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In lugnet.trains, Eric Kingsley writes:
> OK this is not exactly on topic but it is very funny and is somehow relavent
> to Trains, Castle, and Space...
<snippage>
This is a pretty cool story. Not entirely accurate, but cool. :) The basic
claim, that rail guage is roughly the same as roman chariot spacing is
essentially true, but the article (this version less than some I've seen)
plays a little fast and loose with the details.
Snopes.com has a good in-depth look at it, but the quick version is:
railroads and roman roads have roughly the same wheel spacing because they
both started their lives as a medium for horse-drawn vehicles. So it's more
accurately a convergence in form due to a similarity in function, rather
than some unbroken chain of bureaucracy.
And the space shuttle bit is pretty much bunk, I'm afraid. Tunnel sizes
have little (if anything) to do with track guage, and more to do with size
of rolling stock. Also, as can be found by a very quick check on Thiokol's
website, the RSRMs are 12 feet in diamater, much wider than a pair of horse
posteriors.
:)
James
(FUT off-topic.fun)
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