> >A lot of countries copied the standard, the USA
>>being one of them.  Some other countries didn't
>>- New Zealand Standard Gauge is 3'6", I believe.

> Yes it is, but the first railway built in NZ was 4' 8.5". A number of 
> other
> gauges were also used, but for mainline use the government of the day
> decided to standardise on 3' 6" as there are a number of places were the
> narrower gauge is needed to deal with twists and turns in hilly country.

A while ago we bought some nice new passenger carriages. There were red 
faces when it was found that they were too wide to fit through tunnels North 
of the capital city Wellington. The railways subsequently said that they new 
this was the case and it was never intended for them to be used outside the 
urban area etc. But the general belief was that someone had blundered.

Must have used wider than average horses where they came from.



        RM 

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