Narrow-gauge railway

Narrow-gauge railways are railroads (railways) with track spaced at less than the standard gauge of 4 ft 8½ in (1.435 m). In practice, all narrow gauge railroads in existence have gauges of 3ft 6in (1.067 m) or less. The rationale for the use of a narrower gauge railroad is that it can be substantially cheaper to build, equip and operate than a standard gauge railroad. Conversely, the standard gauge railroad is capable of greater haulage capacity and greater speed, which a narrow gauge can never hope to equal.

Advantages of narrow gauge

Narrow-gauge railroads cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels and tighter curves. Narrow gauge is thus often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in heavy civil engineering work can be substantial.

For temporary railroads which will be removed after a short-term need, such as for construction, the logging industry and to a lesser degree the mining industry, a narrow gauge railroad is substantially cheaper. However, this use of railroads is almost extinct thanks to the capabilities of modern trucks.

In many countries, due to their lower construction costs, narrow-gauge railroads were built as "feeder" or "Branch" lines to feed traffic to more important standard-gauge railroads. The choice was often seen as not between a narrow-gauge railroad and a standard, but rather between some kind of railroad and none at all.

In some countries, especially countries with a lot of hilly or mountainous terrain, extensive systems of narrow-gauge railroads were built, especially in remote areas of limited economic development, where there would not be enough traffic to justify the cost of building full standard-gauge railroads.

Disadvantages of the narrow gauge

The disadvantages of narrow-gauge railroads is that the initial savings, while possibly large, are often outweighed by ongoing costs.

The most fundamental problem is that most narrow-gauge railroads are 'islands' - they cannot interchange equipment with the standard gauge railroads they link with. Therefore, a narrow gauge common carrier in such a situation has a built-in and inevitable cost when it comes to receiving traffic, whether people or more importantly freight, from outside of its own system, and sending to destinations outside its own system. The cost of transshipment is a substantial drain on the finances of a small railroad, and transshipment is almost always a task involving much expensive and time-consuming manual labor. For certain bulk commodities transshipment can be mechanised, such as for coal, ore, gravel and the like.

The problem of interchangeability is less serious when a large system of narrow-gauge lines exist which carry considerable amounts of internally self-contained traffic, such as in northern Spain and in South Africa. But most narrow-gauge lines were constructed as stand alone "feeders" entirely dependant upon transshipment to a larger main-line network.

When there was no competitor to the narrow gauge railroad this was less of a problem, but it made narrow gauge lines very vulnerable to truck competition. The railroads' trump card has always been economy of scale and distance, and the transshipment requirement removed that. Trucks had no worse a transshipment problem and were more flexible to boot.

Other problems with narrow gauge railroads came down to that they lacked room to grow - their cheap construction was bought at the price of only being engineered for their initial traffic demands. While a standard-gauge railroad could much more easily be upgraded to handle heavier, faster traffic, most narrow-gauge railroads were impossible to improve. Speeds could not increase, loads could not increase, and traffic density could not increase very much.

One can build a narrow-gauge railroad to be able to handle such increased speed and loading, but at the price of removing most of the narrow gauge's cost advantage over standard gauge.

Another disadvantage of narrow-gauge trains is that, due to lower stability, the trains are restricted to slower speeds than on standard gauge. 3 ft 6 in gauge (approximately 1 m) express trains in countries such as Japan and South Africa reach top speeds of only 115 km/h (70 mph). Narrower gauge lines such as 2 feet (600 mm) railroads are restricted to even lower speeds.

Gauges used

The larger narrow gauges are the more common; in those parts of the world where the railroads were built to British standards, this meant, most commonly, a gauge of 3 ft 6in (1.067 m), while those built to American standards were normally of 3 ft gauge (). Those built in Metric to European standards were most commonly of 1 m (3 ft 3.4 in) gauge. These larger narrow gauges are capable of hauling most traffic with little difficulty and are thus suitable for large-scale "common carrier" applications, although their ultimate speed and load limits are lower than for standard gauge.

The next natural 'grouping' of narrow-gauge railroads covers the spread from just below 2 ft gauge (600 mm) to about 2 ft 6 inches (800 mm). These lightweight lines can be built at a substantial cost saving over even the larger narrow gauge lines, but are very restricted in carrying capacity. The vast majority of these have been built in heavily mountainous areas and most were to carry mineral traffic from mines to ports or standard-gauge railroads. Most were industrial lines rather than common carriers.

Gauges below that are rarely used, most commonly in such restricted environments as underground mine railways. The other use of such lines is for the tourist industry; these are called miniature railways if they attempt to reproduce full-size railway equipment in miniature.

Narrow gauge worldwide

Europe

France

The French National Railways used to run a considerable number of meter-gauge lines, a few of which still operate

Germany

A large network of narrow-gauge lines exist in former East Germany, although few remain as active commercial carriers. Many still operate for the tourist trade.

Spain

In Spain there is an extensive system of metre gauge railroads, in the north-west of the country, run by FEVE, at the centre of this system, is a metre-gauge line which runs for 650 km (400 miles) along the entire length of Spain's north coast. The FGC (Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalan regional government railways) line from Barcelona to Manresa and Igualada is also a one-metre gauge railway.

Switzerland

Switzerland boasts an extensive network of metre gauge railways, many of which interchange traffic. They are concentrated in the more heavily mountainous areas.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom had many narrow gauge railways, principally in Wales, but also in other areas. None are commercial common carriers any longer, but a very large number survive as tourist attractions. Well-known railways include the Ffestiniog Railway and Talyllyn Railway in Wales, and the miniature Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent and the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in the Lake District.

North America

Mexico

The Yucatan region of Mexico has a network of narrow gauge lines, established before the region was linked by rail to the rest of Mexico in the 1950s. Only the main line connecting Merida to central Mexico has been widened to standard gauge.

United States

In the United States a major narrow-gauge railway system was built in the mountains of Colorado by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Small remnants of that system remain as tourist attractions which run in the summer, including the Toltec and Cumbres railway which runs from Antonito, Colorado in the San Luis Valley to Chama, New Mexico; and the train which runs in the San Juan Mountains between Durango and Silverton.

The last surviving commercial common carrier narrow-gauge railroad in the United States or Canada was the White Pass and Yukon Route in Alaska; this closed down in 1982 when the metal ore market collapsed, though it has since reopened as a purely tourist railway. There is but one narrow gauge railroad still in commercial operation in the United States, which is the US Gypsum operation in Plaster City, California which uses a number of locomotives obtained from the White Pass after its 1982 closure.

The famous cable cars of San Francisco have a gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1067 mm).

There were extensive two-foot gauge (610 mm) lines in the Maine forests early in the 20th century. Although essentially for transport of timber, the Maine lines even had passenger service. Some cars and trains from these lines are now on display at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum in Portland, Maine after having spent years on the Edaville Railroad on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

India

India has a substantial narrow gauge network, using metre gauge, a 2 ft 6 in gauge (762 mm), and in some places a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge. About 17,000 km of routes are metre gauge in India.

In the 1990s, India concluded that cities on the metre gauge network have a second-rate train service, and is now converting most of the metre gauge network to broad gauge as Project Unigauge. In other words, the advantages of uniformity and interoperability were judged to overshadow any supposed benefits of non-uniform gauges.

Asia

Japan

Except for the high-speed Shinkansen lines, all of Japan's railway network is narrow gauge, built at 3 ft 6 in (1067 mm).

Indonesia

Indonesia had large numbers of narrow gauge railways supporting industry, mainly sugar cane plantations. In recent years, sugar cane production has been declining and the railways are now largely closed.

Africa

Narrow-gauge railways are common in Africa, where great distances, challenging terrain and low funding have made the narrow gauges attractive. Many nations in particularly southern Africa use a 3 ft 6 in (1067 mm) gauge, including South Africa's extensive network. There used to be an extensive 2 ft (610 mm) gauge network in South Africa as well, but this has been dismantled.

Further north, Eritrea retains its 950 mm narrow gauge railway, a relic of its former Italian colonial days.

See Also: Standard gauge, Broad gauge