Re: Some Questions

[mauried@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)]

On Thu, 19 Oct 2000 00:33:10 GMT, dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David
Bromage) wrote:

>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.


Quite true , but more appropriate for what ?
More appropriate to ensure that NSW ended up with a guage that no one
else had,and the NSW pollies simply did nothing to stop it 
>
>Narrow gauge was chosen by Queensland's Scottish engineer because it was
>cheaper to build.
>
Again quite true , so why didnt the cost option affect NSW.
After all ,pollies hate spending anymore money than is really needed.

MD