Sara,
I don't know if this is what you wanted, but here goes:

"Why We Give a Horse's Ass"

The US Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4
feet, 8.5 inches. You have to admit that's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US
railroads were built by English expatriates.

Why did the English people build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the
pre railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they  used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that
they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Okay!  Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some
of the old, long distance roads, because that's  the spacing of the old
wheel ruts.

So who built these old rutted roads?
The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the
benefit of their legions.  The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts?
The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying
their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots. Since
the chariots were  made for or by Imperial Rome they were all alike in the
matter of wheel spacing.

Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States
standard  railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original
specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot.  Bureaucratic
specifications live forever.  So, the next time you are handed a spec and
wonder what Horse's Ass came up with it, you may be exactly right: the
Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the
back ends of two war horses!

Now the twist to the story....
There's an interesting extension of the story about railroad gauge and
horses' behinds.  When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on the launch pad,
there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel
tank.  These are the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by
Thiokol at a factory in Utah.  The engineers who designed the SRBs might
have  preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped
by train from the factory to the launch site.  The railroad line to the
factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through
that tunnel.  The tunnel is  slightly wider than a railroad track, and the
railroad track is about as wide
as two horses' behinds.  So a major design feature of what is arguably the
world's most advanced transportation system was determined by the width of
a horse's Ass!

So there you have it folks.  Why we give a horse's ass!

Lori Allen,
Graduate Student, UMSL

"Well behaved women rarely make history."
                                  - Anonymous

<-----Original Message-----
<From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
<Behalf Of Sara Badiali
<Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 9:45 AM
<To: [log in to unmask]
<Subject: Railroad questions for train buffs
<
<
<I am putting together a "Did you know?" section to a railroad
<exhibit. Basically, a factoid section of interesting facts about
<today's railroads. For example,  "Did you know that trains in
<many countries including the USA can tilt to increase their speeds?"
<I know there are lots of train buffs in the museum world that
<have their favorite factoids, what would you like people to know
<that they might otherwise miss in a railroad exhibit?
<Thank you,
<Sara Badiali
<Cincinnati Museum Center
<
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