Re: Gauge change
Author: :)
Date: 02-28-2009 - 21:07
Check out Australia. They had different guage tracks as different territories had railroads that were designed by by different engineers who couldn't agree on a standard guage for the whole country when the territorial railroads were laid out. In the beginning, they didn't think that the railroad would extend beyond their own territory. Several documentaries on TV showed a yard where the trucks of the cars are changed out. The yards were dual guage so the locos could get about and switch on to cars that were re-trucked for re-routing back to their respective territories. Apparently they feel it is less expensive to go through this process than to have the respective railroads re-guage their miles and miles of main line and to buy new trucks and traction motors to change over their locos even if they could agree on a standard guage.