Ever wonder why?

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

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? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads

 

 

 

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

 

 

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that 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 on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because 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(and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

 

 

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear 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 it?' 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....and CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else!!

Edited April 21, 2008 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Very good Athlon, lol.

[MedicSN6]

Excellent. Your spelling has improved. LOL

[custard~SPARTA~]

Very good mate

[adder360~SPARTA~]

very intresting

[e_money~SPARTA~]

Do we give two horses asses, lol. That is very interesting. Where did you find that bit of information?

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

I have people LOL!

[custard~SPARTA~]

I told this to a Railway engineer over here and he didn't know and thought it hilarious. He also said he wished the horses had had fatter asses because a wider gauge Railway would have been better but hey ho.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

I told this to a Railway engineer over here and he didn't know and thought it hilarious. He also said he wished the horses had had fatter asses because a wider gauge Railway would have been better but hey ho.

Haha Nice story ...and Custard they should have used Belgium horses.

[adder360~SPARTA~]

they should have used Belgium horses.

oh how things could have been differnt. image what sort of changes it would have been if it was bigger, larger stations, bigger roads, bigger cars, hell u might of been able to have cars with 2 pasenger seats in the fount and 4 in the bck if it was bigger.

[custard~SPARTA~]

Adder a wider gauge means heavier loads on a shorter train safer going round corners at speed all sorts of advantages, not sure where but some country does use a wider gauge.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I think High speed trains in europe run on a wider track, in the uk they had to make the trains "lean" to take the bends (they had to be withdrawn subsequently). In France they made special tracks with few bends , hence the french hold the world land speed record for trains of over 350 mph.

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

There messing around with the idea of lenear motor trains that use magnetic repelsion that makes the train hover above the tracks, as two magnets repell each outher and float in the air. It has high speed wheels that are only on the sides of the rails to keep it in place. And uses magnetic attraction to propell It along. All it takes is electicty to power up the powerful magnets to make it go.

Edited April 23, 2008 by Athlon64~SPARTA~