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Up Topic Chit-Chat & Non-Welding Discussion / Off-Topic Bar and Grill / Interesting
- - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 10-29-2008 07:23
Railroad tracks.
This is fascinating.

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads..

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the
Original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a Specification/Procedure/Process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with it?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear end s of two war horses. (Two horse's asses.)

Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank.. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB's would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by
Train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds..

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important?

Ancient horse's asses control almost everything...
And CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else
Parent - By jon20013 (*****) Date 10-29-2008 07:28
Very interesting story Dave, thanks for sharing!
Parent - - By aevald (*****) Date 10-29-2008 07:41
Hello Dave, great story. To add just a bit on a side note. Did you know why the wheels on the trains axles are tapered and the shoulders on those wheel/axle combinations are slightly narrower than the internal width of the rails? You probably do and I probably won't get this exactly right, but... As the train and it's various cars enter a corner the centrifugal force of it's weight causes the outer wheel to ride against its shoulder which also means that it is riding on a greater diameter than the wheel which is on the inside of the turn. This wheel is riding on the part of the wheel that is furthest away from the shoulder and is also smaller in diameter. The outside of the turn requires the axle/wheel to cover more distance than the inside wheel does, hence by having the outer wheel riding on a larger diameter than the inside wheel there is a minimal amount of scrub/wear on the wheels. Hope I'm close on this description. Best regards, Allan
Parent - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 10-30-2008 01:53
Allan, I didn't know that, it makes sense.
Parent - By sbcmweb (****) Date 10-29-2008 11:31
Very Interesting Dave. I don't know what else to say.............. :-)
Parent - By jrw159 (*****) Date 10-29-2008 13:55
Dave,
  Wow!! Very interesting indeed. :-) Thanks for sharing this.

jrw159
Parent - By BryonLewis (****) Date 10-30-2008 03:13
Damn fine trivia Dave. 
Parent - - By ctacker (****) Date 10-30-2008 04:24
All I can say dave, is "Interesting" :)
Parent - By Bob Garner (***) Date 10-30-2008 15:55
A Panamax ship is sized so it just barely fits through the Panama Canal.
Up Topic Chit-Chat & Non-Welding Discussion / Off-Topic Bar and Grill / Interesting

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