Hi all,
Thanks for the answers, I've got the picture, now to sit down and explore
:-)
Something that Ben wrote reminded me of this, sorry if you have seen it
before.

Paul.

> ----------
> From:         Ben Parker
> Sent:         Wednesday, 1 July 1998 2:31
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: [LSTOWN-L] DD syntax
>
> This goes back to the days of punch cards.  Each 'line' was originally a
> separate punch card in a stack.
>
> How Specs Live Forever
>
> 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 the US railroads
> were built by English expatriates. Why did the English people 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. Okay! Why did the wagons use that odd
> wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons
> would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the
> spacing of the old wheel ruts.
>
> So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in
> Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The
> roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which
> everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were
> first made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for or by
> Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
>
> Thus, we have the answer to the original questions. The United State
> standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original
> specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. Specs and
> bureaucracies live forever. So, the next time you are handed a
> specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be
> exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just
> wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of two war horses.
>
> O'Brien & Associates
> Environmental Building Consultants
> Portland General Electric Earth Smart program
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>