Narrow-gauge railway

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Sidebar track gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. Most narrow-gauge railways are between Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..

Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structure gauges, and lighter rails, they can be less costly to build, equip, and operate than standard- or broad-gauge railways (particularly in mountainous or difficult terrain).^[1] Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often used in mountainous terrain, where engineering savings can be substantial. Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often built to serve industries as well as sparsely populated communities where the traffic potential would not justify the cost of a standard- or broad-gauge line. Narrow-gauge railways have specialised use in mines and other environments where a small structure gauge necessitates a small loading gauge.

File:Comparison of standard gauge and narrow gauge.jpg

Comparison of standard gauge and three foot narrow gauge wheelsets

In some countries, narrow gauge is the standard: Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Australian states of Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania have a Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge, whereas Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand have metre-gauge railways. Narrow-gauge trams, particularly metre-gauge, are common in Europe. Non-industrial, narrow-gauge mountain railways are (or were) common in the Rocky Mountains of the United States and the Pacific Cordillera of Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, and Costa Rica.

Nomenclature

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". A narrow-gauge railway is one where the distance between the inside edges of the rails is less than Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..^[2] Historically, the term was sometimes used to refer to what are now standard-gauge railways, to distinguish them from broad-gauge railways, but this use no longer applies.

History

Early hand-worked lines

Woodcut of a mine with three shafts

1556 woodcut from De re metallica, showing a narrow-gauge railway in a mine

The earliest recorded railway appears in Georgius Agricola's 1556 De re metallica, which shows a mine in Bohemia with a railway of about Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge. During the 16th century, railways were primarily restricted to hand-pushed, narrow-gauge lines in mines throughout Europe. In the 17th century, mine railways were extended to provide transportation above ground. These lines were industrial, connecting mines with nearby transportation points (usually canals or other waterways). These railways were usually built to the same narrow gauge as the mine railways from which they developed.^[3]

Introduction of steam

The world's first steam locomotive, built in 1802 by Richard Trevithick for the Coalbrookdale Company, ran on a Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". plateway. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray's Salamanca built in 1812 for the Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Middleton Railway in Leeds.^[4] Salamanca was also the first rack-and-pinion locomotive. During the 1820s and 1830s, a number of industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom used steam locomotives. In 1842, the first narrow-gauge steam locomotive outside the UK was built for the Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".-gauge Antwerp-Ghent Railway in Belgium.^[5] The first use of steam locomotives on a public, passenger-carrying narrow-gauge railway was in 1865, when the Ffestiniog Railway introduced passenger service after receiving its first locomotives two years earlier.^[6]

Industrial use

Many narrow-gauge railways were part of industrial enterprises and served primarily as industrial railways, rather than general carriers. Common uses for these industrial narrow-gauge railways included mining, logging, construction, tunnelling, quarrying, and conveying agricultural products. Extensive narrow-gauge networks were constructed in many parts of the world; 19th-century mountain logging operations often used narrow-gauge railways to transport logs from mill to market. Significant sugarcane railways still operate in Cuba, Fiji, Java, the Philippines, and Queensland, and narrow-gauge railway equipment remains in common use for building tunnels.

Introduction of internal combustion

In 1897, a manganese mine in the Lahn valley in Germany was using two benzine-fueled locomotives with single cylinder internal combustion engines on the 500mm gauge tracks of their mine railway; these locomotives were made by the Deutz Gas Engine Company (Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz), now Deutz AG.^[7]^[8] Another early use of internal combustion was to power a narrow-gauge locomotive was in 1902. F. C. Blake built a 7 hp petrol locomotive for the Richmond Main Sewerage Board sewage plant at Mortlake. This Template:TrackGauge gauge locomotive was probably the third petrol-engined locomotive built.^[9]

First World War and later

Extensive narrow-gauge rail systems served the front-line trenches of both sides in World War I.^[10]^[11] They were a short-lived military application, and after the war the surplus equipment created a small boom in European narrow-gauge railway building.

Improvements

Heavy-duty tracks

Electric silver-and-yellow train

An Electric Tilt Train in Queensland. Unlike other states in Australia which use different gauges, Queensland's network is made up of Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".-gauge track.

The heavy-duty Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". narrow-gauge railways in Australia (Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia. Tasmania), New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines demonstrate that if track is built to a heavy-duty standard, performance almost as good as a standard-gauge line is possible.

Two-hundred-car trains operate on the Sishen–Saldanha railway line in South Africa, and high-speed Tilt Trains run in Queensland. In South Africa and New Zealand, the loading gauge is similar to the restricted British loading gauge; in New Zealand, some British Rail Mark 2 carriages have been rebuilt with new bogies for use by Tranz Scenic (Wellington-Palmerston North service), Tranz Metro (Wellington-Masterton service), and Auckland One Rail (Auckland suburban services).

Another example of a heavy-duty narrow-gauge line is Brazil's EFVM. At Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge, it has over-100-pound rail (Script error: No such module "convert".) and a loading gauge almost as large as US non-excess-height lines. The line has a number of Script error: No such module "convert". locomotives and 200-plus-car trains.

Fastest trains

Narrow gauge's reduced stability means that its trains cannot run at speeds as high as on broader gauges. For example, if a curve with standard-gauge rail (1435 mm) can allow speed up to Script error: No such module "convert"., the same curve with narrow-gauge rail (1067mm) can only allow speed up to Script error: No such module "convert"..^[12]

In Japan and Queensland, recent permanent-way improvements have allowed trains on Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge tracks to exceed Script error: No such module "convert".. Queensland Rail's Electric Tilt Train, the fastest train in Australia and the fastest Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge train in the world, set a record of Script error: No such module "convert"..^[13] The speed record for Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". narrow-gauge rail is Script error: No such module "convert"., set in South Africa in 1978.^[14]^[15]^[16]

A special Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge railcar was built for the Otavi Mining and Railway Company with a design speed of Script error: No such module "convert"..^[17] Curve radius is also important for high speeds: narrow-gauge railways allow sharper curves, but these limit a vehicle's safe speed.

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Many narrow gauges, from Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge to Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge, are in present or former use. They fall into several broad categories:

Just under standard gauge

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Script error: No such module "anchor".4 ft 6 in gauge

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Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". track gauge (also known as Scotch gauge) was adopted by early 19th-century railways, primarily in the Lanarkshire area of Scotland. Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". lines were also constructed, and both were eventually converted to standard gauge.

Script error: No such module "anchor".Around 4 ft gauge

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Middleton Railway

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Middlebere Plateway

1093 mm gauge

Köping–Uttersberg–Riddarhyttan Railway

Script error: No such module "anchor".3 ft 6 in gauge

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Illustration of difference between standard and narrow gauge

Comparison of Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (blue) and Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (red) width; the difference is Script error: No such module "convert"., or about 26 per cent of standard gauge.

Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". between the inside of the rail heads, its name and classification vary worldwide and it has about Script error: No such module "convert". of track.

Similar gauges

Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". in Algeria
Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". on the Hejaz railway in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria; only a few lines survive.

Metre gauge and Italian metre gauge

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". As its name implies, metre gauge is a track gauge of Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. It has about Script error: No such module "convert". of track.

According to Italian law, track gauges in Italy were defined from the centre of each rail rather than the inside edges of the rails. This gauge, measured Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". between the edges of the rails, is known as Italian metre gauge.

3 ft, 900 mm, and Swedish three-foot gauge

Amusement-park train with a replica steam engine

The Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge Disneyland Railroad in California

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There were a number of large Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". railroad systems in North America; notable examples include the Denver & Rio Grande and Rio Grande Southern in Colorado; the Texas and St. Louis Railway in Texas, Arkansas and Missouri; and, the South Pacific Coast, White Pass and Yukon Route and West Side Lumber Co of California. Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". was also a common track gauge in South America, Ireland and on the Isle of Man. Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". was a common gauge in Europe. Swedish three-foot-gauge railways (Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".) are unique to that country and were once common all over the country. Today the only 891 mm line that remains apart from heritage railways is Roslagsbanan, a commuter line that connects Stockholm to its northeastern suburbs.

2 ft 9 in gauge

A few railways and tramways were built to Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge, including Nankai Main Line (later converted to Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".), Ocean Pier Railway at Atlantic City, Seaton Tramway (converted from Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".) and Waiorongomai Tramway.

Script error: No such module "anchor".800 mm, 2 ft 6 in, Bosnian and 750 mm gauge

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Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge railways are commonly used for rack railways. Imperial Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge railways were generally constructed in the former British colonies. Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Bosnian gauge and Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". railways are predominantly found in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Between Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Template:Cvt gauge

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Gauges such as Template:TrackGauge, Template:TrackGauge and Template:TrackGauge were used in parts of the UK, particularly for railways in Wales and the borders, with some industrial use in the coal industry. Some sugar cane lines in Cuba were Template:TrackGauge.^[20]

Script error: No such module "anchor".2 ft and 600 mm gauges

Red locomotive, with observers on a platform

The Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge Ffestiniog Railway in Wales

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Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge railways were generally constructed in the former British colonies. The US had a number of railways of that gauge, including several in the state of Maine such as the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway. Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". were used in Europe.

Minimum gauge

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Gauges below Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". were rare. Arthur Percival Heywood developed Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge estate railways in Britain and Decauville produced a range of industrial railways running on Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". tracks, most commonly in restricted environments such as underground mine railways, parks and farms, in France. Several Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge railways were built in Britain to serve ammunition depots and other military facilities, particularly during World War I.