OpenGeofiction
What railway gauge(s) does your country use? I’m just curious, sorry if this has been discussed before.
Drabantia uses three gauges:
- 1435 mm - vast majority of tracks
- 1000 mm - trams in smaller cities/towns (they’re not mapped yet)
- 760 mm - industrial spurs and railways in mountainous areas (they’re also not mapped yet, heh)
Discussion
Comment from Turnsole80 on 14 December 2016 at 18:39
The South Astrasian Federation uses the 3’6” gauge (1067 mm) throughout the entire country, with some smaller 2’ (610 mm) gauge lines used sparingly in certain mountainous areas
Comment from Thunderbird on 14 December 2016 at 19:20
Just curious: Am I missing something? How would a 760mm industrial spur track connect to a 1435mm main line?
Comment from PortCal on 14 December 2016 at 19:36
Paroy uses 1435 mm gauge for almost every railway track in the country, and 1000 mm gauge for some older disconnected railways and maybe some tramways.
Many of countries listed their railway gauges and other information about railways here.
Comment from eklas on 14 December 2016 at 19:41
@Thunderbird: They usually lead to a cargo station on a standard-gauged line, where all the freight is reloaded onto another train. Of course it would be easier to just build a 1435 mm spur, but narrow-gauge railroads cost less and allow for sharper curves.
760 mm spurs were built mostly in the 19th - early 20th century during the Industrial Revolution. Present-day spurs are mostly 1435 mm too.
Comment from eklas on 14 December 2016 at 20:01
@PortCal: thank you! I had a feeling I’d seen it before, but couldn’t remember where.
Comment from kingfries on 14 December 2016 at 20:38
Pasalia: 1435mm for Normal Rail and Subway, 1000mm for Streetcars
Comment from EMKLI on 14 December 2016 at 21:53
In Norðurland, there is a mix of several gauges. The greatest part of the network uses an extraordinary broad gauge of 1892 mm (6 feet) due to historic reasons. When the first ore and coal freight trains were built from the mountains in Eldfjallafylki down to the coast and the more southern cities, the engineers thought it would be a good improvement of stability (and also more economic) to use a gauge as broad as that. The tracks had to sustain heavy snowfall and frost and were built on permafrost and marshy soil. When the first republic was founded, the government decided to take this gauge as the national standard.
In the border regions, the tracks from the nearest rail hub to the border are mostly built in the neighbor country’s gauge (mainly 1435 mm). There is a larger part of the network in Solinflyki (in the south) next to Ingerland which is mostly built with 1435mm (I tagged it as narrow gauge as the main gauge in Norðurland is 6 ft). This has historic reasons. I intend that this region was part of Ingerland for a long time (however I have to discuss this with Andy yet) and for that reason, the network has Ingerland’s gauge (which I just guessed 1435mm). As I’ve said, I have to clear the details with Andy first.
Comment from Sarepava on 15 December 2016 at 01:03
Karolia uses a broad gauge of 1544mm for all the state-owned main lines, most metro systems and the Osmila lines of the Santjana Metro. The other half of the network was built to standard gauge and standard loading gauge and the incompatibility has been a headache ever since. Samacja also uses standard gauge for its pre-metro system.
Broad gauge was chosen not so much because Karolia is loosely based on Finland and Estonia which use similar gauges but because it allows for a much wider loading gauge, larger vehicles and therefore more capacity.
There are also a number of narrow gauge railways in the mountains with track gauges ranging from 600mm to 1200mm.
Trams in most cities tend to use metre gauge, although a couple of systems use standard gauge. A short section of tramway I plan to build somewhere will involve using mixed gauge as it runs along a mainline railway.
The tunnel in the west of Kanton was converted from a goods line and in order to accommodate the stations inside the platforms are offset with gauntlet (overlapping but not joining) tracks. Obviously this means a train cannot pass another whilst standing in the platform.
Comment from trabantemnaksiezyc on 15 December 2016 at 14:10
Shilesia uses 1435mm everywhere.
Comment from trabantemnaksiezyc on 15 December 2016 at 14:11
Shilesia uses 1435mm everywhere.
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 15 December 2016 at 15:12
I don’t know what gauges I use: for mapping purposes, I use 3m spacing between different tracks on double track light rail and subway, 4m spacing for rail main line and <2m for narrow gauge. Trams 2-3m spacing/ Attem[ting to be similar to OSM. Can anyone tell me how this might fit into ‘classic’ rail gauges, if at all? What leeway is there? Why are there different gauges anyway? (ok - I understand that narrower gauge allows tighter bends, but is it related to the units used for measurement 6ft, 1000mm, rather than a particular requirement?).
Comment from kingfries on 16 December 2016 at 12:42
@Udi: German ,Federal Railway Law’ measures the space between tracks as ,,the space between the middle of each track’’, and it says it should not be less than 4,00m on new constructions. Don’t know if you’ll understand it but maybe the pictures will help you understand: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bundesrecht/ebo/gesamt.pdf Look for §5 to §10
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 16 December 2016 at 18:54
If it says that, I believe you. - from the centres of each track no less than 4m. Thanks kingfries.