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Comment by failuser | Hacker News Reader

This is a classic joke, but settling on a common gauge was really difficult, it was not just copying some old Roman standard. There were even riots when different railways started to standardize because common rail gauge meant you can move through the town without engaging with the local economy, see Erie gauge war. Russia still has a wider gauge than Europe and Australia has 3 different ones.

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I've come across an apocryphal tale in the U.S. west describing why certain towns and cities have main streets that are the width required to fully turn a wagon pulled by x number of horses.

Likewise, in the Canadian House Of Parliament, the width between the Prime Minister's desk and that of the Leader Of The Opposition is said to be that of two swords raised, tip to tip, based on the British House Of Commons tradition that they must remain ''two swords and one inch apart.''

Even today size of streets in many cities is determined by the space needed to either turn a fire truck or have two fire trucks pass.

Thanks for the anecdote that was interesting. I think the Erie gauge war demonstrates that people feel entitled to any advantage of circumstances that they have profited from in the past as if such were their property even when the actual matter are issue is in fact others property.

I've seen this happen with planned bypasses of small towns, either through individuals fighting CPOs for their land, or people in the town opposing planning permission notices. (there's a few I can think of where the council's current plan involves waiting for certain people to die, since that's less effort overall)

Usually such bypasses are great for these towns, as it removes most of the articulated road shipping that needs to pass through there, and generally makes it a nicer place to be.

It depends on the town, it can also kill or relocate it. The town in Pixar's Cars is realistically depicted in that way.

This is precisely what large companies in the US do, they gain an advantage, then when the advantage is threatened, they use every tool at their disposal, including political lobbying, to keep their advantage.

This is done under the guise of preserving shareholder value.

I rode a train in Spain where the train changed gauge at a station!

Spain has a peculiar train gauge. When you cross the border with France, the train slows down and gauge change happens on the fly.

They also have to change sides: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/29i4hq/side_where_...

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