4 ft 8 in gauge railways

4 ft 8 in gauge railways are railways with a track gauge of 4 ft 8 in / 1,422 mm. This gauge is 1⁄2 inch (13 mm) less than 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge The first such railways were the Killingworth Railway^[1][2] and the Stockton and Darlington Railway ^{[note 1]}

Similar gauges

• The Huddersfield Corporation Tramways, 4 ft 7+3⁄4 in (1,416 mm), the gauge is 3⁄4 inch (19 mm) less than 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
• The Glasgow Corporation Tramways, 4 ft 7+3⁄4 in (1,416 mm)
• The Washington Metro 4 ft 8+1⁄4 in (1,429 mm), the gauge is 1⁄4 inch (6 mm) less than 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
• The trams in Nuremberg for one time nominally used 1,432 mm (4 ft 8+3⁄8 in), the gauge is 1⁄8 inch (3 mm) less than 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
• The MTR uses 1,432 mm (4 ft 8+3⁄8 in) on most lines.
• The Bucharest Metro uses 1,432 mm (4 ft 8+3⁄8 in)

Railways

Country / territory	System / RR name	Notes
Netherlands	Trams in Amsterdam	In operation. Converted to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) between 1900 and 1906
New Zealand	Trams in Dunedin	Defunct
UK	Clarence Railway	Became part of the North Eastern Railway in 1865
	Hetton colliery railway	Closed in 1959[5]
	Killingworth Colliery railway Killingworth Railway Killingworth tramway Killingworth wagonway	Four different names for the same line. Defunct
	Stockton and Darlington Railway	Became part of the North Eastern Railway in 1863
USA	Centreville Military Railroad	Defunct
	Green Mountain Cog Railway
	Los Angeles and Independence Railroad
	Manassas Gap Railroad
	Montgomery and West Point Railroad
	Mount Washington Cog Railway	In operation
	New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad	Became the St. Charles Streetcar Line,[6] converted to 5 ft 2+1⁄2 in (1,588 mm)
	North Carolina Railroad
	Pontchartrain Railroad
	Raleigh and Gaston Railroad
	Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad
	Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad
	West Feliciana Railroad
	Western North Carolina Railroad
	Wilmington and Weldon Railroad

See also

• 4 ft 7 3⁄4 in gauge
• List of 4 ft 8 in gauge railways
• List of track gauges
• List of tram track gauges

Notes

1. Smiles (1904, p. 160) states that early tramroads had rails 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) apart, but Tomlinson (1915, pp. 82–83) challenges this, stating that the most common gauge of the early tramroads and waggonways was about 4 ft (1,219 mm), and some, such as the Wylam waggonway, had the rails 5 ft (1,524 mm) apart. The gauge of the S&DR was given in early documents as 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm), but the distance between the rails was later measured as 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm), and this became the standard gauge used by 60 per cent of railways worldwide. The difference of 1⁄2 inch (13 mm) is a mystery.^[3][4]

References

1. Allen 1974, p. 20.
2. The Rocket Men, by Robin Jones, p33; Mortons Media Group.
3. Davis, Hunter (1975). George Stephenson: A Biographical Study of the Father of Railways. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 75. ISBN 0-297-76934-0.
4. "Robert Stephenson (1803–1859)". Network Rail. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
5. Allen, G. Freeman (December 1959). "Talking of trains: First mineral railway closed". Trains Illustrated. Hampton Court: Ian Allan.
6. Cook 2005, p. 136.

Sources

• Allen, Cecil J. (1974) [1964]. The North Eastern Railway. Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0495-1.
• Cook, Samantha (2005). New Orleans: Directions. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-84353-393-6.
• Smiles, Samuel (1904). Lives of the Engineers. The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson. John Murray. OCLC 220796785.
• Tomlinson, William Weaver (1915). The North Eastern Railway: Its rise and development. Andrew Reid and Company. OCLC 504251788.