The Change of Gauge at Gloucester Source: the 1849 Illustrated London News. . Source: the 1849 Illustrated London News. This illustration, one in a series of articles about the Royal Family’s railway trip to Scotland, depicts the change of trains necessitated by the early lack of a universal standard track gauge (or distance between rails) in Victorian Britain. American railroads occasionally required such change of trains, too, but for different reasons: although American railroads used so-called standard gauge track, specialized railroads, such as those built for lumbering and mining operations, often used a narrower 30-inch gauge and smaller engines and cars, which were less expensive to buy and operate. A few small railroads in Maine used the even smaller 24-inch gauge well into the twentieth century. — George P. Landow [Click on image to enlarge it.]
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Hathi Trust and the University of Michigan (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
“Return of the Court from the Highlands.” The Illustrated London News 15 (6 October 1849): 236. Hathi Trust version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 30 November 2015.
Last modified 1 December 2015