slid the rail gauge to the next section of track and started the process again.
1859 OP t1_iyiznxz wrote
Reply to comment by soolkyut in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
That part of the wiki appears to be incorrect. 11,500-13,000 was the estimated length of southern railroads. The total length of track in the entire US in 1870 (16 years before) was already more than 45,000 miles, according to this blurb from the Library Of Congress website. The wiki article for rail transportation in the US puts it at 93,000 miles in 1880, but I can't view the source for that one.
1859 OP t1_iyixad7 wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
Nearly all the Southern lines in early 1886 were non-conforming as far as I can tell, so I don't see a significant distinction. The wiki mentions a couple big lines (the Illinois Central and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad) that converted to standard gauge a few months before the big switch, but I can't find anything else. If you can find a good source for the length of track that actually needed adjusting, that'd be an interesting addition.
1859 OP t1_iyiings wrote
Reply to TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
Further reading:
Why did they decide on nearly-standard gauge (4' 9") instead of standard gauge (4' 8.5")? Much of the American South's rail traffic connected to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was still using their own 4' 9" gauge. It was deemed close enough, and the South's rail lines were gradually adjusted to true standard gauge over time through regular track maintenance. Cool stuff!
1859 OP t1_iyjz915 wrote
Reply to comment by niversally in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
I covered that elsewhere in the thread. Kinda hard to fit everything in one succinct title!
> Why did they decide on nearly-standard gauge (4' 9") instead of standard gauge (4' 8.5")? Much of the American South's rail traffic connected to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was still using their own 4' 9" gauge. It was deemed close enough, and the South's rail lines were gradually adjusted to true standard gauge over time through regular track maintenance. Cool stuff!