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InfernalCorg t1_iyj0e6s wrote

Reply to comment by villevalla 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

> Where is the saving if, for example, Finland and Japan were to use the same gauge?

You can build the same model of train for both. Yes, it's not a huge issue, but standardization is generally a better than the alternative in industrial fields.

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PublicSeverance t1_iyj8s6p wrote

The same train model can still be sold anywhere.

It takes a few hours to 1/2 a day in order to change the wheels (bogies) on an entire train and all the carriages.

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CyborgElephant t1_iyjdces wrote

Or this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_gauge

But maybe that doesn’t allow the adjustment as dynamically as I’m thinking.

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beachedwhale1945 t1_iyjubbg wrote

Even if it does, that’s only viable if the train regularly has to go from one gauge to another. If you sent a train from the US to Brazil, its better to completely change out the bogies than to have a system you don’t need that could fail and cause a crash and thus must be maintained.

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ibw0trr t1_iykerhg wrote

>If you sent a train from the US to Brazil, its better to completely change out the bogies

Or... You could containerize things into standard 40' long boxes and transload them to another train or to a big boat.

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beachedwhale1945 t1_iymisw4 wrote

The question was about moving the train itself, not the cargo said train may be carrying. For my part in this discussion, the train could be empty or loaded to the brim. In my head I was thinking the engine/cars were cargo on a ship and unloading them via a crane in some port like Rio for use on the Brazilian rail system.

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CyborgElephant t1_iyjustj wrote

Did you downvote me? I don’t know anything about trains. In my head I wondered if they had this, and they do. The solution exists, so not sure why it would be “a system you don’t need”, and why it would fail. If any train can go on any track, dynamically, then the size of the tracks don’t matter.

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beachedwhale1945 t1_iymiddw wrote

>Did you downvote me?

I generally don't downvote anyone except in extremely rare circumstances. Not considering maintenance or why universal solutions are not needed in all cases are commonplace and not worth my downvote. I use these as teaching points, encouraging you to think about something in a different way.

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InfernalCorg t1_iyjeu3b wrote

Of course, but surely economy of scale means it's cheaper to make 70 bogey model As than 40 As and 30 Bs?

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nivlark t1_iylm8ks wrote

If there were only one bogie manufacturer in the world, yes. But in practice the demand for rail vehicles is high enough that countries with different gauge standards can support independent rolling stock industries.

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nokangarooinaustria t1_iymfqg0 wrote

Add one or two zeros to those numbers and you are onto something.

The problem here is that trains are expensive and big and reasonably complicated - the differences the change of the wheels makes isn't much compared to the rest of the cost.

And changing all rails in your country most of the times is prohibitively expensive. The cost savings would probably never reach the initial cost of the change.

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bobtehpanda t1_iyl7fo7 wrote

The thing is that the markets for the various gauges are so large that they effectively are able to use standards as well.

In the same vein there being a handful of plug socket shapes doesn’t significantly increase the cost of goods using electricity.

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