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InfernalCorg t1_iyjeu3b wrote

Reply to comment by PublicSeverance 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

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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