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Weird, Bizarre and Beautiful

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De Darrah View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote De Darrah Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Weird, Bizarre and Beautiful
    Posted: March/04/2023 at 2:02pm
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?
Well, because that's the way they built them in England, and English engineers designed the first US railroads. Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that's the gauge they used. So, why did 'they' use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same 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 more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England . You see, 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 (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.
And what about the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk 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 this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' 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 SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs 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 SRBs 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.
De
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log cabin Bill View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote log cabin Bill Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March/07/2023 at 6:23am
Hi De---I had heard the first part of that before.  The last part about the rocket boosters was something I had not heard before.  While the four feet 8 inches is usual for most railroads there are still a few "narrow gauge" railroads left, mostly now running as steam engine powered tourist trains.  One of them is here in PA and known as the East Broadtop Railroad.  It's about a 2 1/2 drive east from me.  Most of the narrow gauge railroads are 3 feet track gauge.  Thanks for posting that.   
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edwmax View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote edwmax Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March/10/2023 at 5:15pm
I've seen that before and is true.   I've designed several rail sidings and loading docks so I been through the required design requirements by the railroad.    The space shuttle's booters had to fit within maximum size limits allowed on flat cars.   That is 10 ft 2 in wide and 14 ft 2 in tall.   The minimum safety clearance is 9 ft from center line of the rails to face of a obstruction or structure is 9 ft and 23 ft from the top of the rail to the bottom of a Overhead obstruction.  There is a minimum of 24 in Clearance required for a railroad man to ride on the side an not be crushed. Usually more clearance is required at the side.....    ...   The road gage is measured from the inside face of the rails.   .... 


Edited by edwmax - March/10/2023 at 5:19pm
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edwmax View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote edwmax Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March/10/2023 at 5:26pm
Anyway, you guys just got a 2 min design lessen for clearances.   It is near impossible to get the Rail roads to accept over size loads.

"He who would assume to govern others must first learn to govern himself."





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