Gauge War on the Metropolitan Line

How the Metropolitan Railway found itself on the losing side twice over.
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[@TheCaptScarlett]

1830: Invention of the first inter-city rail service 1831: Introduction of the first rail-replacement stagecoach between Rainhill and St Helens

[@sewing9434]

This is a broad subject in which it is possible to focus too narrowly...but Jago's treatment is never merely standard :)

[@jerribee1]

You make some good points there.

[@harold6442]

You missed a miniature point of view but then again it's only miniature

[@YetAnotherGeorgeth]

You certainly gauged my interest, or something like that

[@henkbarnard1553]

@@harold6442 I think you're being to small-minded, and need to take a very mutch broader point of view

[@harold6442]

@@henkbarnard1553 I might stick with a standard point of view

[@RockyRailroadProductions_B0SS]

*slamming table, hands are bloodied and bruised from cheering broad gauge* GAUGE WAR! GAUGE WAR! GAUGE WAR!

[@archstanton6102]

Border of Poland and Belarus enters the chat

[@johnm2012]

Broad gauge was the Betamax to standard gauge's VHS.

[@johnm2012]

Both were narrow gauge toys compared with Hitler's 3 metre gauge!

[@BMC1100]

4 foot 8½ inches between the rails sounds like a strange and very technical kind of measurement until you realise that it originally equated to 5 foot measured on the outside of the rail heads.

[@gymnasiast90]

Nice! I always wondered why it wasn't an integer number of feet, but that makes a lot of sense.

[@Wildcard71]

Some countries in East Europe have 5 feet between the insides.

@@Wildcard71 ...and in North (Finland)

[@iankemp1131]

@@Wildcard71 And in the UK the Eastern Counties Railway (later Great Eastern) started with that gauge.

[@bryan3550]

Nice thought, but rail profiles differ markedly so I doubt it...

[@ashleyhamman]

That bit about the change of gauge stations made me think "Oh that's cute." For context, towns in the US midwest captialised on the gauge war such that by having a change of gauge station in your town, all the passengers waiting for stuff to change over would stop by and contribute to local businesses. Baker Street and Great Portland Street really do feel like a step into history, its amazing how closely they still resemble depictions from the early days. Deep level stations feel like you're just inside some vast and oddly designed windowless building, not really giving you that sense of underground-ness as much.

[@emdxemdx]

Save for the very first railroad (Champlain & St-Lawrence), Canada’s early roads were broad-gauge, for the same reason why Spain is broad-gauge: they did not want invading Americans (or French) to barge in on trains… But eventually, they had to change to standard gauge, so they decided to make the switch. It only took a week-end to do so, with enough gangs to each do something like 10 miles of tracks each.

[@ianmcclavin]

Yes, it was a good idea to remove the boards which were covering up the original walls at Baker Street and Great Portland Street by the seventies, and give them both a "sympathetic" restoration to the original design, including the smoke vents at Baker Street being turned into light-reflecting alcoves...

[@Squimple]

'What's your town's major industry?' "Making people wait around and selling them stuff" Nice!

[@johnjephcote7636]

The GWR never thought that the Met could find a replacement partner. Sturrock of the GNR did the most amazing set of conversions to fitting condensing gear to locos and providing carriages right on time. Brinkmanship of the highest order.

[@rgmusicom]

I would love to see a period soap opera written around the railway boom of the Victorian era. Eastenders meets Downton Abbey meets Thomas the Tank Engine.

[@tomasjones3755]

Expanding on that: Maybe a musical? NO NO. I've got it; OPERA! Brunel & Stephenson arguing, in high song. It would be glorious.

[@sunscream4525]

@@tomasjones3755 That would be great. Actually it would be Great by Bob Godfrey, a 30 minute musical cartoon from 1975 about the life of IKB.

[@emjayay]

@@tomasjones3755 No, G&S style comic operetta.

[@tomasjones3755]

@@emjayay Oy - I like that!

[@ballyhigh11]

@@tomasjones3755 Actually I'm now trying to think of any 19th century operas that feature, or make reference to, trains.Considering that trains and opera verismo ('realistic' opera with contemporary storylines rather than about Gods or improbable comedies) appeared at roughly the same time, you'd think so.

[@PaulLemars01]

I suppose it is standard gauge but many many years ago I got to ride a mail train from Bury St Edmond's at 3AM since I'd missed the last train into I think, Charing Cross(It was a long time ago). The train was picking up the mail and I cajoled the driver into letting me ride on the train. He actually let me ride in the cab with him! I remember looking down from this monster machines on the rails running under us and thinking 'Those rails look tiny" from where I stood it felt like I was directly over one of the rails and it amazed me how we didn't fly off.

[@atraindriver]

Part of the skill of being a train driver is keeping the train balanced on those two narrow bands of steel. Allegedly.

[@josephturner4047]

Me too. And I used to drive the things.

[@visionsofhere3745]

The locomotives designed under Brunel are worth reading about. For all his brilliance, he had no idea of how to design functional locos, and all of his were unqualified disasters - nothing wrong with the gauge, just Brunel's very odd ideas about how they should work. None of them lasted long. A couple even had their boilers on one section, and their running gear on a completely different section, thus depriving them of the weight they'd need if they were even going to grip the rails well enough to pull trains...

[@andrewfrancis3591]

Nothing wrong with the gauge! except for the switching issues. This is a problem related to differential tyre speeds and maximum curve radius to tyre flange width. A considerable number of derailments and accelerated track and wheel wear were the result.

[@crossleydd42]

@@andrewfrancis3591 No indeed, the wide gauge trains would've been much more stable than standard gauge ones. The wider coaches would've also carried more passengers! One interesting aspect came about with the HST125s. The first ones ran from Bristol to Paddington, without incident, when passing each other at speed.. When they started to run elsewhere, shattered windows near the front of the trains occurred, when passing. This didn't happen initially, because the tracks were further apart from each other on the Brunel-built Paddington line than elsewhere. The glass had to be strengthened to stop the problem.

[@alan-sk7ky]

@@andrewfrancis3591 Apart from the cost of the civil engineering that is...

[@visionsofhere3745]

@@andrewfrancis3591 I think you've misunderstood what I was saying - the gauge wasn't the reason Brunel's locos were crap. He insisted on some very odd specifications that ensured the locos would be pretty well useless. The main one was a maximum piston speed which was laughably inadequate. The only way that could work involved massive driving wheels that couldn't be mounted under the boiler. That led to ridiculous designs like putting the boiler onto one section of the loco, and the running gear onto a separate section, which then couldn't get decent grip as it didn't have the boiler weighing it down. Gauge had nothing to do with that.

[@johnm2012]

@@visionsofhere3745 Daniel Gooch to the rescue. Brunel was a genius but some of his ideas were insane (I'm looking at you, Atmospheric Railway). He really needed to be managed by someone whom he respected and who wasn't intimidated by him.

[@Chicklo11]

Now, the Victorian engineer Robert Stephenson should not be confused with the Victorian engineer Robert Stevenson. Now the final Stevenson was Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde,and Treasure Island.

[@marieschwarz1034]

*Robert Vephenson is the correct spelling I believe

[@Chicklo11]

@@marieschwarz1034 I mean they introduce him and then in later verses sing it as Vephenson.

[@surinfarmwest6645]

"One hundred and seventy five thousand pounds, adjusting for inflation, that is a lot of money." The most accurate inflation guide I've ever heard. Well played that man!

[@crossleydd42]

After spending much time in calculation, I reckon that the amount was closer to a very lot of money!

[@adonaiyah2196]

Really

[@martinpook5707]

In case no one else has said it, the reason for building narrow gauge (less than 4' 81/2") is cost. It is much cheaper, especially when you have to beat a Welsh mountain into submission!

[@oc2phish07]

I have been trying to gauge the reactions on this page and find a broad feeling that most people are not so narrow-minded as to refute the opinions of others Overall a mixed reaction has kept us firmly on-track and avoided any tunnel vision or deviation from the point of it all. It signals a great western, northern, southern and eastern acceptance that we should all steam ahead in the certain knowledge that Jago Hazzard knows best and is quite rightly stationed at the head of the train. Mind the doors!

[@johanneswerner1140]

You are a bad person ;p Well done, I just almost spilled my wine....

[@stevemoss7793]

Did you make all that up yourself? Perhaps you were coached, or at least had some training?

[@drscopeify]

It is amazing how wide that gauge is, when I took the BART system in San Francisco that is wide but not even close to Brunel's wide gauge.

[@Aengus42]

Such a shame that the "establishment" won out over physics & engineering. Just think how fast, safe & smooth our high speed lines would be now if Brunel had won! Trains would have a lower centre of gravity enabling higher cornering speeds. The wider spacing would reduce roll & wobble. Plus all the other benefits you mentioned here. It would have made railways around the world wider. Right up to the space shuttle! The solid fuel boosters that give the shuttle the oomph to take off at all are constrained by the US rail guage as they are transported by rail. If Brunel had managed to make standard guage 7' ¼" then the shuttle's boosters could have been wider giving the shuttle much more flexibility as it could have reached higher, more useful orbits. Maybe even the lucrative geostationary orbit that means your satellite TV dish doesn't have to move. So the shuttle's restriction to low earth orbit is a direct result of the width of a Roman horse's arse at T+2000 years!

[@Ribeirasacra]

**the "establishment" won out over physics & engineering.** That happens at time. Betamax verses VHS is a more recent example.

[@commentarytalk1446]

SNCF have wider gauge and their trains (in France) are a good comparison to English narrow gauge, too. I once twisted my knee trying to get up and squeeze my legs from outside a table seat (incredible narrow to the table) while the train lurched - all thanks to narrow gauge!

[@Ribeirasacra]

@@commentarytalk1446 here in Spain it is different again. There is a bit about it on Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways - The Train in Spain. I have no idea why Spain is considered to have extreme railways though.

[@cameronyoungcg9270]

@@Ribeirasacra because it's on tv therefore must be extreme or in some way extraordinary. Joking aside I think that episode concerned him going all the way across Europe by train or am I thinking of a different one?

[@grumpyoldman47]

@ Commentary Talk: SNCF track is also Standard Gauge; however, the structure gauge is a different shape and dimensionally larger than in Great Britain, and so their trains are bigger

[@joncrawford3485]

Look 'ere Jago - I, a member of the unclean ones in the comment section, actually agree with you about Liverpool to Manchester being the first intercity railway. So there.

[@johnm2012]

Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, contemporaries, friends, rivals, totally different characters. One, arrogant and confident, worked himself to death and the other, plagued by self-doubt, worried himself to death. They died within four weeks of each other. They would make great subjects for a video. Compare and contrast

[@bigblue6917]

There was a third but his name escapes me at the moment. All three were born and died about the same time

[@johnm2012]

@@bigblue6917 You must be thinking of Joseph Locke. He died at the age of 55 on 18 September 1860, three days after IKB's first anniversary and is also buried in Kensal Green cemetery. It's a shame he's so often the forgotten one because he certainly ranked alongside Brunel and Robert Stephenson. I remember him for his work on the Woodhead tunnel, which he "inherited" on Charles Vignoles' resignation, and which George Stephenson said could not be built.

[@frglee]

Well researched, well filmed, well narrated and well up to television broadcast standard.

[@crossleydd42]

"The Break of Gauge at Gloucester" is a famous 1846 painting of the infamous chaotic transfer situation there. Even Queen Victoria was not amused by being seriously incommoded there on one occasion!

[@highpath4776]

Could they just not put smaller carriages on larger open trucks ?

[@crossleydd42]

​@@highpath4776 I'd say that the large difference in width would cause problems, platforms etc, but you couldn't modify steam locomotives anyway, so better and cheaper to change the track to 4' 8½" from 7' 0¼" and have brand new stock, as was done in 1892. Not all of Europe uses 4' 8½" gauge. All of Ireland uses 5' 2"gauge and, rather than have new carriages built to replace worn out ones, Southern Ireland used to buy surplus ones from British Rail, the put them onto their old 5' 2" bogies. The six inch narrower coaches were further away from the platforms, leaving a larger than comfortable gap for passengers and the bogies protruded either side of the narrower coaches. By now, I suspect that new coaches have been built to the proper gauge and width. Spain also uses the 5' 2" gauge which meant that their trains couldn't leave Spain. Later, a clever expanding/narrowing train axles on the bogies allowed cross-border travel. Nowadays, their standard gauge high speed trains travel on dedicated standard gauge track lines. Russia also has 5' 2" gauge, which was deliberately built thus to make it difficult for any invading army to use their rail system for troop movements. In World War 2, however, the Germans changed some of the track to standard gauge to help the invading troop movement.

[@ballyhigh11]

@@crossleydd42 Spain also have several dozen high speed EMUs with variable gauge systems.

[@crossleydd42]

@@ballyhigh11 Thx for that!

[@odius94]

Fresh Hazzard! I knew staying up late would pay off! (Pacific time)

[@zelphion5248]

Eyyyy me too

[@TheWolfHowling]

Sunday 10:40PM NZDT

[@mirzaahmed6589]

I knew waking up early would pay off (Eastern time).

[@iandixon2201]

Pacific time - is that 2 minutes past five ?

[@foamer443]

So are you getting Hazzard pay?

[@roberthuron9160]

Oh,the punster's delight,Jago,your humor is unencumbered,by any heavy trackage,broadly speaking! The subject is narrow enough already,and tunneling through the rending of the change overs,definitely makes one pause! Totally electrifying is your coverage of how the Underground came to be,thanks again,and keep up the good work!! Thanks 😊!

[@motorheadmalc]

Ah. A little aside here, as @Jago educates us so often. The advantage of gauges narrower than 4' 8.5" are that they allow for tighter curves which is advantageous in hilly or mountainous terrain, or where space is limited in such places traversing farmland with its boundaries and/or factories. This gave rise to a great many narrow gauge mineral and industrial railways. Indeed, there was a not insignificant amount of narrow gauge ironstone lines criss-crossing our landscape between quarries and iron and steel works.

[@alan-sk7ky]

No you have it all wrong broaDER is better more is best etc... ;-)

[@dukenukem5768]

A factor in standardising on 4' 8.5" was that the broad gauge could be reduced without needing to replace the sleepers. They just needed to drill new holes.

[@pras12100]

When Jago used the Liverpool & Manchester Railway as an early example of a "standard" gauge railway I was surprised. It was originally constructed to 4' 8" rather than 4' 8½" making it technically a real narrow gauge line. It soon had to be widened by the extra half inch on curves as the wheels kept binding. This is slightly ironic because, in time, standard gauge would be widened in curves for similar reasons.

[@MrGreatplum]

Ah, Isambard King Kong Brunel, the scourge of Danger Mouse and standard gauge alike...

[@floratubbs5142]

Oh carrots, Chief!

[@acey850]

Bless us this day for our Sunday Jago Hazzard dose. Good morning everyone!

[@richardmcgowan6383]

Yup. In technology, interoperability and network effects can matter more than quality. See also: Betamax versus VHS. And some people might say (cat, meet pigeons) Mac versus Windows.

[@emjayay]

How about Tesla car chargers and the other ones? This is really stupid and should be nipped in the bud.

[@richardmcgowan6383]

@@creamwobbly Yes, this would be a fun game. There must be other examples through history. It also shows up a weakness in capitalism in that free markets don't always guarantee maximum utility. The best solutions can end up as evolutionary dead ends because of bad timing, bad luck, or imbalances of power between producers.

[@richardmcgowan6383]

@@emjayay I didn't know about that. Legislation to stipulate a standard would be an answer. Though we've had Brexit because people these days don't seem to like that sort of thing. Red tape, meddling bureaucrats, etc.

[@KieranShort]

I have no idea what or where half these places are, but I still find the stories fascinating.

[@cameo403]

Sometimes the comment section is as entertaining as the video....

[@joethebrowser2743]

Your here quite a lot.

[@robinjones6999]

nail and head Leanne - but they are all bit nerdy in a good way

[@trevordance5181]

I read somewhere years ago that 4ft 8 and a half inches was first chosen as a guage as that was the supposed distance between the wheels of a Roman Chariot, the fastest thing that there'd been on wheels for hundreds of years. Proven technology therefore!

[@TheCaptScarlett]

And the reason Roman chariots are that wide? The width of two horses' arses side by side

[@trevordance5181]

@@TheCaptScarlett You learn something new every day! Perhaps broad guage used Shire Horse arses for their measurement as they could pull heavy loads.

[@TheCaptScarlett]

@@trevordance5181 I think Brunel started with what loads he wanted to carry and worked it out from there. Broad guage is fine so long as you have space to run in a straighish line. The narrower the guage, the easier curves are. Hence mountain railways that twist are narrow guage.

[@nigelhall6714]

May I be amongst the first to say that I gauge this video to be of extremely high and entertaining quality.

[@imstuman]

I'm not against modernization, but I do love many of the retained features of old stations.

[@caturdaynite7217]

We had similar difficulties here in the US. The railroads in the northern states had one gauge and the southern states another. It was resolved in two days, May 31-June 1, 1886, when the gauges were all switched in a flurry of activity to the northern standard. You can read more here if you're interested: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_gauge_in_the_United_States

[@marvwatkins7029]

Jago's tales are the best.

[@elizabethspedding1975]

Beautiful photographs. Thanks for showing us all such wonderful,interesting details, which I would have missed. 🚆

[@AcornElectron]

Lancashire Intercity FTW 😂👍🏻 Keep up the good work fella and stay safe.

[@eattherich9215]

@1:57, 😂 😂 😂 I love Baker Street station. It is both magnificant and cozy.

[@TheEarlofK]

Baker Street is definitely my favourite station, probably because I use it mostly after enjoying a day's cricket at Lord's to return to Liverpool Street, but also because it is so atmospheric and also relaxing with its wide platform and seat recesses. I also like the entrance from street level, no traipsing down endless tunnels, and even the sign above the steps down to the platform seems welcoming.

[@jeantremlett174]

Gauges explained excellently. well done

[@BarryAllenMagic]

Those Victorian Artists may "have not been above taking liberties with proportions"; but they were clearly a bloody sight more talented than whoever painted that wall mural at 2:45!

[@GordonSlamsay]

Looks like my elementary school sketch book

[@emjayay]

I assume the people in the cars (carriages) drawn like a kindergartener would draw them is either because they had actual school children draw them (most likely) or the artist went for that look for some reason. Some London or Tube focused KZbinr person should do the research.

[@olly5764]

even the GWR wasn't entirely Broad Gauge once it started absorbing other railways, they absorbed railways of Standard gauge very early on, including a standard gauge loco works at Wolverhampton (Stafford road) and for a long time were building Broad Gauge stock at Swindon, and Narrow Gauge at Wolverhampton. It is likely that this disparrity within their own company is the origin of mixed gauge rather than the desire for through working onto others

[@alan-sk7ky]

And the comedy expense of reworking the civil engineering to accommodate the 7ft DRM rolling stock.

[@iankemp1131]

@@alan-sk7ky Though again, the track gauge isn't the same as the loading gauge. In the later years of the broad gauge they built slightly narrower "convertible" carriages and engines which could fit on any line. Then when the Broad Gauge ended in 1892, they simply swapped over the wheelsets from 7' to 4'8" and continued using them. (Before anyone complains, I've missed out the fractions of an inch as I couldn't see how to do them)

[@baxtermarrison5361]

Adoption of the Stephenson gague as standard was a far more elegant solution than the Dog's Breakfast adopted in Ireland. Whilst still part of the UK at the time, they opted for an average of all gauges in use, more or less, at 5'3", genius!

[@highpath4776]

On the grounds that if its average anything else would fit on it ?

[@johnstonewall917]

Ireland will have to change when 'The Tunnel' is built, but I think they will have about a century to think about it first.

[@alan-sk7ky]

And a small 'air gauge' over the rails too :-\

[@eugenemurray2940]

The length of Brian Boru's sword....

[@Mikshvert]

I love watching the channel grow. Jago Hazzard, I have never thought that I was an underground enthusiast, but you made me one!

[@KravKernow]

Just to do my drop in some Cornwall reference thing... But down here the topography means we have a lot of viaducts. Now to save costs, they built them with a limited weight capacity (they were stone at the bottom but wood at the top). Brunel himself said this was short sighted; but, financiers. Eventually they did replace them with stronger viaducts. So now it's very common here to have the old viaduct right next to the new one. One thing you notice though when you walk under them is that the new ones are a lot narrower because of the gauge difference. Ah, just think, we could have had the bullet train running to Penzance.

[@mickavoidant4780]

Brunel’s wasn't the only non-standard gauge. The Eastern Counties Railway was built to 5' between London and Colchester, Essex in 1836. It was made into standard in 1844.

[@beeble2003]

Interesting, especially as I live in Colchester! The railways in Ireland are 5'3"-gauge, too. (Also, you autocorrect seems to believe in Isambard of the Kindom of Brunei. 😂)

[@mickavoidant4780]

@@beeble2003 Yes, I didn't see it at first. Now changed to Brunel. The line from Colchester to Norwich was built to standard gauge.

[@henrybest4057]

@@beeble2003 The story I was told about Irish railways is that they started building south from Belfast with 5' 6" gauge and north from Dublin with 5' 0" gauge. When they met in the middle they saw the problem and a compromise was reached...5' 3".

[@beeble2003]

@@henrybest4057 I don't think that's literally true, but I've seen a lot of reports that the 5'3" gauge was more or less the average of what was in use across the island at the time.

[@TheSynthnut]

Most excellent indeed sir. Your presentation is such a refreshing combination of factual information and wit, it truly deserves a network airing.

[@sherylelkins201]

Thank you for these enlightening sagas. I'm an American who isn't even in daily contact with railroads here (except waiting at a crossing for a train to pass) but I've been fortunate to ride the Tube and the Rails in the UK. I enjoy the history you bring us and reminisce about my time in your beautiful country.

[@hairyairey]

Spain has got around the problem of two gauges by having trains that don't have axles and wheels that can be repositioned. Takes around 30 seconds to switch between them on a moving train.

[@UTubeThePatient]

This is where you are brilliant Jago. At the back of my mind I'd seen 3 rails on early Metropolitan sketches, but not never thought that could be... Broad Gauge!! Re changing trains - still have to do that from mainline to tube, although Crossrail and Thameslink should help a bit. Re definition of early railway lines and first steam locos, yes, you do have to be careful. Another 8-minute jewel my friend.

[@adamcrofts58]

missed this one when it came out so it was a joy to come across it today. Thanks

[@willhovell9019]

Great stuff Jago. Back to the old Roman horse's arse legend for the standard gauge.

[@noelbowman8052]

Fascinating as ever thank you Jago

[@johnhkiely]

The Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act 1846 also mandated changes to gauges on the island of Ireland. Here there was standard gauge and several broad gauges used by different companies. The Board of Trade recommendations in the case of Ireland ran contrary to what happened in the rest of the UK. All gauges were replaced by the newly mandated 1600mm (5ft3") broad gauge or "Irish Gauge".

[@emjayay]

BART, the San Francisco area system opened in 1972, runs on 5 ft 6 in. broad gauge (mostly seen in India and Pakistan). The similar Washington DC Metro opened in 1976 with a unique track gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄4 in. This is 1⁄4 inch narrower than 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in. standard gauge.

[@teecefamilykent]

Another cracking video sir.

[@shrikelet]

I grew up around Victorian broad gauge lines, and always felt a little uneasy looking upon standard gauge. I imagine that Brunel's gauge would have instilled a great sense of stability and progress in my young heart.

[@shrikelet]

@@creamwobbly Heheh!

[@snich63]

No visits to New Zealand for you, as gazing upon our 3 foot 6 inch narrow gauge may be hazardous to your health!

[@shrikelet]

@@snich63 Aw, but I really wanted to visit that line that runs through an aerodrome. ;p

[@snich63]

@@shrikelet Gisborne airport - just saw that on another YT video!

[@shrikelet]

@@snich63 It's bloody brilliant! Both the train nerd and the plane nerd in me got very excited when I saw that!

[@okaythisisepic6196]

I recently found your channel and have been binge watching your videos. I love them! My insomniac girlfriend also loves them, but not in the same way. Each night I recite everything that I learned from your videos that day and it sends her straight to sleep. So thank you Jago, for being simultaneously so interesting and so soporific!

[@bryan3550]

Just as Brunel ended up cribbing that 1/4 inch, I understood that Standard Gauge started off as 4'8"... Allegedly something to do with the gauge of Roman chariots. A bit of "give" reduces track and wheel flange wear and lessens that screeching you hear on corners. Wheels are also now tapered to keep the flanges off the rails.

[@tardismole]

Between Jago Hazzard and Geoff Marshall, London is covered. Great stuff.

[@vespadavidson2315]

Dude.....getting deeper every day. ! Or thinking laterally.....wider. Thank you Mr Hazard.

[@Steven_Rowe]

You have to wonder what IKB was thinking when he made it 7 ft AND ONE QUARTER OF AND INCH

[@barneypaws4883]

Where's my matches

[@gregoryferraro7379]

This was a very en-gauging episode!

[@DelfinaKS]

Victorian England was confused about gauges both at home and their overseas colonies. They introduced three gauges in India, but interestingly most of our network was broad gauge and now India has adopted broad gauge as the standard except for some hill trains that still run on narrow gauge. So, at least in terms of railroad gauges English implemented a system in India that was better that what they used back home!!!

[@MrSloika]

That Brunel dude looks like an SOB straight out of a Dickens novel.

[@seanbonella]

Brilliant as ever Jago.......

[@Punnery]

2:58 Always good to hear of a rivalry that remained friendly. It's a nice contrast to the Met-District nastiness.

[@andrewboyle5550]

Fascinating as always

[@Robslondon]

Great video Jago.

[@azan-183]

Lovely video! Baker Street station seems to be the most open station in the network, it looks so nice! Like Paris!

[@bobblue_west]

and is that why you have that huge gap between tracks at Paddington station? The gauge war memorial gap.

[@spaceskipster4412]

Aah, perhaps that's why they say "Mind the Gap!" 😂

[@roderickmain9697]

The only thing you can say about the gauge wars with any certainty is they had nothing to do with the size of a horses backside to fit into a chariot in Roman times. Even the "standard" gauge had its history as it depended on where you measure the distance across the rails. Inside edges, outside edges centre of the rails? This led to a number of railways actually being 4ft 8 while others were 4ft 9. In order to get inter-operability, 4ft 8 and half was adopted which, allowing for a quarter inch play on either side, was enough to get rolling stock to interoperate. Quite a few lines were developed from old mine working standards (if you can say there was a standard) and as others have noted, a narrower gauge (3ft or 2ft 6) would let you get around corners easier. So while IKB may have been technically correct, the broad gauge was inflexible and also took up too much space. It did, however, allow for extra tracks to be incorporated when it all went standard gauge.

[@1258-Eckhart]

So in fact the Met was the first crossrail - a full size railway running across London between major termini. No wonder it baulked at being included with those mingy tubelines when LT was formed.

[@darylcheshire1618]

In South Australia there were two triple guage yards Gladstone and Peterborough, the SA broad guage, the standard guage from Sydney to Perth and the narrow guage for branch lines. Four rails were used. Points were separated.

[@billthomas8205]

Thank you - well explained!

[@Aysome]

For those saying Liverpool & Manchester railway was first, what you need to remember is 1825 comes before 1830 therefore Stockton & Darlington was the first railway

[@dukenukem5768]

The S&D was not an inter-city railway.

[@DRIVEFROMHOME4K]

another incredible video

[@tonyromano6220]

This is a very well done video.

[@neilbain8736]

It totally escaped me that the Met was involved with the GWR, even though it was obvious in the pictures. That certainly didn't sink in. I'm sure I remember one of the railway mags, dating from the 1980's, running an article about a set of broad gauge sidings discovered that were completely overgrown. Brunel's approach to laying track had been completely different. I specifically remember points working in such a way that I had an epiphany when I realised it was from the opposite point of view. But I can't for the life of me remember how, now. In Edinburgh at the boundary with Leith, the change over between cable and electric trams was not popular, messy and called the Pilrig Muddle as it the boundary was at the top of Pilrig Street, and involved stopping, getting off, and walking a few feet to another tram on effectively the same rails, but in a different town. The people concerned would all remember going all the way on the horse trams, and not having to change. They were not happy people.

[@Biggles-gm6tm]

It might be worth adding that the change over to standard gauge on the GWR system was achieved on one weekend using a crew of 3,500 navvies. Pretty good going even by todays standards.

[@crayzmarc]

Nice work!

[@Damien.D]

Taking a train in Spain makes you feel why Brunel was right all along. The ride is super-smooth, barely any lateral oscillation. Standard gauge ineeds feels like narrow gauge in comparison, rocking and balancing all along. Ironically, despite this technical evidence, in Spain, high speed trains new lines are laid in standard gauge....

[@TheInselaffen]

You're a right gauge boson, Brunel.

[@andrewreynolds4949]

As part of the gauge war one of the standard gauge railways purposefully multiplied the chaos at one of their termini when the commission inspectors came

[@batman51]

I believe the side vents at Baker Street were to allow daylight in and not smoke out (although they may have helped!)

[@rutheliz75]

Philadelphia subways have two gauges - the oldest(Market-Frankford line) is 62.5 inches , the newer ( Broad Street and connected lines) are 56.5 inches. No equipment swapping here .

[@WilliamHBaird-eq2hp]

I enjoyed this one Jago. I love the Metropolitan Line. At 2:14 & Then at 6:55 you show my former home in the late 1960's Chiltern Court on Baker Street and Marylebone Road. I lived in a flat with my Grandmother up on the 7th. Above the curved windows were the Mezzanine floor flats where my Uncle and also many celebrities lived. A beautiful building inside (and Out)! BTW I had never noticed the Metropolitain Railway Crest on the building at 8:44 before this video. Were there "MR offices" in the residential building at one time?

[@marcusireland5696]

7 bloody feet damn... Here in Queensland, Australia our gauge is 3ft 6in

[@southron_d1349]

Third! :-) The gauge war in Australia was stupid too. It caused a changeover at Albury on the NSW side of the border with Victoria.

[@southron_d1349]

@@JamesTK Sorry about that, Chief.

[@brucewilliams8714]

Southron. It was rather fun, though, especially for us students in the 1950s stepping out of Australia's premier train, the Spirit of Progress, onto the country's longest platform. Then searching for your carriage in the NSW overnight train to Sydney. It was all part of the great adventure of travel.

[@southron_d1349]

@@JamesTK The states have never been very good at agreeing on anything, more's the pity.

[@baxtermarrison5361]

Confusion brought about by the use of Irish engineers adopting their native 5'3" gague!

[@brucewilliams8714]

@@baxtermarrison5361 There's a book: 6 and a 1/2 Inches From Destiny which, if I remember correctly tells that three colonies, NSW, SA and Vic decided on the Irish gauge, but NSW later changed to standard gauge, QLD, WA Tas all decided on Cape gauge, 3'6" for cost and practical reasons.

[@BassandoForte]

The wagon ways "of old" were actually mostly 4ft 8inches - Stevenson added the extra half inch for stability... It is said UK loading gauge to standard gauge is the best load to width for speed and load on axle width...

[@boohaka]

I’ve always had a ‘thing’ about Baker Street station. I even worked in it for a while and got to know all the ‘characters’ who worked and generally hung around there. I agree that it’s the most characterful station. It’s also very spooky. I don’t know if it’s still there but the Moriartys pub was full of life!

[@streetrambler134]

Have a few memorials about the gauge wars here in Wolverhampton , as it was the furthest north the broad gauge got too.

[@AndrewG1989]

The Metropolitan Line or the Metropolitan Railway had extended into Buckinghamshire and could of reached Banbury and Oxford, Oxfordshire. Before it could of reached Birmingham. But now the Metropolitan Line only goes as far as Amersham which is in Buckinghamshire and also goes as far as Watford and Uxbridge. Plus the Metropolitan Line could of extend to Barking. But that would destroy the Hammersmith and City Line that operators from Barking to Hammersmith today. And the Circle Line which has been extended to Hammersmith and terminates at Edgware Road via High Street Kensington (along with the District Line from Earls Court & Kensington (Olympia)).

[@sallyb21s7]

That would be 'could have' throughout, I think, not 'could of'. There is no verb 'to of' whereas 'to have ' is in widespread usage.

[@AndrewG1989]

@@sallyb21s7 Thanks for correcting.

[@t.bfisher5855]

Well 1:47 had me in stitches and i Imagine that the one dislike is the person jago told off lol

[@ianhelps3749]

There was also a gauge war in America. The southern states built their railways to 5 foot gauge. They were rebuilt to standard gauge after the Civil War.

[@shaunwest3612]

Great video jago, best to forgive and forget I suppose,great story 👌👍😀

[@TrainFreakCow12]

In Australia the Board gauge was the first railway was in Melbourne, But Sydney had the standard and the Standard is long distanxe around most of Australia. Mainly frieght uses standard . But only Queensland and western australia frieght uses narrow gauge. Queensland went norrow gauge and still is you called the mixed gauge ..dual gauge . Thankyou Jago for given the orgin of the board guage and standard

[@PaulSmith-pl7fo]

Nice one, Jago.

[@hx0d]

Could do with that express rail in the middle today... nice video as always :)

[@stevesalvage1089]

Yes I did wonder about early pictures of the met , now nicely explained by the Thomas the tank narrator so I can understand , thanks as always very interesting !

[@MatthewJohnCrittenden]

Was hoping for the latest on the Suez crisis, liked anyway.

[@highpath4776]

I think the Egyptions Are Winning, MacMillan will be updating us soon

[@Tevildo]

One particularly academic friend of mine suggests blowing it up. Difficult to find a coherent response to that sort of suggestion. :)

[@highpath4776]

@@Tevildo Ah yes, get the London Fire Brigade and their inflatable vehicle rescue equipment out.

[@keithscott1957]

Blooming narrow gauge canals!