Re: Some Questions

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

Maurie Daly (mauried@tpg.com.au) wrote:
> The above story is what we have all been taught , but I just wonder
> how true it really is .
> Just what were the politicians of the day doing .
> One is being asked to beleive that a relatively lowly official ,(an
> irish rail engineer) simply decided that NSW was to go BG and so all
> the NSW pollies agreed,just like that .
> And then later they all just changed their minds again when they got a
> scottish engineer.

It's a bit more complicated than that. New South Wales had an Irish
engineer, who proposed the Irish Standard Gauge of 5'3". All the other
colonies agreed, and Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania started making
plans for broad gauge. The NSW engineer had his pay cut, and he resigned.

The new NSW engineer was English, and pursuaded the colonial government of
the day that the British standard gauge would be more appropriate.

Narrow gauge was chosen by Queensland's Scottish engineer because it was
cheaper to build.

Cheers
David