Railway History

 Railways or rail Roads are a development of

“Tramways” and “Plateways”.
 Age of Steam

 Diesel Engines

 Electric Power
Railways

 Railway or Permanent-way is the

combination of rails, sleepers, fittings, ballast
etc.
Rail Gauges
Definition
 Rail gauge is the distance between the inner
sides of the two parallel rails that make up a
single railway line.
Dominant gauges
ft' in" mm

5' 6" 1676

5' 5.85" 1668

5' 3" 1600

5' 1524

4' 11.85" 1520

4' 8.5" 1435

4' 6" 1372

3' 6" 1067

3' 5.35" 1050

3' 3.37" 1000

3' 4.1" 950

3' 914

2' 6" 762

2' 5.55" 750

2' 610

1' 11.6" 600

 Dominant gauges

Gauge Name Usage

1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) Indian gauge India, Pakistan, Argentina, Chile

Iberian gauge
1,668 mm (5 ft 5⅔ in) Portugal, Spain

Irish gauge
1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) Ireland and important minor gauge in Australia

1,524 mm (5 ft) Finland, Estonia

Russian gauge

1,520 mm (4 ft 11⅞ in) CIS states, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia

Standard gauge Europe, North America, China, Korea, Australia, Middle East, North
Africa, Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, Peru, Uruguay (60% of
1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) the world's railways) Also high-speed lines in Japan and Spain.

Cape gauge Southern and Central Africa, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines,
1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) New Zealand, Australia

Meter gauge
1,000 mm (3 ft 3⅜ in) India, Brazil, Bolivia, northern Chile, Kenya, Uganda
INDO-PAK policy for Gauge

 The total cost of construction railway directly

depends on gauges, wider the gauge higher
will be the cost.
 At the time of construction of railway the
policy was adopted that the gauge will
depend on the intensity of traffic.
INDO-PAK policy for Gauge

Commonly used gauges in INDO-PAK are

 Broad Gauge

 Meter Gauge

 Narrow Gauge
Broad Gauge

 Broad gauge refers to any gauge wider than

standard gauge or 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in)
 Broad gauge is used to provide better
stability and provide the easy transfer of
rolling stock.
 It is used for main cities and routes of heavy
intensities
Meter Gauge

 Standard gauge is referred the gauge having

a length equal to 1.00-m

 It is used in undeveloped area having

comparatively Less intensity.
 Narrow Gauge

 In hilly areas and very thinly populated areas

where it uneconomical to use Meter gauge,
narrow gauge is used.

 2’-00” and 2’-6” Narrow gauges are generally

used.
Common gauges in INDO-PAK
Difficulties Due to Change in Gauge
 At every change of gauge the passenger
have to change the train which cause much
inconvenience to the passengers.
 At the junction the goods are to be unloaded
from the train and loaded into another which
requires extra labor and goods likely to be
damaged.
 The owner will have to pay extra charges for
the labors causing increase in the price.
 Surplus wagons and engine of the one gauge
can not be utilize on the other.
Continued….

 During war times change in gauge causes

extremes difficulties to the army and checks
their quick movement.
 If the intensity of the traffic become more and
requires wider gauge it will be impossible to
change it because the change in gauge mean
changing of each and everything i.e. rails,
locomotives, bridges, tunnels etc.