There was a similar "Battle of the Gauges" in Britain, with most of the early lines built to 4'8-1/2". But I K Brunel's Great Western Railway was built to 7'0-1/4" (Where did the quarter inch come from?).

As the system gradually became linked, Parliament decided (mid 1840's I think) that all future railways should be standard gauge. The GWR gradually fitted SG rails inside the BG ones, so that both gauges could use the same track, but it was not until 1892 that the last Broad Gauge trains left Paddington

Wassail! V