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Why are the two rails 4 feet, 8.5 inches apart (U.S. standard railroad gauge)?

April 26, 2017apart feet gauge inches railroad rails standard

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Why are the two rails 4 feet, 8.5 inches apart (U.S. standard railroad gauge)?

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See the San Diego Railroad Museum, the English website Railway Gauge, an urban legends page, a comment about the extra 1/2″, as well as the perhaps fanciful How Specs Live Forever. Also see Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 executive order setting the gauge of track on the Pacific railroad, and the book The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890 by George Rogers and Irene D. Neu.