Narrow-gauge railway

Template:Short description Template:EngvarB 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 Template:Track gauge. Most narrow-gauge railways are between Template:Track gauge and Template:Track gauge.

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).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 Template:Track gauge 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.

NomenclatureEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} A narrow-gauge railway is one where the distance between the inside edges of the rails is less than Template:Track gauge.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.

HistoryEdit

Early hand-worked linesEdit

File:DeReMetallicaShaft.jpg

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 Template:Track gauge 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.<ref name="WHITESNELL">Template:Cite book</ref>

Introduction of steamEdit

The world's first steam locomotive, built in 1802 by Richard Trevithick for the Coalbrookdale Company, ran on a Template:Track gauge plateway. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray's Salamanca built in 1812 for the Template:Track gauge Middleton Railway in Leeds.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 Template:Track gauge-gauge Antwerp-Ghent Railway in Belgium.<ref name=ransom>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=QUI>Template:Quine-FR</ref>

Industrial useEdit

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 combustionEdit

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.<ref>A Benzine Lgocomotive for use in Mines, The Petroleum Industrial and Technical Review, vol. 2, no. 68 (23 June 1900); page 388.</ref><ref>Benzine Locomotive, English Mechanic and World of Science, No. 1713 (21 January 1898); pages 532–533.</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

First World War and laterEdit

Extensive narrow-gauge rail systems served the front-line trenches of both sides in World War I.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They were a short-lived military application, and after the war the surplus equipment created a small boom in European narrow-gauge railway building.

ImprovementsEdit

Heavy-duty tracksEdit

File:City of Rockhampton train (Sunshine railway station, Brisbane).jpg

An Electric Tilt Train in Queensland. Unlike other states in Australia which use different gauges, Queensland's network is made up of Template:Track gauge-gauge track.

The heavy-duty Template:Track gauge narrow-gauge railways in Australia (Queensland), 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. Template:Track gauge gauge, it has over-100-pound rail (Template:Convert) and a loading gauge almost as large as US non-excess-height lines. The line has a number of Template:Convert locomotives and 200-plus-car trains.

Fastest trainsEdit

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 Template:Convert, the same curve with narrow-gauge rail (1067mm) can only allow speed up to Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In Japan and Queensland, recent permanent-way improvements have allowed trains on Template:Track gauge gauge tracks to exceed Template:Convert. Queensland Rail's Electric Tilt Train, the fastest train in Australia and the fastest Template:Track gauge gauge train in the world, set a record of Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The speed record for Template:Track gauge narrow-gauge rail is Template:Convert, set in South Africa in 1978.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

A special Template:Track gauge gauge railcar was built for the Otavi Mining and Railway Company with a design speed of Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Curve radius is also important for high speeds: narrow-gauge railways allow sharper curves, but these limit a vehicle's safe speed.

Template:AnchorGaugesEdit

Template:See also

Many narrow gauges, from Template:Track gauge gauge to Template:Track gauge gauge, are in present or former use. They fall into several broad categories:

Just under standard gaugeEdit

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Template:Track gaugeEdit

Template:Anchor4 ft 6 in gaugeEdit

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Template:Track gauge track gauge (also known as Scotch gauge) was adopted by early 19th-century railways, primarily in the Lanarkshire area of Scotland. Template:Track gauge lines were also constructed, and both were eventually converted to standard gauge.

Template:AnchorAround 4 ft gaugeEdit

Template:Anchor3 ft 6 in gaugeEdit

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File:CombinedTrack.svg

Comparison of Template:Track gauge (blue) and Template:Track gauge (red) width; the difference is Template:Convert, or about 26 per cent of standard gauge.

Template:Track gauge between the inside of the rail heads, its name and classification vary worldwide and it has about Template:Convert of track.

Similar gaugesEdit

Template:Track gauge in Algeria
Template:Track gauge on the Hejaz railway in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria; only a few lines survive.

Metre gauge and Italian metre gaugeEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} As its name implies, metre gauge is a track gauge of Template:Track gauge. It has about Template: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 Template:Track gauge between the edges of the rails, is known as Italian metre gauge.

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

File:DisneylandTrainLocomotive.jpg

The Template:Track gauge gauge Disneyland Railroad in California

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There were a number of large Template:Track gauge 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. Template:Track gauge was also a common track gauge in South America, Ireland and on the Isle of Man. Template:Track gauge was a common gauge in Europe. Swedish three-foot-gauge railways (Template:Track gauge) 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 gaugeEdit

A few railways and tramways were built to Template:Track gauge gauge, including Nankai Main Line (later converted to Template:Track gauge), Ocean Pier Railway at Atlantic City, Seaton Tramway (converted from Template:Track gauge) and Waiorongomai Tramway.

Template:Anchor800 mm, 2 ft 6 in, Bosnian and 750 mm gaugeEdit

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Template:Track gauge gauge railways are commonly used for rack railways. Imperial Template:Track gauge gauge railways were generally constructed in the former British colonies. Template:Track gauge Bosnian gauge and Template:Track gauge railways are predominantly found in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Between Template:Track gauge and Template:Cvt gaugeEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} 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.<ref>[1] (2003)</ref>

Template:Anchor2 ft and 600 mm gaugesEdit

File:Ffestiniog DLG BF.JPG

The Template:Track gauge gauge Ffestiniog Railway in Wales

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Template:Track gauge gauge railways were generally constructed in the former British colonies. The U.S. had a number of railways of that gauge, including several in the state of Maine such as the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway. Template:Track gauge, Template:Track gauge and Template:Track gauge were used in Europe.

Minimum gaugeEdit

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Gauges below Template:Track gauge were rare. Arthur Percival Heywood developed Template:Track gauge gauge estate railways in Britain and Decauville produced a range of industrial railways running on Template:Track gauge and Template:Track gauge tracks, most commonly in restricted environments such as underground mine railways, parks and farms, in France. Several Template:Track gauge gauge railways were built in Britain to serve ammunition depots and other military facilities, particularly during World War I.