And of course Watson, that IS the thing here.....It's a good tale with enough truth to still make it enjoyable. Posted before by rich, but worth the reading again regarding the situation on American Railroads which was a complete mess......

In "A Treasury of Railroad Folklore" (1953) Botkin and Harlow discuss the gauge issue in the USA (they call it "gage") in some detail over 6 pages of text. It is true that the first railroads in Massachusetts were built at 4' 8 1/2" because they bought their equipment from the Stephensons of England. Botkin and Harlow say, "The legend that this was the exact width of the Roman Imperial chariot wheel-tread will probably persist to the end of time, like that other belief that General Forrest said, "Git thar fustest with the mostest.""
The Mohawk & Hudson made its gage 4'9" , 1/2" wider than the MA lines. The Delaware & Hudson came up from Pennsylvania with 2 "standard gages", one at 6' and the other at 4'3". In Baltimore, Peter Cooper built his B & O locomotive "Tom thumb at 4' 6". IN Pennsylvania at the time there were lines of , 3', 3'8", 4'3", 4'9", 4'9 1/4", 4' 9 1/2". 4' 9 3/4". The New Brunswick & Canada that crossed Maine from Quebec to NB was 3'6". In 1879 that dimension was standardized for what became the Canadian Pacific. The Hecla & Torch Lake in the copper country of Michigan was built at 4' 1". Another CAnadian line that ran from Montreal to Portland, Maine was 5' 6". That line was a forerunner of the Canadian National RR. It was even suggested the British favored having a different gage in Canada from the US, to make it harder to invade. The state of Maine was a mess with all these gages, including the 4' 8 1/2" on lines connecting to Boston. 4' 10" was favored in upper New Jersey and spread to Ohio where the legislature once passed a law declaring that the legal gage for all railroads in that state, but it was pretty much ignored. In the northeast as the significance of interconnecting rail transport became apparent the 4' 8 1/2" began to predominate. The Pennsylvania RR used 4' 9" for a number of years before changing. You could run standard stock on 4' 9" although it was a "little loose" and some accidents happened.

In the South 5' became the standard, except for the 5' 6" in Louisiana and a few 3 footers around. Up north the major rebel was the Erie who ran 6' gage through the curves of the upper Delaware River and to Lake Erie. They then struck out for Cincinatti. The Erie also convinced the the Ohio & Mississippi to put in 6' so in 1857 there was a 6' line from New York all the way to St. Louis. Some of the wide gage roads even laid a third track on some of their lines to accomodate interconnection with the smaller "standard" gages.

When the Union Pacific was being planned, President Lincoln was asked to set the gage. The few RR in California at the time were 5', same as in the South. Lincoln chose that, but raised a firestorm of protest from the northeastern railroads about the expense of changing. Congress then overruled the President. In 1871 there were 23 different gages in the USA ranging from 3' to 6'. By the mid 1880's there were 25 as a number of 2' lines sprang up in Maine and an Oregon logging company built an 8' one. Cincinatti alone had half a dozen gages. For economy reasons quite a few miles of bed had been built at 3'. The Cotton Belt RR and the Denver & Rio Grande both started out as narrow gage lines.

After the Civil War it became apparent that the southern lines would have to change to what had gradually become the standard 4' 8 1/2". 13,000 miles of main line, 1800 locomotives and some 40,000 cars had to be converted, so there was no big rush to get going. The Illinois Central was the first. After the last broad gage train passed on the evening of Aug 1, 1881, a big crew proceeded by torchlight to change the road bed. By noon the next day the 600 miles of track south of Cairo Illinois had been changed. A few other followed suit and the final big change cam on the weekend of May 29, 1886. the largest line in the south the L & N had over 8700 men ready to go early Sunday morning. One shop reportedly changed 19 locomotives, 18 passenger cars, 11 cabooses, 1710 freight cars and some other equipment between sunup and sundown. It appears that political and business clout were major factors in deciding which gage ultimately became the uniform standard.

Check out Botkin and Harlow's account for lots more interesting details.

Spaw