Re: National guage standardisation - why 4'8.5"?

["Ted Gay" <tedgay@bigpond.com>]

"Maurie Daly" <mauried@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
3adb8187.1719697@can-news.tpg.com.au">news:3adb8187.1719697@can-news.tpg.com.au...
> On 16 Apr 2001 20:40:20 +1000, "Bradley Torr"
> <truenorth@one.net.au.SPAMTRAP> wrote:
>
> >I just have a question that's bugging me - when PM Andrew Fisher started
> >building the Trans-Australian Railway in 1912 (or whatever year it was),
> >why did the Commonwealth Railways engineers choose 4'8.5" for the
railway,
> >and all subsequent CR projects, right up to the Melbourne to Adelaide
> >standardisation in the 1990's?
> >
> >Out of the five mainland states, two had 3'6" (WA and QLD), two had 5'3"
> >(VIC and SA) and only one had 4'8.5" (NSW).
> >
> >I would have chosen 5'3" had I been a CR engineer way back then. Why?
> >Because two states already had it, and 5'3" from Port Augusta to
Kalgoorlie
> >would have been a logical extension of South Australia's system. It would
> >have been possible to travel all the way from Orbost VIC to Kalgoorlie WA
> >on the one guage as well. Also, it seems kinda unfair for a guage used
only
> >by New South Wales to be imposed on the rest of the nation.
> >
> >Regards
> >BT
> >
> Yes , its a fair question and one that has puzzled me too.
> TAR was completed on 17 Oct 1917.
> The BG line from Adelaide to Pt Pirie wasnt completed until around
> 1925 ,(I only have the date it got to Red Hill.)
>
And when was the standard guage extented from Port Augusta to Port Pirie?

Ted

> An even more interesting question is why was it necessary to create
> the Commonwealth Railways to operate the TAR.
> It could have easily been operated by the SAR and the WAGR using
> rolling stock paid for by the Feds .
> Why did we need a completely new railway bureacracy to operate just
> one line ?
>
> MD
>