Thread: great british railroads

Hi Bob, it’s not a bad series and I hope there is more episodes to come.

If I ever get to the UK, the first place I’m heading to is the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

'Twas on Foxtel tonight. I had better look up the Foxtel guide and prgram the IQ box to record it (if it is repeated).

My (great x 3) grandfather was Murdoch Paterson, Chief Engineer for Highland Rail between 1863-1898. He had virtually completed one of his most well known works when he died. The Nairn Viaduct. His workers wheeled him across on a barrow soon after the last arch was complete and prior to the rails being laid. He died a short period after.

I was sent over there for a software course a few years back and had a nine day period I could go and seek out many of his places. Many good moments...

Quite amazing what they could do with blocks of stone...

Would be good if the programme goes into scotland.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Bob, it’s not a bad series and I hope there is more episodes to come.

If I ever get to the UK, the first place I’m heading to is the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

I also hope that there are more episodes. There is so much more that can be added
I have been lucky enough to have had the chance to visit a few of the places that were shown. Would love to go back and see more one day.

" Bring on more please"

I checked the TV guide for the next 14 days. Nothing indicated. Last night had several strung together. I knew I shouldn't have let my wife take over the TV.

Railroads? NOooooO! The country that invented them call them Railways


/pedantic mode off

Originally Posted by isuzutoo-eh

Railroads? NOooooO! The country that invented them call them Railways


/pedantic mode off

The German, Danish, and Italian words translate as iron road. The French as iron path.

Railroad tracks.
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.


Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates designed the US railroads.


Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.


Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.


Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.


So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.


And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.

Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.


So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with this?' , you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)

Now, the twist to the story:
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah

The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.


So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important?

COMPLIMENTS OF RON, a.k.a. p38arover.