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boysan98 t1_iyk8w2q 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

Japan specifically had a narrower gauge built originally to cope with the mountainous terrain. You trade capacity for agility. At leas that’s the justification the British used when they designed it for them.

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V6Ga t1_iykd36q wrote

Do you know how the gauge helps with terrain?

(Japan might be the only industrial nation that has no need to standardize train gauge with another country, being an island nation.)

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nivlark t1_iyllk4s wrote

It's just cheaper. Smaller gauge means smaller earthworks, bridges, tunnels etc.

Mountainous regions of Europe (Switzerland, southern France, the Basque country) also have narrow gauge networks that operate alongside more extensive standard gauge networks.

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