Talk:Break of gauge

Removed from Minor Breaks of Gauge section
Similarly, there are breaks-of-gauge in the more mountainous parts of the British Isles. These include:

Isle of Man

 * Laxey - Snaefell Mountain Railway, 3' 6" (1067 mm); Manx Electric Railway, 3' 0" (914 mm)
 * Lhen Coan - Groundle Glen Railway, 2' 0" (610 mm); Manx Electric Railway, 3' 0" (914 mm)
 * formerly Douglas, Douglas Corporation Horse Tramway, 3' 0" (914 mm); Falcon Cliff Lift, 5' 0" (1524 mm)

Wales

 * Aberystwyth - National Rail, 4' 8½" (1435 mm); Vale of Rheidol Railway, 1' 11½" (597 mm)
 * Blaenau Ffestiniog - National Rail, 4' 8½" (1435 mm); Ffestiniog Railway, 1' 11½" (597 mm)
 * Llanberis - Llanberis Lake Railway, 1' 11½" (597 mm); Snowdon Mountain Railway, 2' 7½" (800 mm)
 * Minffordd - National Rail, 4' 8½" (1435 mm); Ffestiniog Railway, 1' 11½" (597 mm)
 * Porthmadog - National Rail, 4' 8½" (1435 mm); Ffestiniog Railway and Welsh Highland Railway, both 1' 11½" (597 mm)
 * Tywyn - National Rail, 4' 8½" (1435 mm); Talyllyn Railway, 2' 3" (686 mm)
 * Welshpool - National Rail, 4' 8½" (1435 mm); Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway, 2' 6" (762 mm)


 * I removed these because I felt that most of the above aren't very interesting: they are simply the junction between a NG railroad and the standard gauge network. A complete list of all breaks-of-gauge would become long and tedious. Something could be done to list particularly notable breaks-of-gauge: where more than two gauges meet, etc.--CodeGeneratR 07:25, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * By comparison the Kars - Tbilisi - Baku line is veryinteresting.   Tabletop (talk) 06:31, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Kars - Tbilisi - Baku line
A new line is under construction joining Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Choice of gauge is an interesting question.

Building a break-of-gauge where the gauges aleady change would be one simplistic solution. But just as it makes some sense to build a broad gauge "Gauge Thrust" line to Viena, it would make as much sense to build the line to Baku as standard gauge "Gauge Thrust", with possible eventual extension to standard gauge in China.

This enables the vast existing fleet of wagons to reach important new destinations without the need to revert to complications like bogie exchange or transshipment.

As a minimum, a break-of-gauge should be at or near (within 30km) of a major city, and not at a minor border crossing like Albury/Wodonga where passengers have to be woken in the middle of the night to change trains.

It is noted that Variable Gauge Axle equipment such as SUW 2000 is already available for broad gauge/standard gauge, though not necessarily for other gauge pairs.

Tabletop (talk) 06:23, 14 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Currently only available Russian gauge /standard gauge gauge pair. 121.102.47.215 (talk) 11:54, 14 March 2010 (UTC)


 * SUW 2000 (Variable Gauge Axle) should use also / gauge pair. 121.102.47.215 (talk) 02:52, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

North America
121.102.47.215 (talk) 02:44, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Alaska should convert from to  and electrification 25 kV 50 Hz alternating current
 * Canada and United States (except Alaska) should convert to  and electrification 25 kV 60 Hz alternating current.
 * This gauge conversion is utter madness and a complete waste of money. Tabletop (talk) 02:53, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Mexico should remain standard gauge
 * Guatemala should convert to standard gauge. This would happen with the FERISTSA project.
 * Russia - Alaska - Canada rail link should be built
 * SUW 2000 (Variable Gauge Axle) should use between and  at Alaska / Canada border and in Central Asia / Afghanistan area
 * It is not know for sure whether VGA systems such as SUW 2000 can handle any pair of gauges or more than two gauges at once. or particularly narrow gauges (as space between the wheels for all the equipment is limited). The marketing departments of the respective companies appear to be asleep at the wheel, as this important information is not to be had.   Tabletop (talk) 02:53, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Gauge orphan and Gauge outreach
Gauge orphan seems a reasonable name for a line cut off from its original parent main line, and "orphaned".

Gauge thrust sounds a bit jarring. Is there a better term? The term is vaguely the opposite of the gauge orphan.

Tabletop (talk) 05:36, 24 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Howabout "Outreach" line?   Tabletop (talk) 08:09, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Nominal breaks of gauge - Hong Kong
Can the difference between Hong Kong's1,432 mm gauge and standard 1,435 mm not also cosidered nominal? Is there exchange of rollins stock? Andreas (T) 12:56, 26 May 2011 (UTC)


 * It probably is, as is only 1/8 in less than, and is less than the difference in the harmonised Iberian gauge.
 * The problem is that the two systems have been under common ownership (or at least operation) for a few years now, and I cannot find any reliable sources on the web which confirms that any of it is still defined as gauge, or that there is or isn't any interrunning, even of maintenance vehicles (at slower speeds).
 * I'd be very surprised if multi-system EMUs couldn't run at normal speeds (possibly with special wheelsets), and not at all surprised if one or both sets of stock's wheelsets can run fine on both systems. Tim PF (talk) 21:23, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

Minor Issue - Pros / Cons of Transshipment
Currently the article appears to state that Bogie Exchange is both quicker and slower than Transshipment -

- Section Advantages, Sub-section Passengers - "For these, often the bogies are replaced, even if it takes much more time than having passengers change trains."

- Section Overcoming a break of gauge, Sub-section Bogie Exchange and variable guage - "One common method to avoid transshipment is to build cars to the smaller of the two systems' loading gauges with bogies that are easily removed and replaced.... This takes a few minutes per car, but is quicker than transshipment."

Just seems to be at odds with itself.94.68.89.239 (talk) 08:51, 8 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Makes perfect sense to me. Passengers changing trains takes about 2 minutes, which is faster than replacing bogies. Transshipment of goods may take more than an hour depending on train length and type of wagons/goods, which is longer than replacing bogies. Amending the text to make this clear to everyone. PiusImpavidus (talk) 11:41, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

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Ukraine (1520mm) to Poland (4' 8.5")
One user has been repeatedly edit-warring this article by removing valid factual information here and here, for instance. The information which he is attempting to suppress, which is validly sourced and true, is this:

"What Putin’s war has done is not only tried to wipe out the culture of the Ukrainians, decimate people, and commit innumerable war crimes, but is also — he’s also prevented the grain — thousands of tons of grain that are locked up in those silos, ready to be exported, but they can’t get out through the Black Sea because they’ll get blown out of the water. So we’re working on a plan to get it out through other countries by rail.

But guess what? Ukraine has a system like Russia has — a rail gauge that is different than the gauge of the rest of the tracks in Europe. So we’re going to build silos — temporary silos — in the borders of Ukraine, including in Poland, so we can transfer it from those cars into those silos, into cars in Europe, and get it out to the ocean, and get it across the world. But it’s taking time."

Whatever your opinion of Mr. Biden or the US, this statement is a simple fact. There is a war on and the break of gauge between Lviv and Warsaw is creating real logistic problems of historic import. Those facts need to be back in this article. 66.102.87.40 (talk) 22:35, 23 May 2023 (UTC) 66.102.87.40 (talk) 22:35, 23 May 2023 (UTC)


 * "repeatedly edit-warring" – two reverts within a year isn't edit warring. You've taken it to the talk page, so here we are. "attempting to suppress" – baseless. What I object to is you presenting long, quoted, inflammatory political remarks by a world leader on an article about railways. It doesn't adhere to WP:WEIGHT, and the source given doesn't adhere to WP:PRIMARY. If you absolutely insist on its inclusion, your task is to reword it in a neutral way. Mac Dreamstate (talk) 17:53, 24 May 2023 (UTC)


 * The quotation is not relevant to the subject of "overcoming a break of gauge", and it's too long and doesn't really say anything in particular for inclusion to be merited elsewhere.--Eldomtom2 (talk) 12:22, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

This is a political rant posted in the wrong place.

Side note: in the History section the only military reference I saw was "The lack of a standardized gauge was a significant problem in transportation in the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War." How about throwing that away, too, and use something like "can be a problem for invading hordes" or something generic? If you include one war... Sammy D III (talk) 17:01, 26 May 2023 (UTC)