Prototype Question: Why narrow gauge?

Greg, Early on you wrote that the Canterbury line in N.Z. was of 5'6" gauge. It was actually of 5'-3" gauge, the locos used thereon came from the Melbourne to Essendon Railway Co. in Victoria and were the same gauge as V.R. locos. Also, the reason that the Japanese railways started out with 3'-6" gauge is that their first Civil Engineer was an English bloke called Morel who had been a railway engineer in N.Z. and noting the topographical similarity of Japan to N.Z., suggested the use of the 3'-6" gauge for the Japanese railways. Regards, Bill.

OK, it was a long time ago - the NZ government bought them out in the early

1870s, converted the gauge to 3'6" and sold the rolling stock to Australia - how accurate do you expect my memory to be after 130 years??? ;-) The Hydrabad which was carrying (some of) the rolling stock ran aground on the beach north of Wellington and said rolling stock was dragged ashore, moved to Wellington and reshipped to Aussie. I used to play around the wreck in my childhood days.

AFAIK the term comes from the Cape Colony railway - I'd do a lot of checking before I claimed that that railway was the "first" however.

"William Pearce" wrote in news:40f0f328$0$18196$ snipped-for-privacy@news.optusnet.com.au:

Not entirely true ... Take a peek at JRTR -- it'll prove enlightening:

(warning, large file: 1480kb)

I got "mean and pissed (you) off" because you have repeatedly posted information which is inaccurate and/or false. When corrected by those who are better informed or more knowledgable, you became defensive, or attempted to cloud the issue by claiming you were arguing semantics.

As Jeff Sc. noted, all of this is just a trolling expedition on your part.

JB/NL, Thanks for the further info. In re Morel, the English language book,'A History of Japanese Railways, 1872-1999', four Japanese authors, published by the East Japan Railway Culture Foundation, says: 'After studying civil engineering at King's College, Morel was engaged in railway construction in many countries including N.Z. and Australia. In April 1870 the Japanese Govt. hired him as its first engineer-in-chief for railway construction. His role included guiding and supervising railway construction as well as screening engineers and providing advice about inspection of foreign equipment and instruments arriving in Japan...'. On Masaru Inoue, the same work says, in part:'...studied civil engineering and mining in London, returning to Japan in 1868. ...After working for the Govt. as a technical officer supervising the mining industry, Masaru Inoue was appointed Head of the Railway Directorate in

1871...'. Morel would have been under Masaru Inoue, but would have probably advised him on the advantages, including economy of construction, which also applied in N.Z. and other places which adopted the 3'-6" gauge, in the us of this gauge. Both men would have played leading parts in the building of Japans first railways, but Morel's early death put an end to his influence there. Masaru Inoue went on to high office in the I.G.R. and after retirement therefrom set up the loco. building firm, K.S.K. Computer still barmy, not showing your reference, will have to get it put down. Regards, Bill.

"JB/NL" wrote in message news:Xns95247EE901470tsunamixs4allnl@194.109.133.29...