Posted by Gordon on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 4:06AM :
In Reply to: Re: Bob,... Scotrail have... posted by Bob Thompson on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 3:39AM :
One of the reasons for me getting interested in getting a set of this stuff is that the whole of the UK and the US 4 foot 8.5" is standard, so I can use US equipment here.
And the reason 4' 8.5" is standard? it's the width of track of a chariot pulled by two 'standard' Roman army horses two thousand years back. there was a safer, wide guage here for a while, but so many people were using the standard gauge that wide guage died out.
The wheels pretty much need to be on top of the rails (obviously) and the Dodge half and one ton gauge is such that the standard truck will do this, but not exactly. My one ton 4x2 trucks have a wider rear track which would mean the rear axle wouldn't sit right on the rails, so I have to use the rail gear either on a half ton truck, or a one ton with rear duals where the inner wheel track is moved in a little.
Gordon