OK, here goes;
The US std. railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches. That's a very odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the gauge that was used in England, and English expatriates built the first US railroads. Why did the English use that gauge? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. How did they come up with that gauge? Because they used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which had that same wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular wheel spacing? Well, if they used any other wheel spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in Jolly Olde England, because that's the spacing of the ruts on those roads. So who built those old, rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts were first made by Roman war chariots, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, and wagons. Since the chariots were made for, or by, Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of their wheel spacing. Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The US standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches derives from the original specification for the wheel spacing on the Imperial Roman war chariot. Specification and bureaucracies live forever, so the next time you look at a specification and wonder which horse's *** came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because that specification for the wheel spacing on the Imperial Roman war chariot came from the need to have it just wide enough to accomodate the rear ends of two war-horses.
Now, there's an interesting modern-day twist to this little story...

When we see the Space Shuttle sitting on it's launch pad, we see two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are Solid Rocket Boosters, or SRBs. They are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit larger, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line runs 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 is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, there you have it! The major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined by the width of a horse's ***! -TD

 

Why didn't they ship em by truck?

 

What a great post, TigerDan!

 

Now, I knew about the railroad track gauge, but I didn't know about the SRB's. Interesting.

 

Too heavy. They weigh 650 tons EACH!

 

Tiger Dan, that was an interesting little read. Do you have any other little tid-bits?

 

Wow, now that's heavy. Almost seems that it would even be pushing the limits of a standard railcar too.

Interesting post.

 

Very funny.........great stuff!

 

Useless? Yes. Fact? Kinda sorta...http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm

 

TigerDan,

Your real name isn't Cliff Clayvin is it???

 

> the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

Trains are wider then the rails they ride on, even passanger cars, if they were not, you could not ship military trucks or even hummers that are 8 feet wide on them. So, I do not buy that thing about the SRBs.

 

Exactly!!!

 

OK, well, I didn't make any claims toward authorship, I just layed it out as it was presented to me. That was an interesting link, and it answers some questions I had about the whole thing. But, all in all, even if not entirely accurate, it does make an interesting read. I may have more odds 'n ends like that, I'll have to dig into my archives...(this pile of papers on the floor here) and see what I can come up with. And no, my name is not really Cliff Clayvin. He's smarter and better-looking than I am! -TD