Comments by "John D" (@johnd8892) on "The Day The Gauge Changed" video.

  1. A search for Railway Gauges in Australia for Wikipedia will give a better description of the Australian gauge situation than some of the misleading comments here about Australian railways.
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  2. To avoid much higher conversion costs for lines of marginal economics and performing minor local tasks
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  3. Wikipedia is a good reference (search for Railway Gauges in Australia ) and shows how little the third rail system is used in Victoria. The third rail is only used in space constrained areas. Just 32 km in total mostly suburban Melbourne. As as 2019 in Victoria we have 16 km of 2ft 6in, 1912 km of 4ft 8.5in, 2357 km of 5ft 3in and just 32 km of mixed standard and broad. The direct Sydney & Melbourne standard gauge route in 1962 was achieved with a standard gauge new line largely parallel to the broads gauge line. From 1962 onwards most of the train usage on it was the much more economically beneficial freight traffic. No broad gauge locos pull standard gauge stock in Australia. Victoria has separate dedicated standard gauge diesels for the standard gauge lines in Victoria. The mistake of standard gauge in NSW was recognised as early as 1857 by the NSW railways chief engineer, John Whitton, who recommended NSW change to broad gauge while there was only a small amount of track (37 km) to convert. He was ignored due to cost pressures.
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  4. Promontory Summit. Media miss reporting from 1869 repeated.
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  5. First US locomotive. Lots in the UK in the previous twenty years or so.
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